The fallout continues: another diplomat - Ann Wright, deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia - has resigned in protest over the war in Iraq. I'm glad to see at least that America's diplomatic corp has the strength of its convictions to say and do what they know to be right. If only our spineless elected representatives of the House and Senate could do the same.

You know, the more I watch events in Iraq unfold, the more and more this situation is looking like Athens' ill-fated Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian War, a war which cost her the support of many allies and signalled the beginning of the end of her imperial reign. The Athenians had been lulled into thinking that Sicily was ripe for the picking (grain was to the ancient world what oil is to the modern, making Sicily the Middle East of the Mediterranean) and would be no match for their naval power (the pre-industrial version air power, naturally); and so on a thinly-veiled pretext (the plea of the Segestans to liberate them from the tyranny of Syracuse, which at least was more plausible than our "ticking bomb" preventive war doctrine against countries that allegedly have weapons of mass destruction in their putative arsenals), the Athenians set out with a fleet of over 100 warships and 20,000 infantry to conquer the entire island, over many objections both abroad and at home (including that of Nicias, the statesman who ironically was ultimately chosen to lead the expedition, think Colin Powell and his recent 180-degree turn on the doctrine of force protection and the importance of diplomacy). Never mind that the experts had warned that most Sicilians would resist an invasion (despite the fact that Syracuse was the local heavy, it was still a Sicilian heavy, and not some imperial outpost of a foreign power - the same reason that is being offered for the unexpected Iraqi support of Saddam Hussein, of all people), and that Syracuse, even if taken, would be next to impossible to hold (just like many are claiming about Baghdad now, given that the Republican Guard and the fedayeen have demonstrated their willingness to use guerilla tactics and urban warfare to oppose American and British forces) - the most important objection to the Sicilian Expedition is that such a naked act of aggression would set the entire Greek world against Athens, and tip the balance of Greek geopolitics in favor of Athens' arch-rival Sparta (although some would say that the French are our new nemesis on the world stage, I think the analogy here is the growing anti-American coalition of nations that are dismayed at the United States' refusal to consider them as equals in matter of diplomacy and absolutely horrified at our unilateral warmongering. No hegemon exists without a counterbalance naturally coalescing to oppose it; and the harder that hegemon pushes, the stronger the counterforce will in the end push back). But the Athenian demos was not swayed by such realistic assessments, and chose instead the counsel of Alcibiades, the infamous opportunist who saw the conquest of Sicily as the springboard for an extended campaign against the Italian peninsula and thus assuring for all the time the supremacy of Athens over the Spartans and her Dorian kinsmen (cf. Richard Perle and the neoconservative agenda for the Middle East - first Iraq, then Iran, Syria, et al., until it's all either in our hands or remade into U.S.-friendly puppet regimes that will ensure our dominance and our empire). Hampered by unfaithful allies, a lack of cities revolting to their side, and poor supply lines (sound familiar?), the Athenian invasion ended in disaster, and set into motion a chain of events that lead to her comeuppance at the hands of Sparta and myriad other aggrieved Greek peoples...

God damn it, doesn't anyone study the Classics anymore? I guess our diplomats do.

Please, oh please, someone tell me that someone hacked the New York Times' website, a la Al Jazeera. The American military can't be this stupid (or can they?):

Army Depots Have Names of Oil Giants

By NEELA BANERJEE

The subtleties surrounding the sensitive role oil plays in the Iraqi war may have eluded the United States Army. Deep in some newspaper coverage yesterday was a report that the 101st Airborne Division had named one central Iraq outpost Forward Operating Base Shell and another Forward Operating Base Exxon.

The Pentagon shrugged off concerns that now might not be the time to mention the names of foreign oil companies on Iraqi soil. "The forward bases are normally refueling points — they're basically gas stations in the desert," a Pentagon spokeswoman said. "Whether or not we're going to lecture everyone that, due to political sensitivities, you should be careful what you call your gas stations, I don't know if that's something that should be done or would be done."

