Dateline Catches Predators & Bad Karma

Catching predators and ratings -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I frequently leave the TV on some channel, say NBC, and then go about my household chores. For common fare like Deal or No Deal, I barely pause to look. But when Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" comes on, I'm inexplicably drawn to the TV. Must say, it's like watching a car accident -- a naughty car accident if you want to mix metaphors. In this series, Dateline works with the watchdog group Perverted Justice to operate an undercover sting operation to ensnare Internet sex offenders. A young adult decoy is used to pose as a 13 year old boy or maybe a 14 year old girl. The decoy invites the chat partner to his/her house 'while the parents are out'. The offender shows up, usually in the kitchen area of the home where the sting is being conducted. Offenders will be coyly greeted by the decoy who leaves the room 'to change'. Then, the offenders must truly shit bricks when 40-something host Chris Hansen walks in and says, "Hi, won't you have a seat?"

The smarter ones depart right away. They'll be arrested anyway -- in most of the states the online proposition is a crime in itself. Some will see a camera, wire or something else that clues them in -- they don't even walk in. They also will be arrested but won't have a camera interview confronting them later. Some of them sit and talk to Chris Hansen maybe out of shock or dismay. They'll deny any wrongdoing. "We were just going to watch TV". "I thought she was 19". All for naught -- Perverted Justice has captured the full text of their online chat as well as any lewd photos sent during the chat session.



Chris wants to talk to you -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

Many of the men are married fathers; one had a daughter the same age as the purported age of the decoy. Several have seen the show before; in chats they'll say, "You're not with Dateline are you?" The decoy cheerfully says, "No!” One poor fellow had been previously caught in a Dateline sting. His sex addiction was so bad and IQ so low that he fell for it all again.

Is Dateline getting some bad Karma for itself? There have been several comments along that line. Perverted Justice is supposed to be non-profit, but gets 100K consulting fees with Dateline. Dateline is not supposed to entrap people but on a number of occasions the decoy is the first to bring up sex, violating the entrapment rules. In Murphy Texas, they had two misfortunes -- a county District attorney committed suicide when Dateline came to confront him. Also, the residents didn't want Dateline luring child predators to their neighborhood. The Columbia Journalism Review has opined that the public humiliation on national TV is in itself a punishment far in excess of an ordinary police sting.

One can't help but think that Dateline is more into ratings than moral rectitude. There is a little too much emphasis given to the salacious details and pixilated pictures of body parts and sex acts. Chris reads the chat transcripts with a lot of emphasis. There is the kind of duplicity, misrepresentation and yes, entrapment that could lead to some kind of explosive response on the part of a trapped offender. Dateline has caught itself a predator but it may also catch itself some bad Karma.

© 2007 blogSpotter

The Most Left-Wing Oscars Ever

Oscar goes red -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

I'm watching the Oscars tonight as I write this, and am struck by how left-wing they've become. I myself am pretty left-wing, so this is no problem to me. Ellen Degeneres, an out lesbian is the host. Ellen pointed out that if it weren't for blacks, gays and Jews there would be no Oscars -- and probably nobody named Oscar.

Not only was Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth a nominated movie, but Gore himself was a presenter; Leonardo DiCaprio, his copresenter, egged Gore on to announce his 2008 candidacy. (Gore did not comply).

To go along with all the leftitude, Melissa Etheridge, another out lesbian, sang a theme song from Inconvenient Truth. Various data from the movie (about CO2 levels and such) were shown on the backdrop as she sang. At the close of her song it was announced that this is the first "Green" Oscar ceremony ever. Ellen Degeneres said she would recycle some old jokes to be ecological:

"What about that Ginger in Gilligan's Island? Can you believe how many clothes she brought for a 3 hour tour?"

This Oscar ceremony was also the most multiethnic, with more nominees of other races and nationalities. I was disappointed that Eddie Murphy didn't win for Dreamgirls. He was excellent in his role and the movie as a whole was shut out of other so many categories.

The show is still going as I write this. I'm rooting for Babel as best picture -- it's an outstanding panoramic movie about communication problems between humans. Of the 4 intertwining plots, the one about the deaf and emotionally starved Japanese girl was the most unusual, and the best.

