Life of an average joe

These essays cover a tour in Afghanistan for the first seventeen letters home. For an overview of that tour, and thoughts on Iraq, essays #1, #2 and #17 should suffice. Staring with the eighteenth letter, I begin to recount -- hopefully in five hundred words -- some daily aspects of life in Mexico with the Peace Corps.



Thursday, January 22, 2015

Letter 108: tribute to a good man


PEACE CORPS II Explained Explicación de la misión del Peace Corps-II
One of my duties in the Peace Corps is to bring a “Whitman’s Sampler” of American culture to my host-country counterparts. In actuality, I have fulfilled that mission with any number of Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens souvenirs for amigos and amigas. Additionally, I have translated two great speeches – one by President Kennedy on getting to the Moon (as a tribute to CPT Neil Armstrong) and the other delivered by Steve Jobs to a Stanford graduation. Nevertheless, the translations for this week require a humble tribute to another type of hero; one we do not see. Una de mis tareas en el Cuerpo de Paz se llama -- Peace Corps-II -- en el que brindo a mis compañeros del país anfitrión un poco de la cultura estadounidense.  De hecho, lo he cumplido esta obligación con las traducciones de los discursos del presidente John Kennedy (para recordar el logro científico del Capitán Neil Armstrong) y el discurso del Sr. Steve Jobs a la Universidad de Stanford.  Las traducciones de esta semana buscan recordar otro gran estadounidense pero no tan famoso como dichos hombres mencionados.
   
Introduction to the translations:
Mark Tuttle (1923-2012)
Introducción a las traducciones: 
Mark Tuttle (1923-2012)
The best of American culture lies not in the news clips, history books or even time-honoured art. Those who represent this greatness will never show up in Wikipedia to record their grandeur. Still, these people show those of us, fortunate enough to be familiar with them, the true American nobility. Perhaps, CPT Armstrong was one renowned hero who most closely resembled these others. La mejor parte de la cultura de mi país es aquella que no se puede saber a través de las noticias ni la historia nacional.  Estas personas nunca tendrán una escritura biográfica en Wikipedia para reconocer su grandeza evidente.  Sin embargo, ellos representan lo que es verdaderamente noble de mi país.  Quizás, el Capitán Armstrong fuera el más similar a estos héroes silenciosos.
   
Yet for every Neil Armstrong, one can find ten others not known but who embodied the same humility and decency of our greatest astronaut. These translations pay tribute to one such man. It is sad, truly sad, that so many, many people did not benefit from knowing this gentleman. Hopefully, these readings can give people some idea of the America I once knew. Por cada uno Neil Armstrong, se puede encontrar diez que son tan buenos y humildes como era el astronauta.  Las traducciones semanales se enfocan en un tal hombre.  Es triste que todo el mundo no pueda beneficiarse de este hombre de mi vida.  Espero que estas lecturas les den una idea de la América que se sabía hace cuarenta años.
   
Although tiresome anglophiles like to presume that the British Empire triumphed on the playing fields of Eton and Harrow – two of England’s great boarding schools – that idea is rather too elitist for me as a product of the MidWest. In any case, this thought has its kernel of truth. Truthfully, I was very lucky to attend a school of similar stature in the United States; the boarding school of President Kennedy and Governor Adlai Stevenson who had graduated some forty to fifty years before. Aunque les gustan a los anglófilos presumir que el Imperio Británico era ganado en los campos atléticos de Eton y Harrow (los dos colegios de internos ingleses los más prestigiosos), dicha opinión me parece como demasiado elitista para un estadounidense como yo.  Sin embargo, este sentimiento tiene una semilla de verdad adentro.  De hecho, asistí una tal escuela estadounidense como Eton o Harrow, la misma preparatoria de internos del presidente Kennedy cuarenta años antes.
   
But, it is not the attendance of people like Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush and Bush that makes these schools special. What really counts about schools like mine – where I went in ninth grade 650 miles away from home – is the enduring and over-riding influence of certain teachers. In a sense, they are the counterparts of those masters of Eton and Harrow who assured victory against Napoleon by strengthening the character of the students under their charge, many of whom later emerged into far more public profiles of leadership. While I am not one of those leaders, remarkable teachers made my life a better one. Pero, la asistencia de los presidentes Kennedy y ambos de Bush así como Franklin Roosevelt en dichas escuelas no las hace especiales.  Lo que es significativo de escuelas como la mía -- adónde fui cuando tenía quince años un mil kilómetros de mi familia -- es la influencia tan importante de algunos maestros.  Son los homólogos de esos maestros en el U.K. que ganó el Imperio por fortalecer el carácter de los estudiantes bajo su cargo -- esos niños del liderazgo emergente.  Por supuesto, no he sido un tal líder.  Sin embargo, me ha disfrutado de algunos grandes maestros.
   