Make dinner, not war - fixating on Iraq in a 24/7 manner has gotten me thinking about Iraqi cuisine. I know nothing about it, which disturbed me somewhat, given that I am passionate about food in general and love to learn about what people eat around the world and figure out how to cook it in the comfort of my own kitchen. Googling "iraqi cuisine" wasn't extremely helpful here. Aside from an interesting anecdote about the Jews of Baghdad and their importation of a pizza-like dish called lahma bi ajeen, which is comprised of ground lamb and spicy tomato sauce baked atop yeast bread, the consensus seemed to be that the Iraqis didn't have a real cuisine of their own, and relied on a lot of recipes that were actually Iranian or Kurdish in origin. There is a lot of hankering for grilled foods in Iraq, from skewered meat to local fish, but being that the urge to barbeque seems to be one of the great culinary universals for humanity (cf. Steve Raichlin's The Barbeque Bible for an epic whirlwind tour of grilling around the globe), it's hard to call that something unique to the modern-day inhabitants of Mesopotamia.

But there may be hope for the Iraqi table, after all (that is, if there are any tables left in Iraq when we're through with them). Nawal Nasrallah has just written a 664-page tome called "Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine", which is available through Amazon.com. Unfortunately there isn't a review or description of the book, but it sounds like a timely addition to my already overloaded cookbook shelf. Too bad all my credit cards are maxed out...

Imperialism is not easy. That's the lesson our budding Americo-fascists (if Andrew Sullivan can coin "Islamo-fascism" as the great boogeyman of the 21st Century, then I'll say that the Americo-fascism which has festered in response to it is an even greater danger to the stability of our Republic and the world at large) learned over the weekend, as their breathless cheerleading of the war against Saddam was tempered by the very real possibility of a protracted guerilla war in regions supposedly "taken" over the past six days of blitzkrieg through Southern Iraq. I'm starting to think that the Bush administration oversold America on the idea that the Iraqi state was a house of cards that would topple with ease if Saddam and his sons were taken out of the picture. They even sold themselves on this idea, and hastily changed their battle plans at the last second and with no prior warning to their Coaliation allies to open the war with a "Hail Mary" airstrike intended to kill the ruler and his inner circle at the very outset of hostilities. The problem with this thinking is that it oversimplifies the true nature of the apparatus which has maintained a decades-long reign of terror in Iraq. Saddam's police state has myriad individuals who have benefitted enormously from oppressing the masses at the regional and local level, and consequently these people have an awful lot to lose in the event in "regime change". At best, they'd lose their livelihoods if Saddam were overthrown; at worst, they'd be tried and convicted as war criminals or lose their lives in a spate of revenge killings. And though I seriously doubt that such resistance will cost the United States the war, it will sour the sweet taste of victory. Already we're being warned by the same people who promised us a cakewalk to Baghdad that the road ahead may in fact be long and difficult. The more cynical of us already suspected as much, but would the American people have been so eager to sign on for this war if they had known that the Iraqis weren't just going to roll over and let us in, as many honestly believed they would do, once we'd shown them a little bit of "Shock and Awe"?

Warblogging is not easy, either. Nor is finding your way through the morass of data that this war is generating. I've found the following websites to be extraordinarily helpful during these extraordinary times in getting the information that American news organizations (at the behest of the Pentagon, yes, but also out of their own self-motivated fear of reprisals from "Middle America", and others who don't like to mix critical thought with their nightly news) are keeping us from:

Unlike their American counterparts, BBC reporters "embedded" in the field have been allowed to keep running blogs, which don't seem to be as censored as what goes out into the radio and television reports. Here's a daily roundup of all those posts. Kvetch all you want about the "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation", Andrew Sullivan - the BBC provides one of the best English language news sources on the planet, and the world would be infinitely poorer without its much-needed perspective.

As for getting a radically different take on what's going on in Iraq right now, why not try Venik's Aviation, a Russian site that takes military analysts, radio intercepts from the Middle East, and other data being gathered from the conflict and attempts to peer through the "fog of war". Note: This link was working fine this morning, but now as I'm testing it out as I write this blog, I seem to be getting a server error.

