Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
As you've probably heard now, Israel is finally backing out some forces from Gaza as the "Road Map" catches some wind. This positive turn has been a long time in coming, but similar plans have failed before. The cease-fire itself contains numerous demands on Israel, such as the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Errrr...It nearly collapsed before it started when Israel attacked militants all over. It could be attributed to a systemic problem in Israel's government, in which it's dependent on the military for intelligence, as columnist Aluf Benn points out in Haaretz:
The political echelon in Israel is held captive by the Israel Defense Forces and the intelligence community, because it lacks an independent unit that is exposed to sensitive material and can ask questions before decisions are made. Prime ministers usually depend on their own military experience and judgment. It is true that tedious staff work is not always the recipe for successful decisions... The Israeli "system," in which decisions are improvised and shot from the hip, is an almost guaranteed recipe for failures. That is the way it is now in day to day decision-making about military operations and assassinations, and that is the way it has been for decades in entanglements like the settlements, ultra-Orthodox draft deferments, the occupation of Lebanon and various failed defense projects.Another Israeli angrily rejects the Jewish outpost 'pseudo-evacuation,' in the West Bank, which in reality are mostly uninhabited, 'decoy' outposts which are suitable to make a show of the government doing something, while the large settlements continue to grow 'naturally.' Of course, Ariel Sharon went on to declare a few days ago that construction would continue in settlements like Ariel, but 'without fanfare.' An article in Al-Ahram claims that it's just going to be the same game with the settlers, over and over. If this continues, it's unlikely for a firm peace to hold.
One nice thing going on today is the profusion of internet weblogs in places like Baghdad and Tehran. During the war Salam Pax got to be pretty well-known as 'the Baghdad Blogger.' I'd suggest looking at his look at the return of the Hashemite prince or the story of depressing Baghdad madness:
Actually we have been having pretty bad days. If you would have talked to me a week ago and I would have told you that I am very optimistic; maybe not optimistic but at least had hope. Now I can only think of two things. One of them was something my mother said while watching the news. She was watching something about the latest attacks on the "coalition forces" and their retaliation. She said that she has always wondered how people in Beirut and Jerusalem could have led any sort of lives, when their cities were practically military zones, she said she now knows how it feels to live in a city were the sight of a tank and military checkpoints asking you to get out your car and look thru your bag becomes "normal". When you turn on the TV and just hope that you don?t see more pictures of people shooting at each other.Salam has started a photo-log too. Other Iraqi bloggers include 'G in Baghdad,' who describes an encounter with a captured Syrian teenager in an American-run hospital, or the dual reality of the Iraqi mind:The other thing was something a foreign acquaintance has said after spending some time in the city on a really hot day. He went in threw his hat on the floor and said loudly: "I want to inform my Iraqi friends that their country is doomed". I have no idea what that was about but the sentence just stuck to my mind.
Here in Iraq every citizen was provided -since the early days of the regime- with a whole set of lies that gradually became the foundation on which you would build your perceptions of the world outside. Consequently you end up with two channels, a "channel reality" that is off the air most of the times and "channel rhetoric" a mixture of self-denial, conspiracy theory [apologia] and propaganda.G also has a photolog going now. There's an Iraqi female blogger named Zainab writing now too.Of course we shouldn?t blame Saddam and his lies based tyrannical regime only, this phenomenon has its roots deep in our cultural/religious history. Nowadays the main question every Iraqi is trying to answer, since the removal of our beloved leader is: (how should I feel towards the Americans?) and (is the American "liberation / occupation" a good or bad thing?). Don?t expect an answer from me here, until we have our first Gallup poll in Iraq all what you will get is mere speculations-observations gibberish...
I think one of the main issues we have to face, is how to stop using the rhetoric channel, how could we stop this cog mire of stupid conspiracy theories going on and on and on how to liberate our selves from the secret police mechanisms nesting in our brains, this liberation will not be achieved by American tanks, nor by a self-denial flagellation process.
Iran has experienced an upsurge in blogging as well, as View from Iran and Blue Bird Escape look at Iran from inside. Persian Blogger Chronicles is grad student Alireza Doostar's attempt to chart this new form of information as it emerges from Iran.
While on the topic of blogs, notorious uber-blonde right-winger Ann Coulter supposedly has a weblog now, but it hasn't really started. She must be building up steam and bleaching those locks...
There are a whole lot of other blogs out there to check out. Here's a few: