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Rudy Giuliani or Vampire?

It’s Rudy Giuliani, creepingz on ur democracies!!!

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The Next World War Originating In…. Turkey?

The Article: The Turkish Threat to World Peace by Ahmet Altan in the Spiegel. In Turkey, the military and the government are engaged in an all-out struggle for power. The country is deeply divided, and decidedly unstable. Turkish writer Ahmet Altan describes his country’s paradoxes and warns of the potentially dire consequences.

The Text: Turkey is moving toward a great — and possibly final — settling of accounts. But it is not the feared divisions of race or religion which are at play here. The country is crippled by a more fundamental and dangerous divide. The “cultural divide” reigning throughout the Republican years has become very deep indeed.

The future of Turkey is in the balance: Secularists and Islamicists are battling for influence in Asia Minor. Currently in Turkey, there is, on the one hand, a great mass of people who leave their shoes at the door before entering the house; whose women cover their heads; whose men go out in the street in pajamas; whose teenage boys frequent coffeehouses while girls live under a completely repressive rule; people whose homes are lit with cheap florescent bulbs; who enjoy a type of music somewhere between folk and arabesque; who have perhaps never read a book, never danced, never been to a restaurant as husband and wife, never gone to the theater; who have little education and profess strong religious beliefs.

On the other hand, there are those who went to high school at Robert College, with its girls’ lyceum; who have danced at college parties or weddings, who go to movies, who read books, though not a lot; who are relatively well-educated; whose taste in music ranges from pop to classical; whose homes are decorated relatively tastefully; whose women don’t cover their heads; who may not permit their teenage girls to date but look the other way when they do; who believe in God but pay little attention to prayers; who drink alcohol in mixed company though they may not know much about wines; who follow newspapers, watch talk shows, feel they are more progressive than the first group and live largely Western lives.

Antagonistic Beliefs, The life-styles of these two groups are disconnected.

Unlike in the West, where a sensibility shared by all classes is created out of such elements as church music, religious iconography and stories from the Bible adapted even for the screen, there is no cultural ground uniting the competing groups in Turkey. Their lives, their tastes, and their beliefs are separate. Even antagonistic.

The second group is in the minority. And it currently has no chance of ever winning another election.

It is at this point that there emerges a historical paradox: Because the more Western, second group knows that it will never come to power again if it observes Western political ideas, it is becoming antagonistic to Western democratic values.

But those in the first group, whose values are inimical to the West, know they will only take power by accepting Western criteria. The result is that they are trying to appropriate democratic values and enhance their relations with the West.

“The army” has an important role in this cultural disintegration. If it supports the first group, and the criteria of Western democracy are observed, the army will lose power as well. In fact the army is made up of children of the first group who are cooperating with the second group, inimical to them, in order hold on to power. In a sense, the army is betraying its own roots.

The two groups now appear to be mobilized for their final battle for power.

Europe Would Never Support a Coup

The first group is now economically powerful as well. Because its relations with “the state” are not good, it sells what it produces in Anatolia abroad. It has earning power. It supports its political organization. The second group lacks capital.

The supporters of the first group are the greater bourgeoisie, which trades abroad and borrows abroad. It is an intellectual sector which believes Turkey can only normalize by means of democracy, and a group of bureaucrats who think the structure of the state must change to better integrate with the wider world.

But important sectors of the justice system, the army, and the bureaucracy are behind the second group. Because the second group realizes it cannot stay in power by political and democratic means, it is now looking for other solutions.

The presidential election has brought the two sides’ intentions out into the open and revealed how sharp their conflict is.

The second group, supported by the army, no longer wants an election. Rumours of a possible coup increase with every passing day. There is talk of juntas. But what will happen if there is a coup?

The group whose style of life is more Western will come to power backed by the army and will lose the support of the West; Europe would never support a coup.

Ever-pragmatic America, on the other hand, could perhaps accept a putsch in exchange for support of its policies in northern Iraq and in the Middle East. But America faces a serious obstacle. A nation that has occupied Iraq saying it will bring “democracy” to the country will not be able to explain to the world or to itself why it supports an undemocratic coup in Turkey. And after the disaster of Iraq, it doesn’t have the power to sweep aside international objections. It would have to oppose a coup, like it or not.

So what will a country that gets funding from the West possessing an army that gets weapons from the West do if it breaks away from the West? I believe the second group has been considering this for some time. And has found an answer.

If there is a coup in Turkey, the world would encounter a phenomenon it has never seen before. Subsequent to a coup, Turkey would seek a partnership with Russia and Iran and would obtain its weapons, energy and funding from these two countries. The natural gas, oil and nuclear power from Russia and Iran would suffice to keep Turkey on its feet, if only for a while.

But a block made up of Russia, Turkey and Iran could change the global balance. It would take complete control of the Middle East. It would imprison Europe within the borders of its small continent. It would draw the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Pakistan under its sway. It would form close relations with the Muslim world. It would dominate the sources of oil. It would also likely form a partnership with China.