And for a running commentary on all things Left, there is the indomitable Eschaton, which is updated frequently and furiously by Atrios.

I hope you find the above sites as useful as I have in keeping a grip on my sanity over the past few weeks!

Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while sleep
We will find you
Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world
It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help make the most
Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you
So glad we've almost made it
So sad they had fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world
I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
Say that you'll never never never need it
One headline why believe it ?
Everybody wants to rule the world
All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world

I finished Chapter Two of the novel - which now stands at about 12,000 words - this evening, on the bus ride home to Lynn. It's a glorious mess, but I have some ideas for taking it apart and reassembling it in a more coherent fashion when I finally get around to the second draft. In the meantime, however, it's full steam ahead, although I did take a break after finishing the chapter by starting a short story that I recently got a flash of inspiration for, about the Curse of the Bambino (a topic near and dear to my heart, as a member of Red Sox Nation). I was surprised at how well the first few paragraphs came out, so now I'm going to be torn between continuing on with Chapter Three or pecking away at my new story. Now this is the kind of trouble I wish I'd always had as a writer!

The most frightening thing I've seen in years: CBS morning news personality and "Big Brother" host Julie Chen dressed in fatigues, reporting from an undisclosed location in the Persian Gulf. This whole embedding (how creepy is it that "embedding" is a managerial term as well, as I reported last week after our monthly library staff meetings. I can't wait for Donald Rumsfeld to start talking about "low-hanging fruit"!) of American journalists with military units is a joke. I have no problem with propagandistic puff pieces during wartime, but for all of the major news organizations based in the United States to pull their independently operating correspondents out of the war zone and rely solely on embedded reporters - who aren't allowed to tell us anything the military doesn't want us to know - while other countries' press, including the Brits mind you, are still alive and reporting from downtown Baghdad says a lot about the sorry state of the American media. At least during the first Gulf War we had CNN sticking it out in Iraq when the bombs started falling, while all of the other news agencies allowed themselves to be sequestered and handled by the Pentagon, who spoon-fed them a steady stream of generic "smart bomb" footage and precious little else.

Random thought: Is it just me, or does anyone else expect to see a Jawa sand crawler in the distance, whenever we cut to the "Live From The Iraqi Desert" footage?

I've decided to root for the Kurds during this war, especially after hearing the news that Turkey has authorized its troops to make a foreign incursion into Northern Iraq so that they can secure the Kurdish territories and prevent the birth of an independent "Kurdistan", a rider to the Turkish Parliamentary resolution allowing the Americans the right to fly through Turkish airspace (which is a far cry from the original plan, which would have allowed the U.S. to send ground troops into Turkey in order to attack the Iraqis from the north) that got virtually no press here in America. A pity, because the Kurds have gotten the shaft so many times during the past few decades, and really deserve a homeland of their own at this point. The Turks should know better at this point, too, having spent the last few centuries trying to screw its former Ottoman subjects out of their fair share of rightful territory, only to be forced to spend decades afterwards fighting until they have to give up everything they should have in the first place, and then some. Greece is the perfect paradigm here. The Ottomans did everything they could (as did the Western powers) to ensure that an independent "Kingdom of Greece" would be a rump state, a mere fraction of the Greek-occupied lands, and a tiny sliver of the whole Greek-speaking Eastern Mediterranean. As good an idea as it seemed to the Ottoman Porte at the time, the Greeks immediately made it their business to add to their artificially small nation, until Greeks and Turks ended up going to war on and off again for the better part of a century. Mark my words, the same thing will happen with the Kurds, unless Turkey wises up and lets the Kurdish people have what should have been theirs many, many moons ago.

