The Arabs are coming! The Arabs are coming!

And so it has come to pass, that 1273 years after Charles (the hammer) Martel stopped the Arabs in Poitiers, France, they finally made it to Baltimore. Hordes of Allah worshippers are soon to land in six, or is it ten of the largest ports in the United States. Too bad Tom (the hammer) DeLay is on his way to jail. We could have used him.
The desert tribes have played our game well. In just a couple of generations they went from being mere Bedouins roaming endlessly in the most inhospitable deserts of the world to the most modern managers of Globalization. Thanks to our corporate greed and our thirst for oil, the ruling families of the Emirates have transformed their feuding kingdoms in a financial powerhouse. Emirates is one of the best run and most modern airline in the world. They built the best hotels, and even luxury man made island. The most famous is in the shape of a palm tree. All the units are sold. But do not worry, you can enjoy the eternal sun and the guaranteed 100 degrees of Dubai in one of their properties built on an island in the shape of the world map.
Their geography is a few dunes. Their history is barely 50 years old. They do not waste their time with such frivolities as free speech nor democracy. Everybody loves "the Ruler". Phillipino women are imported for ten years and work 24/7. Expats who use their services are instructed to turn them in if they complain......
It turns out that for a mere matter of money "por un pogna di dollar di piu" as Clint Eastwood used to say, we turned over the overall management of six of the largest ports in the US to P&O, a venerable British shipping company. I used to enjoy their ferry trips across the Channel. The day to day activity was , and will be ensured by US longshoremen, the US Coastguard, and , God Forbid the very able Mr Chertoff at Homeland Security.
So what has changed? Nothing. Financiers in Dubai have acquired P&O. Instead of the profit being accounted in some quaint office on London Docklands, it will be tallied under an air-conditionned tent by a Bedouin , as he watches a bunch of 7 year old camel jockeys win a race while his four wives go shopping in their Suburban.
But , hey, our oil profits are being pocketed by close relatives of Mr Ben Laden. The same family that bailed out the former Governor of Texas with his Arbusto company. The very same Saudi Royal family that owns 7 % of the US overall assets, happily amputates, flogs, stones and otherwise hangs sinners downtown beautiful Riyad. I know, I was there.

So are the Emirati any worse than the "great british" (Bush dixit)? Did not a few Great British blow up buses, and subway in London? Nobody winced at P&O then.
Either we play the market forces card and accept globalization, or we play the fear mongering card and agitate the image of the Saracen. We have bought their land and their Royal families a long time ago. Let them buy a couple of ports.
By the way, Bush threatened a veto at first, then claimed he was not informed. Why do they keep waking up the poor man?
We will have to make up our minds soon . Are we going to accept globalization and the XXIst century, or are we going full force into the umpteenth chapter of the Crusades?
The Baltimore Sun will have to watch its caricatures.
Oh, by the way, do you think W knows the Chinese own the Panama canal? Let's not tell him just now.

Winter in Virginia.

It is winter in Virginia.
After weeks of mild and downright warm weather, we have had a pretty good snow storm last week-end.
Having some time to watch the news in both Europe and America, I find the different focus of their respective media to be revealing.
In Europe, the citizens, as usual are upset. They are in the streets to protest. No, they are not exactly protesting against the Scandinavian caricatures that caused scandal. Neither are they struggling to defend their freedom of speech, threatened that it is by sharia. Concerned European citizens are demonstrating and going on strike against a European bill called "The Bolkestein directive"
The Bolkestein directive is named after a Dutch Commissioner whose responsibility was to study and draft rules allowing the new EU members to work in the founding EU states. In other words, it would allow Polish plumbers to work in France or Belgium. One would think that, attacked by an implacable islamist foe, besieged by globalisation, abandonned by their former protector embarked on a global ego trip, the Europeans would circle the wagons and seriously get to the business of building Europe.
That would be too simple
Although Mr Bolkestein, had obtained the agreement of his fellow Commissioners, that countless Commission and EU Council conferences had whittled and refined the draft directive to the point where it passed the last hoops and became a Directive, the Dutch and French voters discovered it belatedly and decided to use Bolkestein as a scarecrow and voted NO to the referendum. European politicians were struck with amnesia, do not remember signing on the directive and are now openly disparage Bolkestein along with globalisation.
The cowardice of European politicians, along with the short-sightedness of the unions, are fooling the average citizen into believing they can still live in the 1950's.
Meanwhile, Mittal, the Indian steel giant came uninvited to remind everybody that there is a World out there and that Arcelor, the jewel in the crown of European steel making was up for grabs.
Given the anemic GDP growth of 1,4 % Europe should wake up and face reality rather than marching in the streets every time progress knocks at its door.

