Hamas: One Month Before 10/7
I said this 18 years ago. Let's see what journos say next.
In 2006 I was what you might have called a Geopolitical Neoconservative. I beleived then, and still believe now, that American principles of liberty can be a force for good in the world. What I don’t believe today is that the US President, State Department and Pentagon are good implementors and defenders of liberty abroad. One day we might be, but not today. We weren’t back then, but I didn’t know what an ass-clown Bremer was, I didn’t understand the long-term effects of DeBaathification and I didn’t realize how strategically obstinate Lefties could be in their aims to undermine American foreign policy. The difference between my errors and other equally profound errors is that I got to live and learn. Hamas and those like Hamas will not. I saw it then and I wrote it down.
So take a trip and get a grip, and remember I told you so. Let’s see who says as much as all the journalists will trip over themselves to do a 10/7 retrospective editorial one month from now.
Dateline: January 2006
When you're a crusty old man, everything that comes over the airwaves is obvious. Nobody on the planet possesses enough time and talent to broadcast anything significantly substantial enough to alter any perspectives. Even with 500 channels, it's still an idiot box, IF you are well-read.
Part of the problem with this being a political blog is that most of the news I get never comes with enough detail to be a genuine surprise or learning experience for me. So I set down to write on a daily basis and it all seems like it should go into 'Obligatory Seriousness'. However the victory of Hamas in Palestine in the wake of the death of Arafat and the end of Sharon is one of those counter-intuitive blessings that I love.
I think that it is an extraordinarily great thing that Hamas has got to step up and govern. In the same way, I am pleased with what's going on in Iran. In both cases, the suppressed heinous desires of a mealy-mouthed people is coming to the fore. I suspect that within a year we will see full-blown cowardice on a scale that will shake the world out of its daydreaming. The assumptions about the motivations of the masses can be twisted and turned and second-guessed from here until the sacred cows come home. But there's nothing quite like calling the cards on the table of democracy. Here is where it finally shows up.
Very much like the war in Iraq, the opportunity for all of the crackpots, jacklegs, nutcases, suicidal rebels and other self-destructive mental cases has been made plain. Iraq became the place where all of your idiot dreams of killing American soldiers were made manifest; and where every maladjusted and misinformed conspiracy theorist in the First World had an opportunity to see exactly how significant was their Baby Bin Laden Theory. We destroyed all of the militant midget mullahs and their meatheaded mercenaries. The great armies of the Caliphate have been reduced to street gangs.
And so it will be with Hamas. They are not going to change direction. They are the investors in and inventors of the suicide bomb attack on civilians. They have had years to consider their strategies and tactics and now they have deftly and soundly defeated their political opponents. It says quite a bit that those Palestinians most invested in moderation are corrupted beyond repair, and those most single-mindedly focused on disciplined change and reform are hell-bent on the destruction of their neighbors. There is no change to be had. The will of the people has been made manifest, what lies ahead is the inevitable.
The inevitable will be an even more ragtage ethnic Palestinian minority subsumed into a single dominant Israel. The dreams of Palestinian nationalism are about to come crashing down and their inevitable dependence will be made crystal clear. All we need do now is sit back and watch the tortured dreams of the manic and the single-minded madness work its magic. There can be and there will be no Palestinian nation so long as the fundamental expression of its political will is to blame its problems on Israel. And our Secretary of State should withdraw every penny of aid until the new Palestinian government demonstrates its ability and willingness to disband the Hamas Militia. Of course Hamas will not disarm, and its soldiers will not confine themselves to quarters. This is a 'nation' whose fundamental contribution to the region is destructive suicide. We should expect nothing less.
So there’s one for the ages, 18 years old now.
Here’s a bonus. The 2012 scorecard from drone kills from the Obama Administration. It’s a bit sloppy, but it exists. I wonder what percentage of the citation links are dead. I only checked one for Amnesty International. They could do better.
Ah what the heck. One more
Dateline: June 2007
I've been on an odd schedule but found out yesterday morning that our poor friend Abu Mazan may have to dissolve the Palestinian government as fighting has broken out in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah factions. I was going to go directly to some geopolitical details about that situation but an interesting parallel occurred to me as I was writing about the Middle East elsewhere.
Harold Ford says:
”Finally, we must continue to ally ourselves with and fund moderate elements in the Arab world that appreciate freedom and democracy. We must encourage more Americans to learn to speak Arabic and have a deeper understanding of Arabic culture and history.”
The understanding is that all of the Arab countries in the region, having been independent for decades have done nothing to absorb the squatters in Palestine. Instead, they have used 'humiliation' as an excuse to incite fundamentalist whackos and blamed the whole mess on Israel. The current deadly conflict is just another proof that all of the Palestinian understanding and Arab understanding is not nation-building but fratricide. The Palestinians are incapable of helping themselves, and the Arab world in unwilling to help them in any honest way.
Many blackfolks know the fable of Afrolantica. It was written by Derrick Bell, and tells of the mystical city of Atlantis rising from the sea. It turns out that all the inhabitants of this legendary greatest civilization on earth were black, and that when African Americans visited, all the burdens of their hearts were rolled away. In fact, the effect of this nirvana were so profound that the very knowledge that they could go there at any time gave African Americans the inner peace they had desired for generations. This was a very powerful story because it illustrates how true hope can be more important than real gain. It's lesson certainly wasn't lost on me.
When I think about the suicidal rage of Palestinians I wonder if in all of their Arab culture and history they had such a poet as Derrick Bell. Bell is by no means a leader of African America, but he has contributed to the last twitches of separate thinking, and in that regard has been inspired and insightful if pessimistic. Bell would never pick up a sword or advocate violent rebellion because he knows than in many ways his own ascent in America provided Afrolantic moments of hope for many blackfolks. It was less than 20 years ago when Derrick Bell resigned in anger of not having a black tenured law professor at Harvard other than himself. Shortly thereafter, Lani Guinier took that spot, and among the many hundreds of black graduates of the Harvard Law School, one Barack Obama is showing himself to be a great hope as the surest black candidate for the office of President America has ever seen. Even with our great pessimists, African Americans could show the people of Gaza a thing or two. It is they who should be trying to understand us.
Freedom and democracy can only be sustained through confidence. I am reminded once again that our Founders pledged their sacred honor in defense of liberty. It is a level of commitment some of our people have often struggled with maintaining. It certainly isn't easy. You just can't desire liberty, you must work to sustain it, in the face of tragedy and hopelessness. It is, finally, a measure of character and of leadership which sustains men of character and purpose. This is something the Palestinians lack, and the war between Hamas and Fatah demonstrate that corruption of character and purpose. I don't know how they will raise themselves from the desperation they have created. I don't see how the defeat of one side by the other can bode well for the fate of people in Gaza. But I do expect to see this cycle repeat. The Palestinians lack confidence and their Arab brothers lack confidence in them. So, I must confess, do I.
Here in America, black critics such as myself and others in the 'sphere, are constantly criticizing aspects of black life we find abhorrent or distasteful. We stand in a long tradition of self-criticism and self-correction, and sometimes it sounds as if we can't see any good in ourselves. But the difference is that this tradition, as old as Frederick Douglass, is one generated by confidence in our own triumph. Despite the temporary inversion and celebration of degenerate rap celebrities, the African American tradition of the bully pulpit comes from true American heroes like Harriett Tubman and Booker T. Washington, James E. Just and Matthew Henson. There's a string of them whose names you know, men and women of peace and substance whose triumph inspires us all.
Harold Ford, unfortunately, is talking out the side of his neck. Few will long note nor remember what he's saying here.