Is Saddam dead? It's entirely possible, following a surprise opening salvo from our side that sought to catch and kill the Iraqi leader in one of his bunkers. Is it legal to specifically target another nation's head of state, war or no war? No one's questioned the legality of the attack, as far as I know, but there's no doubt we'd be howling bloody murder if Saddam tried to do the same thing to our capo. The idea of whacking another country's leader with a Tomahawk missle or a bunker-busting bomb is just a little too Tony Soprano for my tastes. Speaking of guys named Tony, apparently our "Coalition of the Willing" partner Tony Blair wasn't too happy about our attempted hit, either, of which he wasn't informed until the deed was done. Poor English war hawks. They really thought we cared about them, didn't they? All the Brits did was provide a thin veneer of multilateral respectability until the bombs started falling, at which point we started treating them like the rest of the world - come along for the ride if you'd like, but don't think for a second that your opinion really matters to us.

"Begun this clone war has."

Coalition Members of the 1991 Gulf War:

Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Honduras, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Turkey, The United Arab Emirates, The United Kingdom, and the United States.

"Coalition" Members of the (soon to be) 2003 Gulf War:

Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

It's an impressive list that the State Department has cobbled together to prove that we're about to unleash the dogs of war all by ourselves. But aside from the notable absence of Arab and "Old European" countries on the 2003 list, there's another important (read as: HUGE) difference - the 1991 Coalition was a truly international military force which had been assembled to enforce the almost unanimous will of the United Nations, whereas the 2003 "Coalition of the Willing" is merely a list of nations that are willing to be associated with the United States and the United Kingdom as they prosecute a unilateral war of aggression of questionable legality.

But it's good to know that Albania is there for us. Uzbekistan, too. The best part is that Colin Powell revealed to the press today that not only do we have the "Coalition of Former Warsaw Pact Members and Soviet Republics" cheering us on, but fifteen additional nations who'd prefer to remain anonymous at this time. I'm not exactly sure how this would qualify as support, particularly moral support, but hooray for the Unknown Allies! A question, though - if any of these countries end up sending troops, will they have to wear bags over their heads?

Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord, yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.

Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.

Now in darkness world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, God is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercies for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
Oh lord, yeah!

-- Black Sabbath, War Pigs

Ten thousand words now on the novel. I can't believe it! Since Chapter One was a prologue, this second chapter is more or less the first real chapter, and I think I'm starting to wrap my brain around how big this thing is going to be when it's finshed. I'm only just now getting to the meat of the narrative after a whole lot of set up, and there's a lot more to write about than I'd originally assumed. The temptation to linger in my main character's childhood is getting the best of me. Already I've opened up an avenue or two that hadn't been there when I first sketched out his story, and I'm eager to explore them and see how I can make it all fit. So to hell with the outline - they're only good for term papers, and I always hated writing those anyway. This book is first and foremost a journey, so why not take the long road?

The latest installment in my monthly roundup of Managerial English, fresh from the latest library staff meeting:

1. "Embed" - to integrate.

This month we will be embedding the Weezer records with the rest of the LP collection.

2. "Signage" - aka, signs.

We're proud to report that the Cuckoo Clock Factory has put up all new signage for visitors, making it easier for them to get around.

(This evil little word has been kicking around for a while now, but this is the first time I've reported it here.)

3. "Knowledge Management" - what a library does now, apparently. Could they possibly think of a more creepily Orwellian term?

With our Online Encyclopedia of Jelly Beans, we are committed to improving the quality of knowledge management here at the Candy Resource Center.

Getting props this week in the meeting was a former favorite:

(Bonus) "Low-hanging Fruit" - something that can be done quickly and easily.

We have set up three or four low-hanging fruit committees that will deal with our Spring fashion line.

Never a dull moment in a staff meeting, I tell ya...

I wasted no time this morning. I'm now almost a thousand words into Chapter Two, and finding that the words are still flowing. Well, maybe it's less of a flow and more of a torrent. Everything I know about this fictional universe that I've inhabited off and on for over ten years now is going to come out in this novel, one way or the other, a grand catharsis that every creative cell in my body has been yearning for since I invented this alternate earth. Getting this place onto paper will free me in more ways than one, but the most important result of finishing the book I'm writing will be that the universe it describes will at last be established, a real imaginary locale that I will then be able to visit and revisit as I please, and get who knows how many other short stories and novels out of in the process. This first work lays the foundation, as it literally takes the protagonist around the known world, and in the end deposits him at its center, from which most of the other fiction I'm thinking about writing in this universe will proceed. So this is the one I had to write first - the others would just be icing on an already tasty cake.

