Jim Meyer's Borderlands: Recent Comments

Comment on A manufactured crisis...

2011-08-01T04:24:23Z

This last crop of congressional newbies scare me. May I say dickheads? I think I may; it's not Turkey (yet).

Comment on A manufactured crisis...

2011-07-30T14:58:21Z

What happened to the piece you had on Andrew Finkel's heroism?

Comment on Ex-CIA official alleges Juan Cole target of Bush White House

2011-06-17T18:12:31Z

Oh yes, people were 'outraged' about torture and 'extraordinary rendition' too. I remember as far back as Iran-Contra (I was there). The right things get said very eloquently, some allegations are investigated, perhaps some people in the lower layers of the hierarchy get some jail time or see career destruction and that's it. Then it appears to be back to business as usual. None of this is really surprising to a Turk since we see the same kind of thing in a far rougher and non-nuanced fashion. You haven't spent quite enough time here perhaps? No problem, we have the 'net now and through that you can even watch members of American intellectual class in action about Turkish affairs too. I know you are thrilled by and proud of what you see.

Ellsberg is still alive and talking about this kind of stuff, BTW. I don't clearly remember what he says but I don't believe he's saying anything different on the whole than what I imply. He's far more upbeat an defiant than resigned though.

Comment on Turkish election results...

2011-06-12T21:36:47Z

"Will these numbers hold up for a constitutional referendum?"

You bet they will.

Comment on The other side of Turkey's economic boom

2011-06-10T14:14:58Z

so the wealth gap as described is clearly divided between the Aegean and Mediterranean portions and the east and other hinterland protions...yet the core support for AKP is in those same hinterlands portions with the least economic mobility. The areas which have benefitted the most from the years in which AKP have been in power are the least supportive of its attempt to continue their mandate...is that not anomalous?

Comment on Nothing to celebrate

2011-05-08T06:25:24Z

{Edited -CA. This is yet another blog that doesn't respect any HTML tags, such as 'blockquote', or 'b'.. Sigh.}

Jim,

"Drawing the United States into expensive and destructive wars was bin Laden's goal, and he succeeded spectacularly."

Now, this is the kind of scholarly authoritative information I appreciate.

With a stroke of a single sentence you've put to rest all the agnosticism that a terrorist named bin Laden never existed --not in that capacity or the role, anyway.

"We need to get over our fears, and get beyond our addiction to intervening in the rest of the world. But mostly we need to realize that while bin Laden may have attacked us, we ourselves dug the hole we now find ourselves in."

Words of wisdom, if I ever read one.

Might I also add onether one: As castles get conquered from within ["kale icten fethedilir", in Turkish], I would focus on the 'within' as it doesn't seem at all likely that a feat such as 9/11 could be pulled by a couple of cave-dwelling camel-riding youngsters.

Then again, it's usually preferred to be seen to be seeking the thing on the outside when the inside is less than dimly lit.

Comment on Nothing to celebrate

2011-05-08T06:20:21Z

Jim,Drawing the United States into expensive and destructive wars was bin Laden's goal, and he succeeded spectacularly.Now, this is the kind of scholarly authoritative information I appreciate.

With a stroke of a single sentence you've put to rest all the agnosticism that a terrorist named bin Laden never existed --not in that capacity or the role, anyway.We need to get over our fears, and get beyond our addiction to intervening in the rest of the world. But mostly we need to realize that while bin Laden may have attacked us, we ourselves dug the hole we now find ourselves in.

Words of wisdom, if I ever read one.

Might I also add onether one: As castles get conquered from within ["kale icten fethedilir", in Turkish], I would focus on the 'within' as it doesn't seem at all likely that a feat such as 9/11 could be pulled by a couple of cave-dwelling camel-riding youngsters.

Then again, it's usually preferred to be seen to be seeking the thing on the outside when the inside is less than dimly lit.

Comment on Nothing to celebrate

2011-05-05T20:05:29Z

I agree wholeheartedly. I am quite dismayed by the claim of 'justice done' for an act of outright murder. When there is no just trial, there is no justice.

Comment on More thoughts on the OBL killing

2011-05-04T00:21:45Z

On both posts about OBL, the questions are not insensitive at all. in fact, I'm glad someone is raising them. I don't think either U.S. party would dare leave out 9/11 as a reference point -- instead of analysis, we get ideological worlds of wedge politics, managed information, intentional historical amnesia, and cavalier exceptionalist pieties about American blamelessness, as though nothing meaningful ever happened before 2001. And I fear that there are so many blatant holes in the Afternoon School Special tale of the largely irrelevant OBL capture -- like what Pakistan was doing, or if tortured prisoners were a source of intelligence -- that we humble subjects of the Empire's for-profit monsters-to-destroy missions in the name of our security will bcome obfuscated by grassy knoll details and never wrap our brains around the larger foreign and public policy issues. Instead of "How many resources were spent in this operation?" or "Was this really beneficial for our taxpaying citizenry?" we get "Who will benefit most from this in the 2012 election?" and "Will this damage The Donald?" Not to be insensitive myself, but Obama inherited the Rumsfeld/Gates defense establishment and certainly knows the fate of one-term presidents: Bush 41 lost on the economy, Carter on perceived Iran-Contra fumbling and rhetoric of imperial decline. With the bloodied and lawless defeat of OBL in the stump speech, the most effective distraction-inducing candidate can expect to take all in the next media-saturated imperial management sweepstakes.

Comment on Nothing to celebrate

2011-05-03T18:57:10Z

Hi Jim,
Thanks for posting. You put 9/11 into a perspective I had not thought of. I'm not sure I agree that bin Laden set out to start those wars.... I suspect that the consequences you describe exceeded his expectations. But I agree completely that we have--and continue to dig ourselves into a hole.