In America, the Media are fascinated by the latest mystery of Mr Cheney's cynegetic adventures. A true "Tartarin de Tarascon" a la Daudet!
But coming after the Katrina affair, the Abramoff affair, the Valerie Plame affair, the Able danger affair, the Abu Ghraib affair, the WMD affair, not to mention the many revelations we can expect if the Democrats take over either the House ot the Senate, that shot truly "rang around the world".
In the US, nobody is bothered by Bolkestein, although the voters fear globalisation every bit as much as their European cousins. Their income AND their jobs are going south. A true capitalist country, the US is the only OECD member not to have the state as unique provider of medical and retirement insurance. The result is that auto companies that were the pillars of the country's economy can no longer face globalisation, burdened that they are by legacy liabilities.

And in Europe, the average tv viewer laughs at the ineptitude of American leaders, usually lampooned in devastatingly funny puppet shows. He should realize that both Europe and the US are in the same boat.

Danebrog

It is the proud name that the Viking nation uses for its flag.
The many demonstrators around the world who are busy desecrating the Danish flag do not realize the effect produced by their act.
Denmark is a small nation. It is also a haven of tolerance,
freedom, and, being a maritime country, very open to the
rest of the world.
I have been lucky enough to travel often to Denmark. I remember my first trip , with my son still in a baby carrier, as I was sent to work in Lyngby.
I remember visiting the Drakkar museum in Roskilde, home of my friend Peder Rasmussen. There, you are reminded of the past glory of the Viking nation, founder of Dublin, York, London, and even Normandy, as well as Russia, and Kiev. Their dominion once extended from L'Anse aux meadows in today's Canada, all the way to Persia.
Today, it seems that modern communications are helping once again to show their flag around the world.....
It is a worrying thought that irate imams, who enjoy the protection of EU laws as well as the welfare system of Danish taxpayers, should use XXIst century means to spread a message of return to the Middle Ages. And this message of hatred spread as fast as the flames that destroyed the World Trade Center one beautiful morning on September 11, 2001. The same ignorant ire sent Palestimians full of hatred to burn the EU representation in Palestine, their main source of fimamcing for the past twenty years. Again, an ironic case of biting the hand that feeds you....What a sight for the EU taxpayer! Two arab militants in combat dress , toting weapons , on the roof of a building in flames, overlooking the EU flag!
What a symbol!
The EU flag is a symbol of the reconciliation of bitter enemies, France and Germany, who fought two World wars in one century. Today, they live in peace , under that same EU flag. How much longer will the EU finance an Authority that organizes suicide bombers, intifadas , and now calls for a boycott of our products?
My friends, Freddy, Peder Pedersen, the Christiansens, were pacifists and humanitarians. Their flag reminds me of their friendship, their sense of humor, but also of the beaches at Esbjerg, the beautiful Jutland landscape in the spring, and the real Danish pastries in Amager.
Their record shows the Danes to be among the most courageous nations under Nazi rule. The Danes know a thing or two about violence, dictatorship, censorship and intolerance.
It explains why a Danish cartoonist felt like drawing the attention of his readers on a possible repeat of the past
The orchestration of violent reactions to enrage the arab street only proves him right. There is danger. The West is now faced with a large population of moslems, (1 billion, 1,2 billion, 1,5 billion? Everytime I hear a Middle Eastern commentator the numbers go up!), which can be easily manipulated as one. Whether they are peaceful, well meaning, educated, or illiterate (some were busy burning a Swiss flag because it had a white cross on a red background!), vengeful, or defending rightful grievances, we are facing a huge potential army of people conditionned to give us no quarter in the name of their God.
We have a huge diplomatic task ahead of us.

Tolerance or appeasement.?

The worldwide unrest caused by the publication of a few cartoons in the Danish press, deemed to be insulting to the Prophet, PBUH, reminded me of happier times, 40 years ago, when my reading frenzy was equally satisfied by the philosophers of the Enlightenment and comics such as Iznogoud. Iznogoud, by the way, for the illiterati, is the vizir intent on overthrowing Haroun El Poussah, Commander of all believers.
I do not remember any outrage from Imams, ayatollahs or tin pot despots against my favorite cartoon in the sixties. And yet, at that time, France was just coming out of the bloody Algerian conflict where we killed over one million followers of the Prophet, PBUH. Worse, in october 1961, French police organized a ,still unpunished, massacre of several hundred muslims whose bodies were hurled in the Seine river. All this with a sizable muslim population in the country.
So what is different today? The roumis have extended their footprint over the Ummah. The US have invaded Afghanistan and wrecked Iraq for no good reason. Technology allows governments to rouse the anger of their citizens and mobilize violence, just as easily as terrorists. To quote Voltaire: "Whenever an important event a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the church, such is always signalized as the Finger of God."