Mmm. Tasty-Kake.

Was Tom Ridge right? Is duct tape the secret weapon that could very well tip the scales in this "War on Terror"? The AP is reporting that the Iraqi unmanned drone that our Happy Junta was almost gleefully talking up over the past couple weeks on all of the American news networks turns out to be comprised primarily of balsa wood and duct tape, and has an effective operational range of about five miles, provided its remote operators don't lose sight of it. Oh, yeah, and it's not designed to carry weapons of mass destruction, but intended for reconaissance and radio jamming. Our side even got its wingspan wrong by a 50% margin. This is a far cry from the instrument of horror that was being portrayed by Bush's inner circle, which was described as something could fly halfway around the world undetected and kill millions of unsuspecting American men, women, and children (and their pets, my God, think of the pets!) in their sleep with its deadly cargo of smallpox, anthrax, or Tesla. Oops. I guess we'll have to go back to "promoting democracy" as our rationale du jour for war against Iraq, until some other wild speculation about Saddam's doomsday weapons pans out, although the more weapons inspectors case the country, the fewer opportunities the Pentagon is going to have to make shit up. But no matter how much these revelations undermine the credibility of certain Bush administration members, the Iraqis' inventive and insidious use of duct tape in part vindicates our Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, who was roundly criticized for his exhortation to the American public to go out and stock up on duct tape. Little did we know what sinister schemes Saddam Hussein was dreaming up for his already-purchased stockpile...

Spread the word. Tom Ridge was right. There now exists a "Duct Tape Gap", and from the sounds of it we're already way behind the Butcher of Baghdad. So get your ass to Home Depot and start another episode of panic buying - every roll of duct tape that remains on the shelves might as well be a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein. Why are you still reading this? Go! For God's sake, think of the pets!

Could this be next? Hey, it even works metaphorically!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings will change the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," a culinary rebuke of France, stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.

Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom toast."

The name changes were spearheaded by two Republican lawmakers who held a news conference Tuesday to make the name changes official on the menus.


What a great idea! But why stop with the French?

1. To retaliate against the Chinese, no more take-out will be delivered to House office buildings.

2. German potato salad will be replaced with its more American counterpart, the one with all the mayonnaise - er, "Freedom Sauce"

3. House chefs will no longer make the popular roll-up sandwiches with Syrian bread, but slices of Wonder Bread mashed flat.

4. Vodka, that most Russian of liquors, will now be known as "The Spirit of '76"

That takes care of the current naysaying members on the Security Council. I hope you're paying attention, Mexico - it would be a shame if we had to rename salsa to "Liberty Ketchup", wouldn't it now?

(And if Turkey doesn't come around and let our troops in, well then come next Thanksgiving they'll be sorry as well!)

Chapter One is finished! 6083 words. And the next chapter is already hammering at the door, yammering to be let out. This is a good. Although I'm still writing using the old roadmap for this novel, which called for somewhere between twelve and fourteen chapters, the very fact that this story is a creature with its own mind is making me think that when I finally reach the end, it's going to be twice that. So be it. It will be less painful to pare down a 300-plus page novel than one with half that material, and besides, with the genre I'm writing in (it's fantasy, but with a decidedly different take I hope - let's call it an anti-fantasy), 300 pages is a little on the light side anyway! I'm happy how the first chapter turned out. For a while I wasn't sure where it was going, and that maybe I'd gotten off the right track halfway through and was meandering hopelessly, but then I turned a corner and realized that all of those twists and turns had actually been leading somewhere, and that I only had to write the last paragraph to bring it to a close. It's funny how unpredictable fiction can be. I've been thinking about this particular story for years now, and yet how it's unfolding on paper rather than in my mind or in an outline has been thus far a complete and total surprise, especially when it came to end the chapter. I knew where I thought I'd wanted to take the narration, but then suddenly an opportunity presented itself that not only resolved this episode of the story, but did so in a whimsical and irreverent way that was consistent for my main character and which set the exact tone I wanted for the whole book. So I took it. One of the things that held been holding me back from taking a stab at writing this book was the belief that since I'd been letting the idea stew in my head for so long, actually getting it out into written form would be more of a chore than anything else. How wrong I was! Even the most tired idea kicking around the back of the brain gets a whole new life when it's forced from the place of forms out into the world of words - a lesson I wish I could impart backwards in time to my writer's-blocked self, as inspiration or at the very least consolation. But better to have learned said lesson now rather than ten more years down the road, I guess!

