Dove's Eye View

The Dirty Water Underground - New York Times

Oakland, my hometown, makes the New York Times yet again, this time with our interesting experimental plumbers: The Dirty Water Underground. Read about

...the Greywater Guerrillas, a team focused on promoting and installing clandestine plumbing systems that recycle gray water — the effluent of sinks, showers and washing machines — to flush toilets or irrigate gardens.

They're based in Oakland! They've been rigging up homemade greywater recycling gizmos all over! One of 'em is transgendered! Yay, Oakland!

Go ahead, the rest of you, laugh. But my homeys are researching where my government (and yours) won't - trying to figure out how to survive on less water. This problem is vital. Water is going to keep getting scarcer.

I don't have a greywater system yet. I don't even have that clothesline I've been threatening to put up. But I'm proud of my sister/fellow Oaklanders anyway.

A Father Grieves on Memorial Day

Professor Andrew Bacevich, a conservative and an opponent of the Iraq war, writes in the Washington Post: I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty. .

What exactly is a father's duty when his son is sent into harm's way?

Among the many ways to answer that question, mine was this one: As my son was doing his utmost to be a good soldier, I strove to be a good citizen.

As a citizen, I have tried since Sept. 11, 2001, to promote a critical understanding of U.S. foreign policy. I know that even now, people of good will find much to admire in Bush's response to that awful day. They applaud his doctrine of preventive war. They endorse his crusade to spread democracy across the Muslim world and to eliminate tyranny from the face of the Earth. They insist not only that his decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was correct but that the war there can still be won. Some -- the members of the "the-surge-is-already-working" school of thought -- even profess to see victory just over the horizon.

I believe that such notions are dead wrong and doomed to fail. In books, articles and op-ed pieces, in talks to audiences large and small, I have said as much. "The long war is an unwinnable one," I wrote in this section of The Washington Post in August 2005. "The United States needs to liquidate its presence in Iraq, placing the onus on Iraqis to decide their fate and creating the space for other regional powers to assist in brokering a political settlement. We've done all that we can do."

Dulce et decorum est/pro patria mori.

Iran and US hold historic talks

In the spirit of noting good news: Iran and US hold historic talks | Iraq | Guardian Unlimited.

It's always better to talk than to bomb.

Update: Juan Cole gives some context.

US Intelligence Veterans: Impeach Cheney

Read this: NO QUARTER: Forum Features Larry Johnson & Patrick Lang.

dramatic new evidence as to why Vice President Dick Cheney should be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors.

Put it together with this:

Cheney Attempting to Constrain Bush's Choices on Iran Conflict: Staff Engaged in Insubordination Against President Bush

Add the information on support from Lebanon's pro-Bush government and possibly the CIA for Fateh-el-Islam, which may be intended to touch off war with Syria.

America is in the throes of a constitutional crisis. It's underground but it's burning.

Impeach Bush and Cheney now.

Col. Patrick Lang on Nahr Al-Bared

Colonel Patrick Lang of Virginia, a US Military senior intelligence official (retired), keeps a blog. He recommends you read this report on the situation in Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon.

Colonel Lang is an American patriot and an expert on defense and intelligence affairs, especially the Middle East. He reads and speaks Arabic BTW. Read his bio for his credentials.

I would not have linked to the article in Counterpunch without Col. Lang's imprimatur. It's worth reading. It is not hopeful. I post it because it needs to be read, to counteract the propaganda in the mainstream news.

If you believe Colonel Lang is just another "Syrian dupe", try telling him that to his face.

Land and People: Food for thought: In the Beddawi refugee camp

Read this report from a Beirut college professor who just went into the camp where the displaced from Nahr al Bared have fled: Land and People: Food for thought: In the Beddawi refugee camp.

Something is very wrong here. Whatever happened at Nahr al-Bared, it is not what the first reports claim. We may never know why these people suddenly attacked the Lebanese army checkpoint, killing twenty soldiers.

As usual in Lebanon, the bystanders all point fingers based on their own prejudices, while the innocent suffer for the crimes of their neighbors.

Bombing Doesn't Work

And furthermore, shelling civilians is a war crime. You don't do it, according to the Geneva Conventions. America does it in Iraq, Israel does it in Lebanon and Gaza, so I guess the Lebanese Army feels like they can do it with impunity, and no one will call them to account.