The kleptocratic arab and persian regimes that have enslaved the Middle East, with our support to keep the oil flowing, have jumped on the issue of the Danish cartoons to focus the anger of their hapless subjects on the West, rather than on their own criminal rule.
Many European news media have recognized the danger: we have entered the fight between reason and fanaticism. That is why many papers have reprinted the cartoons. They wanted to draw a line in the sand and refuse to apply sharia law to our secular world. To quote Voltaire again: " Custom, law, bent my first years as a happy muslim. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood form our feelings, our habits, our beliefs. By the Ganges I would have been the slave of fake gods, a Christian in Paris, a Moslem here."

But why have the American media refrained from publishing the offensive cartoons? Tolerance? The American press never shied away from printing cartoons that really offended the French during the Rumsfeld's campaign that bordered on racism....Because Americans are very ethnically conscious after 300 years of slavery? Perhaps because American anti discrimination laws are really and seriously enforced unlike the situation prevailing in France as we saw with the Paris suburbs riots.
I suspect that the American media have refrained from any solidarity with their European counterparts because they have forgotten their History and slouched toward intolerance. Religion has taken an increasing role in the US lately. Religion has been skillfully used by the religious right to cement the Administration's power in exchange for real power. Just as in the Middle east, religion is taboo and the fanatics have TV stations, Mega churches and have bought Congressmen. As our friend Voltaire reminds us, "If we believe in absurdities, we shall commit atrocities."
The Enlightenment came about as philosophers realized that religion was a source of intolerance, war, and ultimately the collective suicide of entire civilizations. The 30 years war came about after the Reformation. Entire towns and villages were wiped out in the name of God. The Inquisition, the fight of the Cathars, and of course the Crusades were all examples of what religion can lead to. (All muslims learn that the Knights under Sir Godfrey and Baldwin roasted little children on the spit in Aleppo to the rallying cry of Deus lo volt!.)
As Diderot taught us, " From fanaticism to barbarism, is only one step."
I mention my good friends Diderot and Voltaire because they were part of the group of philosophers who inspired Ben Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison and George Mason , when they pondered the form to give the new Nation.

I believe that there is an interesting parallel to be made between religious leaders who are ready to drop a nuclear device on our cities in the name of a supernatural and hypothetical Allah, and leaders elected thanks to their beliefs in another supernatural being. Have we regressed to the times of the Crusades? The US are the most powerful country on earth and two thirds of the population believe Jesus walked on water. And they have elected a leader who has a direct line with him.
Post Christian secular Europe is parting ways with neo-christian America where 64 % of the population believes in creationism.

Have the US media kept silent because they are in the same camp as the offended muslims, the camp of the believers against the camp of reason?

Patriotic week

The week started with a march on the Pentagon. Or, rather, a march to the Pentagon. We walked from the hotel in Crystal City, under the I395 overpass, onto the Pentagon parking lot. it is a far cry from the parking lot I remember in 1982, when I carpooled there so that I could take the Metro downtown. Today, the Pentagon entrance is controlled, access to its interior Mall is restricted. Too bad, inside the Pentagon, there is a giant shopping Mall, with a CVS, a barber, souvenir shops, a donut shop, banks, a dentist, etc...
Built in 1941, the Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with a current occupancy of 23,000. The building consists in 5 concentric "rings" of buildings. The A ring in the center and the E ring on the outside. In case you were wondering, Donald Rumsfeld's office is in the E ring on the river side. The inside is a maze of ramps, stairs, a warren of offices and elevators. The walls are decorated with paintings and portraits of wars, warriors and heroes. Before 9/11, a tour was available that even took the visitor to the Secretary's office. Today, all you visit is the Memorial to the 9/11 victims. A monument outside is being planned. I well remember that day, when I saw the building in flames and smelled the awful results. A DIA officer who had been on a tour with me a year before, died in his office that day. And I will never forget the abandonned cars, at the end of my street, waiting for their owners to come back from their carpool to the Pentagon....in vain
After the usual briefings and presentations, we repaired to Ground zero stand, the hot dog stand built in the center of the complex, no doubt the bull's eye of many a Soviet missile.

Yesterday, I was at the State of the Union speech. An annual ritual, that has lost some of its importance in the age of the Internet, it is interpreted in many languages, live over VOA. Hence my presence, year after year in a VOA booth to spread the good news urbi and orbi. We usually obtain the speech in advance, and the many perfunctory standing ovations give us time to breathe.
This year, the President was more subdued than usual, and more modest in his pronouncements. Suffice it for you to know that the State of the Union is strong, that we are "staying the course in Iraq", and that "we will win". Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother of a fallen soldier, who pursues the President with her grim reminder, was arrested , handcuffed and booked by the Capitol Police for wearing the wrong T-shirt. Later, the police apologized, and their chief announced they would have to undergo some remedial training......

A group of African officers, observing the ceremonial, was very impressed by the very democratic proceedings, and by the noisy dispproval manifested by the Democrat minority. If on the one hand we noticed a small democratic glitch, they, had noticed greater freedom than they had ever imagined.