In happier news, I stayed up until 3 a.m. last night finishing the second draft of my short story. That's right, finishing. I hadn't completed a work of fiction in over ten years until now. Meanwhile, the first chapter of the magnum opus continues to grow, nearing the six thousand word mark. I'm starting to think that having a rough draft for this one finished by mid-April is wishful thinking in the extreme, but that's not going to keep me from trying.

THE PETITION LETTER

TO: The Members of the U.N. Security Council
SUBJECT: Tough Inspections, Not War
__________
Dear Member of the U.N. Security Council,

We are citizens from countries all over the world. We are speaking together because we will all be affected by a decision in which your country has a major part -- the decision of how to disarm Iraq.

The first reason for its existence listed in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations is "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." If your country supports a Security Council resolution that would authorize a war on Iraq, you will directly contradict that charter. You will be supporting an unnecessary war -- a war which immediately, and in its unknown consequences, could bring "untold sorrow to mankind" once again.

The U.N. was created to enable peaceful alternatives to conflict. The weapons inspections under way are a perfect example of just such an alternative, and their growing success is a testament to the potential power the U.N. holds. By supporting tough inspections instead of war, you can show the world a real way to resolve conflict without bloodshed. But if you back a war, it will undermine the very premise upon which the U.N. was built.

President Bush argues that only by endorsing a war on Iraq can the United Nations prove its relevance. We argue the opposite. If the Security Council allows itself to be completely swayed by one member nation, in the face of viable alternatives, common sense and world public opinion, then it will be diminished in its role, effectiveness, and in the opinion of humankind.

We do not support this war. For billions of citizens in hundreds of countries, and for the future generations whose lives will be shaped by the choice you make, we ask that you stand firm against the pressuring of the Bush Administration, and support tough inspections for Iraq. The eyes of the world are on you.

Sincerely,
[Number] citizens of the world.

If you are in agreement with the sentiments expressed above, fellow exiles, please visit MoveOn.org to sign the electronic petition, which will be delivered to the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, March 10th. President Bush and his junta need to understand the depth and breadth of the opposition to their plans for a political landscape where might makes right and the rule of international law is something that only applies to others. How can we claim that our justification for a war against Iraq is their numerous flagrant violations of United Nations resolutions, when our remedy of a pre-emptive or preventive war directly contravenes the U.N. Charter? If the United States is allowed to pursue this unilateral war of aggression against another sovereign nation, who is to stop the other Great Powers of the world from perpetrating the same acts of hostility against their pet enemies (Russia and Chechnya, China and Taiwan, Turkey and the Kurds, et cetera, ad nauseum). You don't have to be pro-Saddam to support peaceful disarmament of his regime. Do not heed the neocon blowhards who call your rational objections to this war "appeasement" and compare you to Neville Chamberlain. Saddam Hussein may be a cruel, bloodthirtsy, and repressive dictator, but he's hardly the world's next Hitler. He is a sad little man who sits atop a sad little country, broken by decades of war and isolation from the world community, and even with the weaponry he still has in his arsenal, he proves no credible threat to his neighbors as he did in 1991, when the world community rightly banded together to trounce him for his act of aggression against the people of Kuwait. Despite the many attempts by W. and his father before him to paint this monster of their own creation as Evil Incarnate, Saddam is just a man, and after decades of progress in the realm of international law and diplomacy we at last have the mechanisms by which such criminal behavior can be punished. War is not the answer here. We have many options for dealing with this crisis that do not involve the wholesale slaughter of innocent life. As Isaac Asimov so pithily remarked, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." There is always another way. It may not be as glorious or lucrative as conquering the second-largest oil reserves on the planet and declaring ourselves king of the Middle East, but doing the right thing seldom comes with any material reward. It is a sad day when the respect of the world community and pride in having done some actual good in the world (and not simply what's good for the bottom line) aren't enough for the United States of America. If democracy and the rule of law are to prevail on this earth, we must not go down this road.