As I sign off, Gwyneth Paltrow is giving an award for cinematography. Yet another lefty who moved to England and then talked trash about W Bush. I love the Oscars, and I really love this one. Many conservatives hate what has happened to the entertainment industry. To conservatives out there who don't like the Dixie Chicks winning Grammies, or Ellen recycling jokes -- here is what you must do. Become culturally aware and sensitive to the problems of other people. Different does not equate to bad. Understand that your religion is just that -- your religion. Realize that tax breaks and business profits are not the main objective in life. Gradually, you will decalcify; you'll become less of a Republican and more of a liberal. You'll agree with Hollywood -- and I hope that's not an inconvenient truth.

© 2007 blogSpotter

When Worlds Collide

Concept cars -- Pictures courtesy GM, DaimlerChrysler

by blogSpotter
The word is that Daimler of DaimlerChrysler wants a divorce. It seems that after a 1.5 billion dollar loss to Chrysler in the last year, the marriage is all but over. DaimlerChrysler tried to infuse some energy into the Chrysler line-up w/ last year's "Dr. Z" commercials (featuring DaimlerChrysler chairman, Dieter Zetsche) but the commercials created more questions than sales -- "who the Hell is Dr. Z?" All marriages are give-and-take but it looks like Daimler didn't want to give much of its technology advantage to Chrysler. Apparently very little in the way of trade secrets was passed between the divisions. Daimler itself has had some less-than-glowing reviews from Consumer Reports so it may need to polish up its own techno-sheen.

GM is one of 2 or 3 suitors said to be looking at Chrysler. Ironies abound here; GM still makes vehicles that are with little exception lame and tame. Sure, you have the edgy Chevy HHR and the Hummer 3. You also have the 2007 Impala that resembles a 2002 Toyota Camry. You have the Cadillacs that look like blandified Nissans. Chrysler on the other hand has innovated time and again with, among other things: Dodge Caliber, Nitro and Magnum. Jeep (a Chrysler division) has added to the fuel-efficient cross-over selection with recent additions of Compass and Patriot. Why would the innovator be lagging behind the bland guy? One industry analyst has cited Chrysler's overproduction of slow-sellers like Ram and Pacifica. GM has made changes in recent years (eliminating Olds and pruning the models in each division) that have probably made it more efficient.

What would GM get from the marriage? Analysts say that they could leverage from Chrysler's truck/minivan platforms as well as its rear-drive car platforms. Otherwise, the companies are very redundant -- you'd have a behemoth with 15 divisions and serious overlap. One other thing, maybe a matter of ego, is that GM could keeps its rep as 'biggest car maker in the world' if it combined with Chrysler. Where serious money is at stake, blue ribbon designations would probably not influence the decision very much.

As of this writing, Renault-Nissan has said "no" to Chrysler and the GM talks have trailed off. Maybe it was the first date jitters. The Chinese (whose Chery model will soon be sold in the US) have actually expressed some interest in Chrysler. How would that play in Peoria if the Dodge Challenger, America's sweetheart of a muscle car, was being financed and manufactured by Red China? OK -- we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So far, China and Chrysler haven't even been on a date. I truly like Chrysler and hope they turn it around. The saying is "baseball, Chevrolet and apple pie" but you could just as easily include Chrysler in that phrase.

© 2007 blogSpotter

Freebies on the Net

You're just too good to be true -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In this week's TIME magazine, Justin Fox discusses the gift economy and one of its chief proponents, Yale law professor Yochai Benkler. What is the gift economy you ask? It's the recent development of software, services and downloadable media offered free of charge. A related term being used is Web 2.0 which describes a 21st century Internet featuring collaborative enterprises and license-free software. It sounds almost too good to be true -- certainly a violation of Milton Friedman's dictum ("no free lunches").

There are examples a-plenty: the LINUX operating system and STAR Office are free downloads. Wikipedia, for all its purported inaccuracies is a comprehensive knowledge base offered for free. Google Docs and Spreadsheets give you free office apps and Google email gives you many megs of free storage. The web also gives you free maps, weather forecasts, recipes, financial advice, medical advice, dating services and clippable coupons. All of it for free -- how can it be?

Benkler points out a couple of things that buoy collaborative enterprises: each person's contribution is relatively small; it's not an all-consuming task. Also in many if not most cases, it's a labor of love -- people are doing something they're passionate about. It's not as important to make a million dollars as it is to influence the world with your wit, your wisdom or your killer algorithm. That being said, there is always money to be made for enterprising capitalists out there. IBM has made billions of dollars implementing LINUX systems. IBM doesn't own LINUX, but they own the expertise that can set up a LINUX server shop. Another strategy that has been very successful is multi-tiered service. Flickr will host photos for free, but there are limits on file size and number. For a fee, they'll give you a lot more space. Dating services are renowned for giving you a limited free service (no chat, limited photo storage). Pay the fee, and you're on to dating nirvana (you can hope). Free web hosting services will plague you with ads until you cough up some dough.

