I was ruminating on the war in Iraq, and had a couple of thoughts:

1) I don’t believe the Joint Chiefs are stupid enough to not have envisioned the levels of terrorist insurgency we see in Iraq.
2) I don’t believe they are politically motivated enough to not have planned for it at some level.

Those thoughts led to this:
3) What if the insurgency we’re seeing is PART of the plan?

And then it hit me: fly-paper.

Summary of plan: Take down an Arab nation, and install Western militaries and a western-style democracy in it. That nation will become a terrorist magnet. Not only will it become a potential killing field for the worst the Islamofascists have to offer, it might also provide westerners with money trails elsewhere. The only drawback is that U.S. and other Western soldiers become a sort of very heavily armed bait. To those able to think in terms of “acceptable losses” and “collateral damage,” this is preferable to U.S. citizens being targeted on home soil.

Now, before the flames get lit, please understand that I’m not trying to justify the western presence in Iraq. I’m trying to UNDERSTAND it. In the context of the word “fly-paper,” it starts to make a scary kind of sense. If you’re up against a widely distributed enemy who is determined to hit you guerrilla style, presenting that enemy with attractive targets that turn out to be traps is a strategy with significant historical precedent (though obviously it may suffer in implementation). It has been employed against 20th-century guerrillas and WWI German submarines, 19th-century indigenous peoples, and 18th-century pirates.

This might also explain some of the White House rhetoric. Under a plan like this, Bush, Rumsfeld, and others would be required to sound a) just intelligent enough to their own people that we don’t turn on them, thus “staying the course,” and b) stupid enough to the terrorists that they continue to believe that throwing money and people into the meat-grinder is a winning strategy.

*sigh*

It’s likely that I’m completely wrong, thinking like a writer of complex fictions rather than a military strategist. But if this post disappears suddenly, you’ll know the NSA had to shut me up before I ruined everything.

–Howard

(EDIT: It turns out I’m not only not the first person to think of this, but I posted this exactly two years TO THE DAY after Andrew Sullivan did. Creeeepy.)

This article makes me happy. It talks about the current state of things at Camp Williams, Utah’s home-away-from-home for Katrina refugees. It’s not all roses and lollipops, but it’s a big upgrade from a toxic lake.

I especially like the picture.

–Howard

Those of you familiar with the New Testament have read the story of the Widow’s Mite.

Well… Sri Lanka just pledged $25,000 to the Red Cross for victims of Hurricane Katrina. (Link from CNN.com — scroll down to the last heading in the article.)

Yes, there are individual contributors here in th U.S. who can personally vouch for donations ten times that size, but those wealthy individuals weren’t reeling from a tsunami on their shores 9 months ago.

–Howard

This arrived in my mailbox this morning, in response to my Open Letter. If you thought the voodoo comic was in poor taste, or offensive, try THIS on for size.

(No, it’s not going to be funny.)

(Name and email address withheld)

Well, I liked (the voodoo comic), but to be perfectly honest, I’ve not donated and I’m not likely to – not that I don’t doubt for a moment that people are suffering and even dying in New Orleans, but I really feel that one of the richest countries in the world, dealing with a disaster which was predicted in detail and which in theory has been rehearsed for should manage quite well without the pitiful amount I could spare.

If “they” (i.e. the US govt.) can’t manage to sort it expeditiously, then perhaps there’s been too much emphasis on “pacifying” Iraq and a bit too little on domestic matters. The figures for the amount of money spent by the US govt. and indeed our govt. over here on that are truly unbelievable, and it’s recently been alleged that the budget for maintinaing and repairing the mississippi levees has been cut…

I gather that a fair number of the National Guard are in Iraq at present, which presumably leaves a shortage for such things as rebuilding road and bridges, keeping order and generally solving disasters on home ground.

I feel mostly for the people from places like New Orleans who can’t afford a car and thus don’t have an easy escape when disaster looms – these people have been badly let down, IMHO.

I responded as follows:

It sounds like you’re saying that the GOVERNMENT of a “wealthy” nation should be the only entity reqired to help the unfortunate of that nation.

I personally find this thought offensive. Prosperity is ours only so long as we use it responsibly. If we as INDIVIDUALS are unwilling to help those in need, our prosperity will soon be gone, eroded in selfish squanderings that are the natural outgrowth of personal greed. It’s fair to argue that the government does not spend its money wisely, but withholding our help as individuals will put the blood of the innocent on OUR hands.

I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money. If you give not because you have not, you’re blameless. If you give not because you think the government is to blame and needs to be punished, you’re evil. It’s not your job to punish the government — especially not by allowing your fellow-citizens to die.

Sorry, I’m just calling ’em like I see ’em.

–Howard

Note: I don’t disagree that the government has let these people down. I don’t necessarily agree with how the War on Terror has been prosecuted, and certainly not on all points. But that’s irrelevant. Withholding your surplus so that the deaths of your fellow-citizens can become political commentary about domestic policy is EVIL, and there are no two ways about it.