Meanwhile in Iraq

This came in from Patrick, and I think it's worth passing on. I truncated it just a little bit, but otherwise it's intact.
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"The Sunni transition in Iraq has begun. Starting Wednesday, the first groups of Sunni paramilitary fighters - mostly former insurgents who formed the Sahawat Al-Anbar, the Awakening Movement (jokingly called by some American commanders the 'Very Worried Iraqis') - will now be paid, and more importantly, commanded, by Baghdad, by PM Maliki and his Shia-dominated government.
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq2-2008oct02,0,6057110.story)

"I have been talking about this for some time, and what I am reading has me quite worried. We're talking at least 100,000 guerillas - let's call them what they are, a guerilla army, legitimized by their willingness to be bribed by the US - who will now report to a regime that has stated unequivocally that it intends to shut them down, that their existence will not be tolerated. A fraction of the Sahwa will be absorbed into the New Iraqi Army - I've read from 10 to 20 percent - where they will either be given their own segregated units which will be notoriously unreliable, or, they will be doled out piecemeal to Shia-majority units in the hope of diluting their effectiveness as a parallel force. The rest will supposedly be 'retrained' as carpenters, bricklayers, sewer workers, etc. Supposedly. Eventually.

"Honestly, I have trouble seeing how Maliki avoids a replay of the Bremer debacle from 2003, when our viceroy unilaterally dissolved the Iraqi Army, thanks guys, go on home, take your weapons with you. Tens of thousands of Sunni guerillas, most of whom had little love for Americans to begin with, are going to be told to hand in their Kalashnikovs and pick up shovels and saws. Of course, strength in numbers was all that kept them from being targeted by the hardcore Sunni insurgents, AQI and their remaining allies; now that's gone. And cooperation with America is what kept the Sahawat leaders from being prosecuted for their prior activities (which is to say, their terrorist attacks), and Maliki's government is planning to go after many of these leaders as soon as America isn't paying attention. AND, the Awakening movement is undoubtedly riddled with AQI moles and sympathizers, Sunnis who couldn't give a fuck about imposing Sharia but who see America on its way out the door and are looking to close ranks as the threat of Shia oppression looms in the near future. It's all Realpolitik for them now. For many Sunnis, working with the Americans was always a short-term game, to keep Baghdad off their backs and to fleece the US armed forces for as much money and arms they could.
(Actually, our own homegrown gangs are doing the exact same thing:
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/gangs.htm)

"The Sunnis feel they are being abandoned by us, and they will have almost no reason to cooperate with Maliki, and every reason to rejoin the insurgency. And the insurgency will welcome them back with open arms.

"The war is still simmering, notably in Diyala province (north of Baghdad province), which has become the new 'capital of the insurgency,' or at least a major center of it. And it looks like the war is creeping back into Baghdad again: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWpQ6MGl2vO59ghFNu8C1nbj9XSA.

"How will the influx of 80,000 well-trained, well-armed, furious and very worried Sunni fighters into the situation affect Iraq? Are we looking at a violent reaction to the 2006-2007 ethnic purges of Baghdad province that saw the Shia kill thousands of Sunni Baghdadis, and drive hundreds of thousands into exile?"
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with thanks to PNG

Listen, Think . . . then VOTE!

Thanks to Patrick for sending this link over.

The death of the Conservative Repulican Party in America.

It has been coming for a while now, and if there was ever a moment that defines the beginning of the ultimate end of the right wing policies, that have all but destroyed this country over the past eight years, this is it. Although I have nothing but respect for Mr. Olbermann and his efforts, I do not mean to say that he alone, through this one broadcast, has brought this about. This has been brought about, inevitably, by reality reasserting itself over the shared delusions of our so called leadership. However this broadcast, this commentary, is the clearest, by the numbers, black and white illustration of what is finally, and at long suffering last, beginning to happen in this country.
This is the price of belligerent, willfully ignorant and incompetent leadership. This is the price of placing misguided, fantasy based policies over common sense and basic human decency. This is the reality brought about by placing doctrine over justice, and racist, jingoism over true patriotism.
It seems that, finally, we are approaching the end of a long, dark, shameful chapter of American history.
This is the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as we have known it.
Good riddance.

Short movie in french

This made me feel like I did when I was an adolescent reading "Heavy Metal" magazine.



I found it on "Posthuman Blues" so thanks out to them.

Barack 08

Shock Doctrine

Very disturbing on more than one level.
Not for children.

A little food for thought this week

Here are some of what I think are the top science stories this week. Notice that in most of these the news is current or in the very near future. We're not talking about speculation for the next thirty years, but within the next three years.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will join scientists from SETI
The first mission for the Allen Telescope Array will be to scan several billion stars across a vast swath of our own Milky Way galaxy, said astronomer Seth Shostak, of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. That broad-brush survey will be followed in the coming years by detailed examinations of a million stars — a quantum leap in coverage of celestial real estate. In the 45 years since scientists first started looking for signals from alien worlds, only about 750 stars have gotten such close scrutiny.
"This is an exponential increase in speed," Shostak said.

Craig Venter is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks . . .
The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.


University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.
The researchers created this new composite plastic with a machine they developed that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another.

Darpa hatches plan for insect cyborgs to fly reconnaissance
Cyborg insects with embedded microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will run remotely controlled reconnaissance missions for the military, if its '"HI-MEMS" program succeeds.
Insect swarms with various sorts of different embedded MEMS sensors--video cameras, audio microphones, chemical sniffers and more--could then penetrate enemy territory in swarms to perform reconnaissance missions impossible or too dangerous for soldiers.