My view of this will be unpopular among some of my kinsmen. Sorry. (No, I'm not really sorry. I love my relatives, but I will not remain silent in this case. We will have to agree to disagree)

As'ad Abu-Khalil, with whom I do not always agree, says:

The footage on Aljazeera tonight from inside the Nahr Al-Barid refugee camp is sufficient to condemn all those who stayed silent during another chapter of agony for the Palestinians in Lebanon. I am sickened by the rising manifestations of Lebanese patriotism: by the unending tributes for an Army that was too scared to defend the homeland when Israel invaded last summer.

This bombing is not good for the future of Lebanon. If Fatah al-Islam is such a problem, aren't there other ways to address it than by causing immense suffering among civilians, and thereby creating a whole new generation of future recruits to terrorism?

The decades of attacks on Ain-el-Helweh camp led directly to the events of 1985 that killed my grandmother in Mieh-mieh and uprooted all of my kinsmen. Bombing refugee camps to "eradicate terrorism" just creates more terrorism.

It may be a basic human instinct to want to eradicate (massacre, exterminate, commit genocide) your enemies, but acting on this instinct does not make you or your property safer. Mass extermination of the Palestinians of Lebanon will not make Lebanese safer. Mass bombing with "only" 40 or 80 or 100 dead will not make Lebanese safer, either.

I fear we are in a spiral of death. I fear much worse will follow.

Human Rights Watch is on the case.

Sadly, my American government is too blind, stupid and bloodthirsty to intervene in this. And it looks like the Arab governments don't care, either.

What's Going On In Lebanon?

Professor Juan Cole, London Times reporter Nicholas Blanford, and an anonymous Beirut commenter have the early run-down, including explanations of who Fatah-al-Islam are (hint - Seymour Hersh wrote about them already in the New Yorker).

Is Syria Behind It? Read Col. Patrick Lang, (Retired), a US Defense Dept. Middle East specialist on whom I rely for analysis of military matters. Here's what he says about the early coverage, especially the allegation that Syria is behind this:

The 24/7 news networks were hard at work today trying to make Syria responsible for the Sunni zealots in the camps. The statement was being made today that these groups were connected to AQ. No evidence was offered, but the assertion was repeatedly made based on the "possibility" that had supposedly been voiced by some nameless person in the Lebanese government. Various Lebanese were asked that question - "Is this Al-Qa'ida?" Nobody could be found who was willing to say that there was an organizational link to Al-Qa'ida, but the question was asked over and over again. This question was paired with another - "Is Syria controlling and "behind" this group?" Nobody could be found who would say that either, but the question was asked over and over again.

Now, think about it, folks Al-Qa'ida is a virulently anti-Shia Sunni group. Everyone "knows" how much Syria supports Hizbullah, a virulently anti-Sunni Shia group. So, which is it? Which side does the syrian government support? Does the Syrian government support both at the same time? If you believe that, then you really are a sucker for propaganda.

I will be updating my "Lebanon Round-up" sidebar soon. Until then, feel free to browse the links at right for background information.

We're all staying calm. It's the only thing to do. Pray that the Lebanese back away from this precipice as well.

Land and People

This Lebanese blog and its Beirut-based author are my dream come true: Land and People.

Besides being a blog for food, farming and rural society, Land and People is also a rural development program. The motto of the program is “Celebrating local culture/ Enhancing rural livelihoods". It was borne in the aftermath of the Israeli war on Lebanon of July 2006, with the aim of helping local communities of the South rebuild their shattered livelihoods.

The post describes the fabulous local artisanal, traditional products Land and People developed and found markets for: Laurel olive oil soap, three kinds of unique local breads, and cultivated za'atar (Lebanese thyme used in an herb mixture as a condiment). The people behind the blog helped the small producers get a table at the Beirut farmers' market, and their stuff sold out immediately. Read the post to find out more.

Mohja in a Mustang

Writer with style
Originally uploaded by bedouina.

On her way to pick up Neil McFarquhar of the New York Times, fabulous writer and professor Mohja Kahf posed in my driveway. Too bad I didn't have the camera the day before when I met her at Mills and she had her sunglasses (lost later at a reading in SF). You'll have to imagine her with that cigarette holder clenched in her teeth like FDR, sunglasses, headscarf, Mustang with the top down in the pouring California sunshine.

I was so sure the New York Times would get a picture of her like this! They got the story but not the photo.

Dr. Kahf honored us with a visit during her stay. She's a lovely human being as well as a fine poet and novelist.

Hat tip to Laila Lalami for finding the Times article about Mohja.