In my case, no one did more for me than my cross-country coach, who actually never taught me a class (and, hence, we got along well) in four years, a generation ago. Still, this coach embodied, at least for me and for my life afterward, American greatness from an earlier time. In short, he was a “class act” in that he integrated erudition and humility into a gentlemanly code of honor. Nadie más de mi entrenador de campo atraviesa (en inglés, cross-country; o ‘cross’ en las traducciones) quien nunca me había enseñado una clase en cuatro años allí, hace una generación.  Sin embargo, este entrenador representaba -- por toda su vida (soy convencido) -- la grandeza estadounidense de una época anterior mediante su erudición, humildad y honor de caballero.
   
In today’s world, teeming with ferocious competition without a moment’s respite (or so it seems), the significance of this man’s quiet greatness fades into shadows of ageing memory and creeping nostalgia. Somewhere along the line, many of us (e.g., me) forget what really counts in the short lives granted to us. The influence of such boarding school proctors deepens with their constant, daily presence in our lives. Differing circumstances aside, we all have had those special people in our lives who cared about us and our futures. En nuestro actual mundo, lleno de competición feroz y continua, la significación de esta grandeza tranquila se retira en las sombras de nostalgia porque la gente se olvida qué es importante en esa corta vida dada a cada uno de nosotros.  La influencia de dichos maestros de los internados, se profundiza por su presencia constante e íntima.  Cualquier el caso, todos nosotros tenemos personas especiales en nuestras vidas quien se preocuparon de nosotros y nuestros futuros.
   
These translations of today are intended to salute those special men and women with affection and gratitude wherever they are at this moment. The translations are short and remember my unlikely mentor. Con las traducciones de hoy, vamos a saludarles y felicitarles, dondequiera que ellos se encuentran ahora.  Las traducciones son cortas sobre mi mentor de adolescencia:
  • a tribute from my school;
  • my personal remembrance; as well as,
  • two anecdotes on how this refined gentleman helped, so much more than he likely ever knew, make me who I am.
  • un elogio de mi escuela;
  • mi testimonio personal; así como,
  • dos historias sobre cómo este caballero refinado ayudaba a hacerme el hombre que soy en día.
This coach important to me, who showed those lucky enough to know him the very best that America could produce, died two weeks ago (December 2012). Thank you all for your patience in spoiling this old man (i.e., me). Unfortunately, people often do not remember these great and modest men and women, except in moments of sorrow. Yet I must advise you that, in the stories that follow, I once had the capacity to be a “bad boy”; if not a macho man, at least a macho mouth. Este hombre importante para mí, que representaba el mejor que los U.S.A. pueden producir, murió hace quince días. Quiero darles mis gracias por su paciencia en mimar a un anciano (es decir, yo).  Tristemente, no se oye de personas como mi mentor a menos que alguien tome el tiempo para saludarles y su grandeza olvidada.  Tengo que advertirles que, en las historias, yo podía ser un ‘bad boy’ (es decir, un mocoso, o 'macho-mouth') en ese entonces...

Former Choate Master, Mark Tuttle, Remembered
Choate Rosemary Hall; Wallingford, Connecticut; el 11 de enero 2013
Mark Tuttle, who taught mathematics and coached at the School for 33 years, died December 29, 2012 in Meredith, N.H. He was 89.  Born in Dover, N. H., on the oldest farm owned by a single family in the United States, Mark graduated from Harvard cum laude, and was captain of both the track and cross country teams there.

During World War II, he served in the Navy as an Ensign and then as a Lieutenant J.G. After the war, he taught at Exeter and at the St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis, Mo., then earned a master's degree in education from Boston University and came to Choate in 1955.

At Choate, he taught "any and probably all math courses offered here," a colleague remarked at his retirement in 1988. When he was awarded the William Shute Chair in 1981, the citation called him "the mathematician's mathematician." He also served for a time as head of the Math Department.

But he is equally well remembered as the longtime coach of cross country. In 1988, fellow coach Jim Davidson remembered that before meets, Mark told his teams "story after story about previous teams or runners," as well as anecdotes about opposing teams, coaches, and courses.

Gilbert Chapman '79 noted that Coach Tuttle "had the individual race results typed and posted in the locker room the day after a meet. He was truly a great coach and mentor, who had a huge impact on my life as a runner." 

A former Athletics Director, he was inducted into the Choate Rosemary Hall Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. He was also a dorm master for many years, and Third Form Boys Dean for more than a decade.

In Wallingford, Mark served on the town Conservation Committee and was a fundraiser for the United Way and the Red Cross, donating more than seven gallons of blood over the years.

An avid birder, he and his wife Marcia, who died in 1996, traveled extensively to watch birds, including to Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, and elsewhere; he recorded some 3,700 species.

He also enjoyed watching the Boston Red Sox. After he retired, the Tuttles moved to Cape Cod; Mark returned to New Hampshire for his final years.

Tribute to a gentleman who made modesty a virtue
Edward J. McDonnell III, CFA; CHOATE, clase de 1976
sobre FACEBOOK

Tired after a long week. Just read the very sad news of the death of my belovèd Cross Country coach at Choate. Mark Tuttle was one of the finest men I knew growing up. Such admiration was out of step with many of my class-mates because he was strict. Mr Tuttle never gave up on me, even when I was expelled and re-admitted. He still wrote a glowing recommendation for me for schools. There are those people in life to whom I owe so much that I know I will never pay down their spiritual largesse. You are a good man, Mr Tuttle, and I will miss your hallmark New England accent as enshrined in the old Will Ayres joke of, "On yeh mahhk. Get set. Stahhht!"