I'm reminded of the song from Magic Christian. "If you want it, here it is -- come and get it. But you better get it 'cause it's going fast". Lest we get cynical, Web 2.0 does offer some genuine no-strings-attached freebies. Star Office and Google Docs don't bait you with ads or pleas for donations. They really are no-cost, no-obligation downloads. Somewhere, Milton Friedman is rolling over at these pronouncements.

Back to the song: "Would you run away from a fool and his money?". No I wouldn't. By the way, fools like Google are having stock splits right now. How can things be so ass-backwards that a company doing giveaways is making money? It's an outrage -- an outrage that forces me to download Google Docs and look for the gimmick. Maybe they’re planting subliminal messages in the menus and the help text. If I don’t find any gimmicks, I might have to be uncharacteristically sunny and conclude that this gift economy stuff might work out after all.

© 2007 blogSpotter

Dr. Evil Targets iTunes

Apple Inc., watch your back -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
iTunes is the now-legendary online music store created by Apple Inc. It actually started out as a download interface for the iPod mp3 player in 2001; then it added its music store in April 2003. From that point, iTunes became a major cultural force, helping to drive such brick-and-mortar record stores as Tower Records into irrelevance. No longer would the public pay $13.99 for a crummy 12-song CD with only 2 good songs. The public would now cherry-pick the songs they like and buy them for 99 cents each. Playlist has since replaced Album as the relevant unit of song collections. If you browse the site now, you see there is extreme breadth and depth to iTune's music selection. iTunes still pretty well sets the standard for hip and slick online music marketing.

Apple has since added video games, podcasts, TV shows and movies to the mix. If you look at the iTunes TV offerings, the list of networks is impressive and you'll probably find some of your favorite shows. However, if you click on a particular network, you might be disappointed by the relatively small number of offerings. If we go from TV to movies, the prognosis is even less encouraging for iTunes. When you click on iTunes movies, all you get are Disney and Paramount selections. Worse yet, you only get a subset of those movies, and what looks like the "B" movies from Paramount. If you hope to find the latest movies you'd see at Best Buy, Blockbuster or Target you're out of luck -- unless it's a Disney title. What this creates is a void, and in this day of high-bandwidth opportunism, void is in all senses a four-letter word.



It's WWI all over again -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

Talk of business voids leads me to think of Steve Jobs' chief nemesis - Bill Gates. I know that Bill Gates is frequently portrayed by geeks as the anti-Christ or All-that-is-evil. Well, Dr. Evil has just released Windows Media Center (WMC) as the centerpiece of his new Windows Vista operating system. And it is good. The PC's with Vista Home Premium are now shipping with TV-like remote controls. The controls step you thru the wondrous interface and selections of WMC. WMC gives us MovieLink and Vongo who give us affordable, high-def downloads of virtually any movie that is out. In addition, various networks (MtV, NickTV, Comedy Central) offer direct links to their own WMC sites which offer way more than iTunes, sometimes with free content.

Dr. Bill ‘Evil' Gates has done it again. I can see him stroking his Siamese cat. Just as with Microsoft Excel or Internet Explorer, he cruised along and aimed torpedoes at someone else’s business model. Now, this war is still in progress. If this were WWI, you could say the Arch Duke of Serbia has just been shot. In my WWI analogy, I’m not really sure who is the good guy or the bad guy. All I know is that if I want to download The Departed that just came out on 2/13, I better go to WMC not iTunes. Also, note to Blockbuster and Netflix: remember what happened to Tower Records and the Lusitania? You could be the next collateral damage in this war between Apple and Microsoft. May the person who consistently offers the best interface and best deals (and not necessarily the nicest or best man) win.

© 2007 blogSpotter

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Discovering the virtue of naps -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Today's blog is about something that shouldn't be controversial but is -- the phenomenon of napping. I've always thought that sleep habits were a personal matter and there was no particular 'right' or 'wrong' to the matter. But as far back as Benjamin Franklin, there were already moral statements:

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

A rule of thumb is that adults need 8 hours of sleep a day. Some manic types may easily skate by on 6 or 7 hours and older people may snooze away 10 hours. I've thought as long as it totals to 8, who cares about start times, stop times or interruptions. I told a friend at my last job how I take a 1 hour nap as soon as I get home from work -- usually from 6-7PM. I go to bed about midnight and get up about 6:30AM. This gives me 7.5 hours, only .5 shy of the golden 8. I'm manic to put it mildly, so that's probably enough. My friend furrowed his brow in serious objection. "Is that good for you? I'd sleep all night if I did that". Well, I don't sleep all night -- I have a pleasant nap and rouse myself awake for another 5 hours of activity.

