THE BEST AND WORST IN IRAQ

"Roger Ramadi" is the pseudonym of a high-ranking Marine intelligence officer currently serving in Iraq.  To The Point just received his "sitrep" of the best and the worst in Anbar Province, Iraq's "Wild West."

Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I'd just hit the record setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq.  These are among the events and experiences I'll most remember.

Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down.  The provincial capital of 400,000 people.  Killed over 1,000 insurgents in there since we arrived in February.  Every day is a nasty gun battle.  (more…)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: “I SHALL CUT OFF CORTEZ’S EARS!”

The Jade Steps
Chapter Twenty-Seven:  "I Shall Cut Off Cortez's Ears!"

Over the next several weeks, the Spaniards marveled at how the Mesheeka accepted the loss of their gods.  Perhaps, they surmised, it was because the Mesheeka had been taught by their priests that if the gods were not fed the blood of human hearts, the sun would not rise and the world would collapse into darkness and chaos. 

Day after day, week after week, there were no sacrifices and the sun kept rising.  Maybe the priests were wrong.  Maybe the new gods of the strangers were more powerful than (more…)

WHY WOULD ANY DECENT HUMAN BEING SUPPORT THE UNITED NATIONS?

[Tibor Machan and I have been friends for almost 40 years.  I remember when he taught at Cal-State – and reminded him, when I read his column, that back then I had a bumper sticker on my car that simply said:  CommUNism.]

In 1972, I was not rehired at the Department of Philosophy of the California State University, Bakersfield, even though I fulfilled the requirement of finishing my dissertation and obtaining my PhD to be reappointed.

I was mystified – I had a good publication record, my teaching went quite well as a beginner. So what was up?

I had a friend in the office. She checked out the secret records they could still keep on people back then and learned that those records contained something totally irrelevant to my qualifications.

I had written a letter to the editor of the local (more…)

WHY GOVERNMENT ALWAYS GETS BIGGER, NEVER SMALLER

Assume you are a mid-level bureaucrat in a government regulatory agency, and you know your pay and title depend on how many regulations you are responsible for administering, and the number of people who work for you. Do you think you would push for more or fewer regulations?

Assume you are a corporate regulatory compliance officer, and again you know your pay depends in part upon the number of regulations you must comply with, and the number of people who work for you. Would you tend to favor a world with more or fewer regulations?

Or, assume you are an (more…)

DEMOCRACY IN LIBYA?

Muamar Qadaffi has run Libya as an Islamic dictatorship since 1969.  The history of his oppression and sponsorship of terrorism is long.  Ronald Reagan called him "The Mad Dog of the Middle East."

Qadaffi sponsored the Abu Nidal terrorist group that bombed the airports of Rome and Vienna on December 27, 1985.  On April 5, 1986, a bomb exploded in the La Belle disco in West Berlin, killing two American soldiers and wounding over 200 people.  Intercepted communications between Libyan agents in East Germany proved the attack was approved by Qadaffi.

Nine days later, Reagan ordered a massive assault of (more…)