...the more they stay the same. Or, as Yogi Berra put it, its deja vu all over again. The recent arguing (on this blog and just about everywhere else) over Iraq and the neo-cons and the supposed hijacking of U.S. foreign policy by Israel--and particularly the inevitable invocation ofPat Buchanan in this context--has prompted me to dig out something I wrote back in the fall of 1990, in the prelude to Operation Desert Storm, the conflict that set the template for the current horrific world situation. Up until now, it has appeared nowhere in cyber-space--just in a crumbling hard copy in my personal files. I think it provides some useful insights to the origin of the current debate...

Well, Pat Buchanan (whose name came up in the recent unpleasantness over anti-Semitism on this blog) noted the 60th anniversary of VE Day in his own inimitable way: by asking in a May 11 opinion piece "Was WWII Worth It?" And, of course, by promptly answering his own question: "For Stalin, Yes." What is truly appalling is less that Buchanan has written this execrable piece of revisionism than that it was run (with no rebuttal) by AntiWar.com, which mysteriously continues to have credentials on the "left" even as it becomes more and more transparently linked to the populist right.

It is always a dilemma whether to risk legitimizing evil claptrap by stooping to argue with it. But given how Buchanan's poison is insidiously creeping into the supposed "left," a few responses are probably in order.

A new study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) finds that crimes against Muslims in the U.S. jumped by more than 50% in 2004. The report outlines 1,522 cases of harassment, discrimination or violence against Muslims last year, including 141 hate crimes, compared with 1,019 cases and 93 hate crimes in 2003. "These disturbing figures come as no surprise given growing Islamophobic sentiments and a general misperception of Islam and Muslims," said Arsalan Iftikhar, CAIR legal director and the report's author. (Al-Jazeera, May 12)

Navy Petty Officer Pablo Paredes, a Bronx native who refused to board the USS Bonhomme Richard as it was preparing to sail from San Diego in December, was convicted by a Navy judge on a charge of missing his deployment to Iraq. He faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison, a bad conduct discharge, loss of two thirds of his pay and a demotion. Paredes reported to the Navy pier the morning of Dec. 6, but refused to board and was told to go away. After 45 minutes on the pier, he did. He surrendered to military authorities on Dec. 18 after applying for conscientious objector status. The Navy denied his request. That ruling is being appealed. Thomas Jefferson School of Law Professor Marjorie Cohn, an international law specialist, said Paredes had acted from principle. "He said, 'I don't want to be a war criminal,'" she recalled. "He was very concerned about the deaths of more than a thousand American servicemen and women, and of thousands of Iraqis." (Reuters, May 11)

The former U.S. military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib prison has been removed from his command as part of a punishment that also included a fine and reprimand, the Army has announced. Col. Thomas Pappas became the second senior officer relieved of command over the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. After an administrative disciplinary hearing May 9, Gen. B.B. Bell, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, relieved Pappas of his command of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. He was also fined $8,000 and given a letter of reprimand for two instances of dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004.

Just weeks after India and Pakistan took unprecedented steps towards normalization in Kashmir, the divided province is exploding into violence again. Yesterday, 13 were killed in a car bomb in Srinagar and gunfights between militants and security forces elsewhere in India-controlled Kashmir. (Times of India, May 11) Violence continues today, as a grenade attack on a Christian missionary school in Srinagar killed two women and injured 50, including 20 children. (Reuters, May 12)

BBC reports May 12 on an unprecedented wave of protests against the authoritarian regime of Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan. Every day for the past four months, protesters in the eastern town of Andijan have gathered outside a courthouse where 23 local businessmen are on trial, accused of membership in a radical Islamic group, which they and their relatives strongly deny.

Last week, Doonesbury's GI Ray Hightower blogged home bitterly from Baghdad that "Iraq is the new Afghanistan"—meaning the American public has largely forgotten that there is a war going on. Today's news indicates Afghanistan may actually be becoming the new Iraq. A top news story today is a violent anti-US protest in Jalalabad, sparked by a report in Newsweek that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay placed Korans on toilets to rattle suspects, and in at least one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet." Shouting "Death to America," protesters stoned a passing US convoy, attacked the Pakistani consulate and smashed shop windows. Four were killed and over 70 wounded when police fired on the crowd. (AP, May 11)