Veterans Day

This bleeding heart, for one, is grateful for the many Americans who have fought on behalf of this great nation, in wars just and unjust. No matter the cause, the political climate, the misguidedness of our leaders, our men and women in uniform lay their lives on the line in good faith service to our ideals.

Where there are problems, they never lie with the troops. This is not to say soldiers do not make mistakes, or do not act inappropriately and even barbarically from time to time. But, apart perhaps from a very few isolated instances, even this misconduct is the product of leadership, whether by affirmative direction, negligence, or simple fecklessness. And all too often, as in the current war, the leadership itself does not consist of veterans who know what it's like on the ground.

So thank you to those fighting and dying in service to the United States of America, and those who have done so before.

Thoughts on the All Star Game

Tonight, I wandered down to the Point, and eventually over to the Northshore, to sample the All Star Game atmosphere tonight in the hours leading up to the Home Run Derby. It was nice to sample the obvious civic pride, and more than once I overheard people, presumably outsiders, expressing nothing short of astonishment at how pretty this city really is, which brought forth from me a surprising rush of pride in my adopted city. As one might expect, a certain number of security precautions was visible, but nothing overly intrusive. Still, though, it's unsettling -- Coast Guard skiffs in the river, just off the promenade, armed front and back with big 16mm cannons, an occasional fly-by by a circling Cobra that literally bristles with weaponry.

At home, the military fly-by must have passed over my house, just barely subsonically. I lacked the vantage to see the planes, but there was no mistaking the sound of several fighter jets buzzing the rooftops of Stanton Heights on their way to the stadium.

We've always loved our weaponry, which has, at critical times, secured freedom for ourselves and others. And this long preceded 9-11. It would be the worst kind of revisionism to ascribe all of this to the recent climate of fear prevailing in this country.

But it wasn't the same. It wasn't. And it's passing strange to wonder whether I will be hassled for training the lens of my camera on the Coast Guard gunskiff or a phalanx of police mugging in a facsimile of dispassionate professionalism. I remember feeling that sort of apprehension before, but in Mexico, not here, or at least not here before 9-11.

I choose, in any event, to revel in the positive publicity this event is bringing to Our Fair City, and now I choose to close this post as the Home Run Derby begins.

Understanding the System

By all accounts, sentencing in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial was, in its way, riveting. I have not followed the goings on in that trial closely for a variety of reasons I am not inclined to go into here. Probably, it boils down to a combination of his plea and my displeasure with the death penalty; although I wouldn't have been surprised had he been sentenced to die, I'm hardly upset that he won't be executed and granted the martyrdom he so fervently seeks. As Judge Brinkema observed, in effect, there really is no more ignominious end than to rot in a Supermax prison.

One thing jumped out at me, however -- a victim statement following sentencing:

Judge Brinkema asked whether there were any family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the audience who wanted to be heard.

No one responded initially. As the judge prepared to move on, Rosemary Dillard, whose husband died on American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon, rose from the audience.

Walking to a lectern a few feet from Mr. Moussaoui, Mrs. Dillard looked at him and said: "I want you, Mr. Moussaoui, to know how you wrecked my life. You wrecked my career. You took the most important person in my life from me."

As Mr. Moussaoui stared back impassively, she continued, "I hope that you sit in that jail without seeing the sky, without seeing the sun, without any contact with the world and that your name never comes up in any newspaper again during the rest of my life."

She then thanked the judge for "what you did," thanked the prosecutors "for what you tried to do," and the court-appointed defense lawyers for "what you had to do."

That last little bit, reflecting an abiding appreciation of the role of defense attorneys in our system, floors me in its simplicity. I don't know what Mrs. Dillard does that led her to include that gratuity at an intensely personal moment, but as someone who believes strongly in the critical importance of the criminal defense bar, and thinks it incumbent on any attorney to take the occasional case he or she finds distasteful as a matter of service, charity, and humility, I'm grateful for her choice to include that last expression of appreciation -- even if it was no more than a matter of basic politeness.

Text, Subtext, and Pretext

Sorry, this post isn't going to be nearly as sophisticated (or pretentious) as that title implies. But sometimes words just go together. Especially when they have the same roots. Natch.

Anyway, is it possible that the Bush Administration can find another way to piss on the Geneva Convention? Funny you should ask. According to this Los Angeles Times story, the answer is yes, in connection with the Bush administration's effort to bar United States military personnel who were captured and tortured during Desert Storm from collecting damages from Iraq for their injuries.

What's interesting about the story is what's left out -- a motive distinct from the administration's cover story (that Iraq needs whatever money it has). I would submit that there's another reason, related to the administration's flat refusal to affiliate the United States with any international criminal court. Because even if, as a matter of policy, we don't consider turnabout to be fair play, it can still provide a compelling public narrative. We didn't like the idea of an international criminal court, because by any rational international law that had any teeth whatsoever, there would be more than a small probability that American officers and perhaps even policy makers would ultimately be named as defendants. Imagine Cheney or Kissinger at the defense table. That's what they imagined, too, and that's why we wanted no part with it.