A Single Gunshot

Such a development would dramatically decrease the effectiveness of a West made up of Europe, America, and to a lesser degree, Japan. The new block would have great strength militarily, financially, and in terms of energy sources. The Turkish fissure would thus lead to a one on a global scale.

If there is to be a World War III, I believe it would emerge from this rift.

“Such a thing could never happen,” you may say… Those with incontrovertible data showing why it could not should speak up. But if it did — and I think it quite possible — what then?

To tell the truth, I think this scenario should be considered by all the actors involved: by those forming camps and divisions in today’s Turkey; by the Europe which tries to push Turkey out of Europe, dealing insolently with a nation whose imperial inheritance is at once magnificent and pathetic, and pretends to “instruct” rather than offer cooperation; and by an America which believes itself clever when it plays a double game in its Turkey policy.

A bloody conflict like that which seems to be approaching in Turkey could set the whole world on fire. And it is not as distant as one might think. Never forget that World War I began with a single gunshot.

The Analysis: I discovered this article this morning doing my daily CAing. While I liked the article, I hardly think the next world war will originate from something that happens in Turkey (sorry guys). And as I’ve already written, I advocate for pragmatism towards the Turkish military as it is the strongest element that forcefully advocates for Westernism and secularism in Turkey.

Hey, Free Lawyer Semen

Quote of the day:

We always find it funny that you can use sex to sell jewelry and cars, but you can’t use sex to sell condoms.

And quote of the day, part 2:

A politically connected lawyer — wearing nothing but glasses, socks and a hands-free headset — masturbated in front of two women at a shopping center, police said.

Coming Anarchy has the latest article by Robert Kaplan called Forgetting the Obvious. It deals with the theme of being able to successfully wage wars in opulant societies that may have lost their will to fight, even in the face of something worthwhile. In his point of view, this is America right now vs the Islamic Jihadist threat. My only problem with this piece is he gets from point A to point B, but there is a lot of inbetween. The Last Two Big Wars have been utter disasters for the United States, and I think the citizenry reflects this. This is not only a case of social stagnation or the misdirection of the moral compass but the fact that recent experience with war has not been positive for America. In fact, each passing day in Iraq reminds me (and others I imagine) of our fantastic end in Vietnam high-tailing it out of there with our tail between our legs.

And since I wrote this piece on Palestine, I wanted to suggest a few others: The World’s Next (and Smallest) Islamist State, Why Martin Indyk Is Director Of The Saban Center for Middle East Policy And You’re Not, Is Palestine heading for a three state solution?, Is Palestine al-Qaeda’s Next Target For Takeover?, How the Media Distorts the Israel/Palestine Conflict, and Gaza – West Bank rift might lead to Peace in Our Time.

Other things worth checking out: Harbinger of War, In hindsight, Powell wouldn’t have supported Iraq war, 56% of Atheists Believe Christianity is Just as Dangerous to America as Islam, and Can I tell you how stupid some right-wing, right-to-life, so-called Christians can be?

I Call Mine Elephant Trunk

Prejudices about the PBH staff aside, I consider myself a feminist. There are a lot of feminist sites to follow, but I’m probably the biggest fan of Feministing (some would say a little too much of a fan). Anyway, a recent article on Feministing dealt with the tender subject of what to call VAGINAS with one of the funnier posts and proceeding comments I’ve seen in a long time that ended up centering on the appropriate ways to refer to male and female genitalia:

I swear, I just saw the most offensive commercial about vaginas ever. I was watching F/X, and all of a sudden a Vagisil ad comes on with a woman’s voice over talking about how much she hates it when she has itching “down there.” (Yes, she actually said “down there.”)

But worse than Ms. Voice Over’s inability to say the word vagina was the fact that while she was talking about this down-there-itch, the only image on the screen is a porcupine. Followed by a spiky blowfish.

And then…sigh…Ms. Voice Over says that she feels like “everyone knows” because of “the smell.” Cut to picture of, I shit you not, a skunk. Followed by a lobster. Followed by a picture of a box of Vagisil, which apparently will cure our stank pussies of their animal nature.

Fuck you, Vagisil.

Anyway, point being is that a vagina shall always be referred to as a sword wound. Or, if you’re dealing with some oddly put together lady friend, I suggest the line “What the fuck? It looks like God stapled a cow tongue to your groin”.

The First Thing I Saw On The Way To Work

It was the Spring of 2005 and having just graduated from college, I was doing my first work abroad as an intern with the US State Department. A Romanian journalist was recently beheaded in Iraq, and worse, a US marine had just killed a Romanian pop star by bull-dozing his car while driving drunk. I was on my way to my first day of work and had to take the subway to the embassy. Much to my bemusement, this was the subway car that stopped directly in front of me on the underground platform: