The non-bloggish blog

Are you a neocon?

The Christian Science Monitor has a quiz to help you figure out the answer to that question. Options are a bit restrictive, given that Liberal is as left as you can go. Notwithstanding the fact that I appear under 'Pink Froth' in Hak Mao's blog links, I learn that I am apparently a 'realist'. Not a neocon though.

Realists...
Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision
Believe US power is crucial to successful diplomacy - and vice versa
Don't want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations
Believe strong alliances are important to US interests
Weigh the political costs of foreign action
Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest

Historical realist: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Modern realist: Secretary of State Colin Powell

Maybe I should have another go.

Not funny

Arriving back in the UK yesterday after a couple of weeks absence, I bought the Guardian, wherein I found a piece of supposed satire by Terry (used to be quite funny) Jones, headlined 'George, this is God'. It purports to be a dialogue between you know who and you know who.

Here is an extract:

"I want you to stop this Iraq thing, George." "But you told me to do it, God!" "No, I didn't, George. Do you really think I want you to unleash this bloodshed on other human beings?" "But they're Muslims! They don't believe in You, God!" "But George, they do. Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same Me! Didn't you do comparative theology at school, George?" "No, of course not! You think I'm some sort of dope-headed, liberal faggot-lover?"

and so on and so on. With all the subtlety of a Steve Bell cartoon, this painful exercise lumbers to its inevitable conclusion. If you really want to read the rest, it's here. God knows there's plenty to satirise about George Bush (after all, he created him). Countless American columnists satirise him every day, but for satire to work, the target has to be recognisable. It seems like Terry Jones, lacking other raw materials, set about building a giant straw man for bonfire night and got carried away.

I spent much of my youth having to listen to the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation and reading the Rhodesia Herald – one reason why I retain an affection for short-wave radios – and I can tell the difference between satire and putrescent garbage. I knew satire. Satire was a friend of mine. And this is no satire. Nul points.

Where is Kanan Makiya?

One (though only one) of the reasons I supported the first Gulf war was a book called Republic of Fear by Samir al-Khalil – a pseudonym for Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi architect. In the run up to the launch of the battle to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Makiya was an articulate exponent of the need to do just that. (Tariq Ali referred to him and Ahmad Chalabi as "rogues and mountebanks". )

On leave from Brandeis University, he has been based in Baghdad, where he runs the Iraq Memory Foundation.

Little has been heard from Makiya in the past six months. This dispiriting report from the Washington Post suggests why. See also here for more links.

Madrid

It’s only words
Not blood not hair
Not clothes not bone
Only words
Not hope not flesh
Not howl not brain
Words
Not grief not rage
Not death not pain
Only words
Not heart not tears
Not smoke not prayer
It’s only words
Not skin not brain
Not face not bone
Only words
Not clothes not blood
Not flesh not prayer
Words
Not howl not hair
Not blood not hope
Only words
Not death not rage
Not smoke not pain
It’s only words
Not blood not grief
Not tears not skin
Only words.

Con los madrileños y las madrileñas