To that same end, what do you think happens once a precedent is set that wrongfully tortured individuals (if there is any other kind), combatants even, can seek monetary relief in an appropriate jurisdiction. Hel-lo McFly, anybody in there? Yeah, exactly. That's what we're really afraid of.

But even absent the subtext I suggest is at work here, just look at the face of it: the Bush administration arguing that it needn't abide yet another aspect of the Geneva Convention, and saying, in no uncertain terms, tortured American soldiers are entitled to nothing, except perhaps the thanks of a grateful nation. Just when you think it can get no more surreal . . . .

(Hat tip, tonypierce.)

UPDATE: And in keeping with the subject of obscene and perverse conduct, it's about to get a whooooooole lot more expensive to lose a couple of buttons at the wrong time.

Explosion in Iran

So sad that as much as I love my country, I don't trust my country. Or rather, I don't trust my government just now. But then again, maybe this was Poland -- don't forget Poland!

UPDATE: To be clear, it now appears to have been nothing. I'm not backing away from the above; I still blame my government for pushing me to where I assume the absolute worst. And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

UPDATE 2: Evidently, I'm not the only one. On the unrelated topic of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Josh Marshall, who usually sources his assertions meticulously, confesses a simple gut-level doubt about the administration's assertions regarding the event. Quoth he:

[I]t is more than a little unfortunate that I at least find it hard to take at face value anything this administration says about the probable perpetrators. And again, I say that not with any particular knowledge of this situation, but simply on the basis of the track record and the region of the world

Retraining?

CNN reports:

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- A security screener at Newark Liberty International Airport failed to spot a butcher knife in a passenger's pocketbook and was removed from the post for retraining, officials said.

Two questions:

1. When did they start calling the airport voted most likely to be the closest to Moon's childhood home Newark Liberty?

2. Am I the only one who finds the "removed . . . for retraining" language a bit Orwellian?

Here We Go Again

Condi banging the drum on Iran.

There are almost too many scary quotes in this article to pick any one, but here's a particularly ominous one-two punch:

"The message that we are giving to Iran: We do have diplomatic means at our disposal, we are doing this bilaterally as well as multilaterally, and I believe that a diplomatic solution is in our grasp, if we can have unity of purpose, unity of message with the Iranians and if the Iranians understand that the international community is quite serious about it living up to its obligations."

The IAEA has the authority to refer Iran to the Security Council, but the group's board of governors has refrained from doing so in seven meetings on the topic in the past two years.

So, let me get this straight: We claim to have diplomatic means at our disposal, but those means have largely proven ineffective in the past few months (I'm sure that has nothing to do with the diplomatic capital we've squandered since 9-11, and the Europeans concomitant refusal to play ball (although can you blame them when last time they tried to play we picked up the ball and went home?)). And of course one word no one could use with any credibility to describe Bush 43's foreign policy is "patient." Moreover, she adds, "the next steps are in the offing . . . And I think everybody understands what the 'next steps' mean."

Bring it on, right? Isn't that what the man once said?

Sorry if the combination of these things, especially when so blatantly lumped together by the toothless CNN, sounds so alarmingly like the run-up to Iraq I don't even know where to begin, except, perhaps, at Arlington National Cemetary, which could end up a whole lot fuller if someone (Congress? Hello?) or something (a sudden infusion of common sense in the Bush administration?) doesn't derail this runaway train soon.

The State of the Union Address

Lies Lies Lies. And I haven't even read the thing. Last night, instead of watching the Not Neceessarily the State of My Union, Moon drank. And drank. And drank some more. Which, Moon feels, resulted in the most agreeable State of the Union evening since the Clinton era, when a talented orator delivered a plausible speech based on verifiable premises and presented sensible policy ideas with panache. I can't, or won't, get too caught up in this, but everything I heard this morning said what we already know:

Social security is not in crisis -- and even if it were, privatization is no solution.

A balky, functional election, even one that exceeded expectations, does not amount to a flourishing, or even a promising, democracy in Iraq.

Iran, not an ally, is not nearly as scary as a number of our allies, Pakistan in particular. And banging the drum against Iran and Syria accomplishes nothing except to alienate important middle-eastern sovereignties (insofar as we even recognize such a thing) and to reveal the unaccountable hawkishness of the Bush administration.

Which, by the way, it'd be best if we just overlooked, what with all the credible and independent commentators who assure us that Bush's plans make sense.

Moon is really fairly moderate, having once comfortably thought of himself as a Clinton Democrat, but every day, as the GOP spirals deeper and deeper into its little lockstep routine these guys make more and more sense.

(I'd like to track down and add a bunch more links, but increasingly I feel as though it's a waste of my time.)