I dream of living in ... a World Without Dictators! I'm a Libertarian Paternalist in Slovakia - Freedom with Responsibility - 10% of income into your own Pension; Tax Loans for education, health, housing; now supporting Employment Maximizing Companies!

blog posts on immigration at The Truth Laid Bear

Merry Christmas - Happy New Year

Christ is the event at the center of Christmas, and the spirit in Christmas giving.

Christmas without Christ is like, Xmas.  It becomes mere mass consumption, consumerism run wild.


In the meantime, while wanting to focus more on spiritual issues, we couldn't help but also be generous to our kids over Christmas.

How to get the balance.


And not enough time for all I want to do...

Hope your Christmas was merry, hope you have a great new year.

Posted by: TomGrey at 12/28/07 02:10 | link | comments

Fallujah in Fall - invade or the alternative

To Michael Totten in Fallujah, reported in the Daily News.

It's a great article, and I hope the Daily News publishes some pictures, too. And more articles. It would be good for their competition with the NYT and even the Sun.

Your ability to add a bit of humor is just one of your skills I admire. (A better writer than M. Yon, but not always with better material!)

Glad moderator 2 allowed me to avoid a troll.

While I believe Iraqi Body Count far more than Lancet, in all cases the Dems have a problem: if our enemy, in killing and murdering civilians, is our responsibility, than what is the right policy?

I think Bush has been weak at not blaming the Iraqis for supporting law & order & liberation ... by turning in the killers.

Bush's Liberation was the same for the Kurds as for the Sunni and Shia, but the Arabs reacted differently. In the future, I'd guess the Iraqis will blame the terrorists for the deaths, and take most of the credit for stopping them -- rightfully so. The too-few Americans were mostly on their bases, mostly letting the Iraqis "rule themselves" (Thanks Donald R!)

Michael, please ask Iraqis about their views on responsibility for deaths and security in Iraq.

I truly don't believe a 500 000 Vietnam style Occupation force would have been better -- because it would clearly have been occupation, it would have suppressed terrorists as successful rulers without getting rid of the terrorists, and thus, while it might have allowed more economic reconstruction sooner, it probably would have had the Iraqis continue to blame the Americans longer.

As long as the Iraqis blame the Americans for deaths, rather than terrorists which only the Iraqis can effectively stop, America would be losing. (I supported allowing the Iraqis to 'lose' Fallujah in April 2004, and supported taking it back in Nov.)

Patrick (did I tell you we named our 4th baby Patrick two years ago?): "In the end, the invasion was made on the basis of the best available intelligence. Arguing about it now is just churlish and dull. Hindsight is the procrastinators favorite view, it's not known for accomplishing a lot."

Great, terrible, great comment! Yes, it was the best intelligence, but also with the most likely future outcomes being noted. The no-invasion folk never mention what the likely outcome would be with mere inspections instead in 2003:
a) no WMDS found, but
b) no convincing proof that there are no WMDs, thus
c) Saddam WINS again! Too smart to allow those Blix inspectors to find the WMDs 'everybody' knows he has, but Saddam so smart and clever at hiding. (And don't all Arabs love an Arab smarter than the arrogant UN/ West/ USA?)
But since (a) no WMDs are found, then
d) end sanctions! So,
e) start secret WMD programs, again.

While I agree that most simplistic arguments about invade/ not invade are dull, I don't believe it is all just churlish and dull.

I recall how the anti-war folk first denied military support to S. Vietnam after the '73 Peace Accords (in 1974), then cut funding, then allowed commies to win in N. Vietnam and Cambodia. I do not see 'blame America for Iraq invasion decision AND deaths afterward' folk accepting the same standard: 'blame Dem Party for decisions to accept commie victory AND the Killing Fields afterward'.

On the other hand, I have long thought Jay Garner would have been better than Bremer was at putting Iraqis in charge sooner. See his 2004 interview:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0318-01.htm

Yet privatization is great, so Bremer's market path had some good points, too.

One huge lack in the hot air about what would be better or not is any set of alternatives with positives and negatives compared. Like I did a bit with the not invasion scenario

Posted by: TomGrey at 12/05/07 03:33 | link | comments
iraq