Other friends have taken Ben Franklin to heart, and there is a one-upsmanship about what time they arise. "I get up at 5 and read the Wall Street Journal". "I get up at 4:30 and go to a Spin class". To one-up these guys, you'd have to move into Matt Lauer territory and get up at 3:30AM. The other aspect of this schedule is going to bed at 8 in the evening. In summer, there is daylight streaming through the windows and another two hours of prime time television. Stores aren't even closed for another 1.5 hours. You've traded evening leisure for morning -- when TV is showing old sitcoms, religious programming and infomercials. It's still dark outside and the stores aren't yet open. You get to work at 8PM, and you've already been up for 4 hours (to me, that would almost be time for a 'napette'). For weekends and holidays, adult 'play' time is markedly later than the Ben Franklin schedule. Bars across America don't start to get business until 10PM, don't get crowded 'til 12AM, and don't quit serving alcohol 'til 2AM. This pushes it almost to Matt Lauer's wake-up time. Movie theaters show 1st-run movies as late as 10PM and some restaurants stay open until midnight. If it's a social life you desire and you're a single adult on the Spin Class schedule, your options fall back to matinee movies and dinner at Bonanza Steak House.

Let’s get back to naps. Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, an epidemiologist at Harvard School of Public Health, has found that naps reduce stress and cardiovascular risk. People who nap at least 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week are 37% less likely to die from heart disease. Even occasional napping can give you a 12% reduction. The doctor even recommends workplace nap rooms where workers can take an afternoon siesta. Don't laugh -- it's been done successfully before. The Student Union at UT Austin has a large reading room with sumptuous couches -- they are primarily for napping, not reading. And students, young and vital, catch some zzz's before the afternoon class or tennis game.

In conclusion, to those with 'superior sleep attitude' ...your sleep preference just indicates how you prefer to spend leisure hours and probably reflects a little on your religious or marital status. It doesn't make you a better person in any particular respect. My hour of sleep from 5-6AM is as good as your hour of sleep from 8-9PM. I have an hour of more hustle-bustle and the morning person has an hour more of quiet reflection. Just have to add -- to each his own. Everyone is wired differently and has different demands on their time. And now I'll have that nap that I so obviously need.

© 2007 blogSpotter

Campy Even in Death

Anna at the 2005 MTV Music Awards -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
What can I add to the story of Anna Nicole Smith that hasn't already been said? She was a blonde bombshell model/actress who cast herself in much the same light as Marilyn Monroe of earlier years. She once gave her height as 5 feet 12 inches, eliciting laughter. I can't help but think this and many other of her silly behaviors were calculated actions and not at all dumb. She was a wealthy dumb-bunny who knew how to work it. The cause of her death is still unknown as of this writing. Foul play and illegal drugs have thus far been ruled out. She was reportedly violently ill with the flu a few days prior to her death; it may have been a freak biological event like an aneurism.

Anna Nicole cultivated a sense of campiness, far more than Marilyn ever did. How appropriate that even in death, the campiness follows her. There was already a paternity battle going on to establish who was the the father of her daughter Dannielynn. A former beau, photojournalist Larry Birkhead and her current common-law lawyer husband Howard K. Stern were duking it out to establish paternity. Now Zsa Zsa Gabore's husband, 73 year old Frederic Prinz von Anhalt has chimed in to say that he might be the father. If Extra is to be believed, Anna Nicole's body guard has indicated that he could be the father. Yet another tabloid suggested that Dannielynn was fathered by frozen sperm from Anna's 90 year-old deceased husband, Howard Marshall. This last one is thought to be a hoax, but even so it's a crowded field. There are more potential Anna Nicole impregnators than there are Democratic candidates for 2008.

It's said that Anna Nicole was crushed when her 20 year old son Daniel died from a weird combination of drugs, only 5 months ago. She had said that Danny was her best friend in life -- maybe in some odd way she or the fates wanted her to be with him in the afterworld. She had a husband (albeit common-law), a 5-month old daughter and many loving people in her life. Unlike Marilyn, Anna Nicole had people all around her when she died; she and her husband were at the Hard Rock hotel for a happy occasion -- to buy a pricey speedboat. None of us can know what weird thing will take us out of this world and on to the next act. But we can pretty well rest assured that there won't be a paternity competition for an infant daughter -- one that rivals the last California governor's race for an oddball assortment of contenders. Anna Nicole, thank you for the fun and whimsy you gave us in life, and may we add -- the mirth, however inappropriate, of some of the circumstances surrounding your departure.