Thank you for listening.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli forces stormed a refugee camp in Gaza on Thursday in raids that killed at least 11 Palestinians, a day after a suicide bomber killed 15 Israelis on a crowded bus.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi

Five thousand words on Chapter One of the novel. Going by the 50,000 word goal set by NaNoWriMo, that puts me at the ten percent mark - an unbelievable milestone, considering how little I've written over the past ten years and how long this particular book idea has been stewing in my head. Granted, National Novel Writing Month is in November, so I'm either really late for 2002 or super early for this year's festivities, but NaNoWriMo has inspired me nonetheless, so thank you Chris Baty and company (and thanks to the Rabbit Blog for tipping me off to such an organization in the first place). Maybe if all goes well with this work-in-progress, I'll sign up next November officially in order to kick-start myself along with another project. Right now however I'm in a celebratory mood. I may not finish the first draft of the novel in a month, but if I can keep to the pace I've set so far, I could have pretty close to 50k by mid-April, when another work-in-progress - my lovely and lively daughter Andriana, a.k.a. "Kicky Toe", who is celebrating her 34th week since conception today - is on schedule to make her big debut. Here's to seeing both in a month and a half!

Separated at birth?



al-Qaeda Mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed



Adult Film Superstar Ron Jeremy

The Red Sox make the year's first foray against "The Evil Empire" this afternoon at 1 o'clock, when the Yankees come to Fort Myers for a spring training exhibition game. Taking the mound for the boys in pinstripes will be none other than Jose Contreras, the Cuban starting pitcher whom Sox management failed to acquire over the winter, a debacle which engendered a lot of finger pointing and name calling between the new owners at Yawkey Way (most notably Larry Lucchino) and New York owner/supervillain George Steinbrenner. Well, passions have cooled a bit since then, and there's even an article sympathetic to Contreras in today's Boston Globe, but even if Boston really didn't have a chance at signing him, as the piece and Mr. Contreras assert, it does little to change the gut feeling here in New England that Big George and his Yankee front office are out to get us. So don't take it too hard, Jose, if a few thousand sunburned, hungover pilgrims from Red Sox Nation make you feel about as welcome as a hurricane in City Of Palms Park today. Trust me, it'll be a much warmer reception than you'll get at Fenway Park in April.

These are times that try men's car batteries (women's too, but hey, it's not my line to begin with). Trying to jump-start my brain this morning, as well. I know I've already been here at work for an hour and a half, but all I've been doing is staring blankly at my monitor while I graze the web. At least I got some editing done last night - I'm about halfway through the second draft of my short story, and I'm happy that I'm still liking what I wrote, by and large. I was worried for a little bit that I'd pick it up after letting it sit for a week or so and find it dreadful, but no. I hope to have a finished second draft by the weekend. Meanwhile, I've been spending my commuting time hammering out the first chapter of a novel I've been kicking around in my head for years. It's too early to go into details, but Chapter One is now over four thousand words, and I think the end is in sight. After I finish this chapter, I might play with another short story idea, if only to avoid burnout from working on the same thing day after day, though it may be hard to stop myself from plowing ahead, as I'm starting to feel that same sense of gathering momentum that I had when I'd found my groove with the first story. We'll see. I've been dormant as a writer for so long that I have a backlog of inspiration stretching back to 1990! If only I could sit down for a good, uninterrupted fortnight and get as many of those ideas out of my head as possible, I might feel better about giving my undivided attention to the novel. But things being as they are, I'm going to have to wear as many authorial hats as I can manage for the time being. Which is still a million percent better than not writing anything at all, mind you.