© 2007 blogSpotter

People Who Need People

A magazine for our time -- Picture courtesy People

by blogSpotter
Let me say this right up front. I read People Magazine, and I realize that it's a guilty pleasure -- not an intellectual exercise. I've probably had a subscription since the 80's, and have read it off and on since it started in 1974. The magazine started as a spin-off of TIME, with the idea of expanding the scope of TIME's "People" section. The magazine always offers show business fluff but counters with more serious fare -- political exposes, stories of heroism and a "Coping" section for people coping with serious health or legal problems. My lah-dee-dah friends always have laughed over People -- they ask, "Where is Atlantic Monthly and Men's Health?" I'll have you all know that I subscribe to a variety -- National Geographic, TIME, Newsweek, Macworld, Rollins Stone, etc. But guess what? The magazine that people will arm-wrestle over is People. In ma maison, nobody has to be pretentious. Read what you want.

OK, I must admit -- I’ll periodically look at National Enquirer or even Weekly World News at the checkout counter. Kirstie Alley’s weight fluctuations and Katie Holmes’ weird relationship with Tom Cruise beckon me to read. Would never have these as my information mainstays for the same reason I don’t watch hours of Jerry Springer or chow down on Ho Ho’s. Neither am I pretentious enough to say that I subscribe exclusively to things like Utne Reader or National Review. I want to be informed, but dammit it’s important to know that Leonardo DiCaprio ran up a $20,000 bar tab. If nothing else, these topics can give you a segue into cocktail party conversations.

Magazine content has now made me think of TV content. I have some Unitarian friends who turned their TV into an aquarium. Another couple insists they only watch TV for news and the History Channel. Well, take your delicate tastes and silky drawers elsewhere my Unitarian friends. In my house, the TV schedule will cover the gamut from reruns of Newlywed Game to something high brow like McLaughlin Group. On Saturdays, I hate to say that the Wiggles or the Doodlebops could make an appearance. You can’t control what comes on while you’re heating a microwave dinner or busy reading People.

I am a smart fellow. I am a fellow smart. (Say that 10 times, quickly). I don’t feel the need to impress people with champagne taste or reading material. A well-rounded, and let me say fun individual should have the flexibility to go from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. I may put down People to read War and Peace, you never know. For the moment, an episode of Grey’s Anatomy plays on my non-aquarium 52” TV set, as I thumb thru the People section on Picks and Pans,

© 2007 blogSpotter

A Vista That'll Mystify

Hypnotic glass from Microsoft -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Have to confess -- I'm one of the Microsoft lemmings that went out and bought a new HP laptop when Vista became available last week. In my defense, my 6 year old desktop PC needed replacing a year ago; I deliberately held off until Vista became available. More material in my defense: AMD and Intel have been having a price war that's whittled prices way down. Also, PC sales have been depressed due in part to a delayed Vista release -- the PC deals are really enticing. I got a new HP laptop for roughly half the price of a MacBook with similar features.

Now.. on to Vista. For those who didn't catch it, the title of this blog is lifted from a lyric in the movie Shock Treatment. Some people may want shock treatment after they encounter some of the weirdness of this new OS. I'll first woo you with what's good about Vista. Microsoft diligently did as Scott Adams (author of Dilbert) stated: they used Apple Inc as their research and development department. The Vista interface is beautiful, blue and translucent. They call it "Glass". Why does it make me think of Apple's aqua interface? Glass offers you 3-D cascading windows that remind you a little of Mac OS X's dock. Glass also gives you "gadgets" which are very similar to the little "widgets" that Mac OS X has offered the past couple of years. Lastly, Glass (aka Vista) has a beautiful app called Windows Media Center that turns your PC into the ultimate TV/DVR/Home Entertainment Nexus. You need a remote control and a big screen to fully appreciate it. Why does this remind me of Mac OS X Front Row? To be fair, Windows may have had a similar offering earlier, but not as cool as Front Row.

Now for the less wooing facts about Vista. Its enhanced security slows down a lot of your activity. Where you press a button that says "Run" or "Install", Vista will now query, "Did you initiate this action?” Or, "Do you wish to allow this module to execute?” I feel like I'm playing Simon Says or Mother May I. The new procedure is silly and inconvenient enough that Apple Inc has lampooned it in their latest commercials. Neither is all well in the land of digital rights. I've been using Movielink for about a year. I'm a fully authorized user with purchased or rented material -- Vista however gave me an extreme hassle over "Digital Rights" to the material I purchased last week. I had to research the issue and go to a MS site to download a DRM patch to make it work. I naively thought that the drivers of XP and Vista would be highly similar. My new PLUSTV USB stick disabused me of that idea. The same device that turns my Gateway XP PC into a television will turn my HP Vista into a dead computer with the fabled "blue screen of death". To its credit Vista does warn you at installation: "You should get the Vista Driver at the manufacturer's site. Proceed at your own risk". The HP was revived by a reboot and removing the offending USB stick (which has no Vista driver available).

I think Microsoft as well as various hardware/software makers will wade thru all these glitches and get it working. In the meantime, you can have a few chuckles from the Apple site:

Apple Get-a-Mac Ads

© 2007 blogSpotter

Left to Their Own Devices

How will it end? -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
This dead horse has been pummeled already, but due to recent news headlines I feel it requires another pummeling. Today, Senators Warner and Levin will probably pass a non-binding resolution stating the Senate's opposition to Bush's "surge" plan. I don't have a problem with that resolution, other than its tepid wording. There should be some censure against a President who has basically taken leave of his senses. Overall though, there needs to be a bottom-line assessment, a cut-to-the-chase on this matter.

When we invaded Iraq in 2003, Colin Powell recommended occupation with overwhelming force. It's a tried-and-true approach for bringing order and security to a country torn by chaos, civil strife and sectarian violence. Donald Rumsfeld didn't want to occupy. In fact, according to Bob Woodward's "State of Denial", Rumsfeld didn't want Iraqis to think they were occupied; he didn't even want American troops to use the word "occupation". Apparently, Rumsfeld thought we were going to tiptoe thru the tulips in our redirection of Iraq. He bought the Chalibi line that Iraqis would welcome Americans with open arms. The only group that welcomed us that way in any measure was the fundamentalist Shia majority, kept down by Saddam Hussein in previous years.

Colin Powell is a wise man. To get Iraq under control right now, it would take a surge much larger than 21,500 troops. We would need to double our troop presence to say 280,000 and post a soldier on every street corner of every major city. Martial law and curfews would need to be in effect and a military stringency would have to dictate the daily activities of Iraqis who are otherwise disposed to blowing each other up. Will we ever send 280,000 troops to Iraq? It would open up another can of worms -- selective service and the draft. We probably couldn't get the needed troop strength without involuntary conscription in our own country. Bush's request for 21,500 troops has met with considerable opposition -- 280K is pretty well out of the question right now.

Candidates Christopher Dodd and John Edwards have called for immediate withdrawal of some or all of our troops. They've been lambasted with a picture of dire consequences -- what would happen if Iraqis were left to their own devices. Basically, the American war hawks believe that Al Quaeda would take over the show. The major fallacy here is to assume that all Sunni Muslims are supporters of Al Quaeda. Al Quaeda is an extremist fringe group, even over there. To say that all Sunnis are Al Quaeda would be like saying all American Protestants are Ku Klux Klan. It simply isn't the case. If we completely withdrew, Iraq would probably fragment along its current fault lines; the Shias would draw some support from Iran and the Sunnis would draw some support from Saudi Arabia. This fracturing is probably inevitable -- Iraq itself was cobbled together by the British in the 1920's; the British had no better understanding of Muslim ethic divisions than Americans do now.

A third possibility looms as the greatest short term likelihood and is totally unsatisfactory. We will keep enough soldiers involved to prop up a weak, ineffectual government that leans heavily toward the Shiites. American soldiers will be human sacrifices at the altar of Flawed Foreign Policy. They will continue to drive over roadside bombs and have their Blackhawk helicopters shot out of the sky. Human sacrifice is bad enough, but pointless death should never be tolerated.

Dodd and Edwards are right. We should begin a drawdown with the realization that we can't fight everyone's fight -- we are neither Shia nor Sunni in this case. We should brace for possible side effects, such as involvement by neighboring countries. Iraq held an election and they voted in an Islamic Shiite theocracy – America should have seen it coming. When Iraqis are finally left to their own devices, it will be interesting to see if this corrupt theocracy is appropriately sidelined. It may only rule over a few square miles when all is said and done. Then again, it may not rule at all.

© 2007 blogSpotter