Sorry, I forgot to comment upon the most important news of the weekend - the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed by Pakistani authorities. Shaikh Mohammed is about as far up the al-Qaeda food chain as you can get, save for Osama bin Laden himself, and being that O. B. to the L. hasn't made a video appearance in a long, long time, I would lay odds that the man is dead, which means that this current bust could be the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda, the nominal reason for our "War on Terror". Will this stop Bush and Company from putting the pedal to the metal and zooming up the Highway of Death from Kuwait to Iraq? Probably not. Of course, whatever safety we may have obtained by capturing Shaikh Mohammed is very likely about to be pissed away by our warmongering President and his Dr. Strangelovian Cabinet, who by launching a war of aggression against Baghdad will most assuredly draw the ire of not only the radical Arabs, but moderates and perhaps even those who were once well-disposed towards us...

...guaranteeing in turn the continuation of the War on Terror that should have ended with al-Qaeda! Oh, wait. I see where this one is going now (wish I didn't).

Resistance is not futile, or at least that's the message of Aristosphanes' Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens, fed up with the Peloponnesian War, decide to withhold sex until the men of Athens and Sparta come to their senses and make peace. The famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis has written an opera based on this ancient Greek comedy that was first performed last April in Greece as part of the Cultural Olympiad 2001-2004, and featured the voice of another giant in modern Greek music, singer/songwriter George Dalaras. Needless to say, Theodorakis and Dalaras, who both have been steady champions of the political left and who were outspoken critics of the military junta which ruled Greece - with the United States' blessing, mind you- from 1967-1974, are both opposed to the war against Iraq, and vocally so. While American musicians bow to their corporate masters and censor themselves at the Grammies (leaving Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst as the unlikely hero of the evening), it is comforting at least to know that there are those out there who are still willing to speak out, act up, and fight for what is right.

Holy synchronicity, Batman! I can't believe I almost missed this - The Lysistrata Project is staging a series of all-day, round-the-world readings of Lysistrata today. Find yourself a venue and join the protest, or read the play online in its entirety at eserver.org.

Score one for democracy - not ours, but Turkey's, whose Parliament failed to win the absolute majority it needed to allow American troops to begin their deployment on Turkish soil in preparation for an invasion of Iraq by land via Kurdistan (aka, The Country Which Must Not Be Named). Already I can see diners across the United States renaming their "Turkey Sandwich with French Fries" to "Liberty Bird with Freedom Fries". And let's not even think of how we're going to overhaul our Thanksgiving dinners, come next November...

Good for the Turks. Ironically, this move on their part might ingratiate them more with the European Union than any American sponsorship ever could have. Already Donald Rumsfeld and his fellow fascists are grumbling about the "untidiness" of democracy. Yes, it is a lot easier to strongarm nations into doing your will when they're run by absolute despots, and doing our bidding uber alles is how Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq in the first place, after all. No, Mr. Rumsfeld, the real untidiness occurs when these persons we train, put into place, nurture, and arm (for who among our current enemies was not once our friend, except the mad dictator of North Korea) finally decide to turn on us, which they inevitably do, and we're put into the unsavory position of having to deal with the monsters we created to do our dirty work all over the world.

But there are many ways to deal with such monsters. War benefits no one in the end, especially not the millions of Iraqis whose lives will be needlessly endangered so that one man may be removed from power. The people of the world are right to question this course of action. Despite the protestations of George Bush and his administration, the United Nations has never been more relevant than it is now, as it attempts to prevent the world's most powerful nation from replacing the rule of law with the law of the jungle for decades if not centuries to come (and who knows what will be the consequences, if the world community should fail). Across the planet, democratically-elected governments are feeling unprecedented pressure from their citizens to resist the American push towards an illegal preemptive war. Some heads of state have already taken their stand against such an action; others who oppose their own people on this issue in order to appease the United States will find that hell hath no fury like a spurned voter.

But democracy is the thing we said we're in this for, isn't it? Be careful what you wish for, Mr. President.