Una reminiscencia para mis buenos amigos de CIDESI
Ned McDonnell; Cuerpo de Paz; treinta-y-ocho años más tarde

It was the fall of 1974, a depressing time in the history of the United States.  President Nixon had been disgraced and only avoided imprisonment through the mercy shown by President Ford.  Viêt Nam was collapsing; the U.S. currency cratered for the first time in modern history.  America was in decline.

While the larger environment was gloomy, times in boarding school were not.  As a member of the Junior Varsity cross country team, often finishing at the head of the pack, I had hit my stride after two difficult years at boarding school where I had been terribly homesick.

We travelled to a rival prep school, the Hotchkiss School, for a race.  We were dominating Hotchkiss and three of us – the son of immigrants, the son of a prep schooled family and the son of a black ghetto – linked hands to take the first three places in unison in front of all of the parents at Hotchkiss visiting their little brats on Parents Weekend in Lakeville, Connecticut.

The parents looked depressed and then suddenly they got excited and started cheering.  To run in unison, we had had to run more slowly, but we were feeling very American in our unity amid diversity.  It occurred to one of us to turn around to see if these crazy parents had some reason to cheer.

There he was: a runner from Hotchkiss running hard, about to overtake us.  We let go of each other´s hand and dashed ahead to the finish line.  We easily triumphed.  The Hotchkiss parents were disappointed. 

My team-mates and I felt vindicated and a bit full of ourselves.  Suddenly, cutting right between us came the Choate cross-country coach, Mark Tuttle.  He went directly to the coach of the team from Hotchkiss.  He ceded the victory – rightfully – to the Hotchkiss runner because the three of us had effectively blocked him from the finish line.  None of us questioned that decision; we learned from it.

About a month later, we were travelling to a small New England town that was the home of Phillips Exeter, one of the largest and very best of the New England prep schools.  On the way, on a turnpike, our big blue ugly school-bus passed a rival team in a van.  Daring each other, three or four of us dropped trow and stuck our bare bottoms out the window to embarrass the other team.

Apparently, we succeeded.

The coach of that other team was not happy with our gesture of doubtful friendliness.  Since I wore a distinctive patch madras jacket (in November), the other coach was able to recognize me easily; better to dress down to sticking out.  After we arrived at Exeter, the other coach was speaking with Mr. Tuttle and pointing at me.  Mr. Tuttle called me over to them.

Scared though I was, I was prepared to be defiant, even macho, to show that I was not frightened, which, of course, I was.  I walked directly up to the two coaches.  Mr Tuttle asked me if I had displayed my buttocks to the rival team.  Of course, I replied that I had done so.  Mr Tuttle suggested I apologize to that coach.  So, I apologized.

Then he looked at me in the eye; or, in the eye, when I had the courage to look back, rather than at the floor.  Mr. Tuttle said firmly, with more disappointment than anger, “Being off the Choate campus does not permit you to stray beyond the bounds of politeness.”

All I could do was say, “Yes sir.”  He then smiled a little and gave me the heart to run that day’s race.  Later that year, when roaming the streets of Paris as a teenager, I realized that Dean Tuttle was my kind of guy.

 

Gran Maestro de CHOATE, El Sr. Mark Tuttle, se recuerda
Choate Rosemary Hall; Wallingford, Connecticut; el 11 de enero 2013
El Sr. Mark Tuttle, que enseñó matemáticas y entrenó en CHOATE durante treinta y tres años, fallecido el 29 de diciembre de 2012 de Meredith, New Hampshire. El Sr. Tuttle tenía ochenta y nueve años. Nacido en Dover, New Hampshire, en la más antigua granja pertenece a un sola familia en los Estados Unidos (desde alrededor del año 1637), el Sr. Tuttle se graduó de la Universidad de Harvard cum laude (con mérito académico), y fue capitán de ambos equipos del atletismo y del campo traviesa en Cambridge.

Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el Sr. Tuttle sirvió en la Armada de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica como subalterno y después como teniente. Después de la guerra, él enseñó en Exeter (la Academia de Philips en Exeter, New Hampshire) y en la Escuela Campestre de Saint Louis (en San Luis, Missouri). Luego, el Sr. Tuttle obtuvo una maestría en educación de la Universidad de Boston (en Massachusetts) y llegó a CHOATE (en Wallingford, Connecticut) en 1955.

En CHOATE, el Decano Tuttle había enseñado "cualquier y probablemente todos los cursos de matemáticas que se ofrecen aquí", comentó un colega en su retiro en 1988. Cuando se le concedió la 'Cátedra de William Shute' en 1981, la citación le llamó "el matemático de matemáticos". También sirvió durante un tiempo como jefe del Departamento de Matemáticas.

Sin embargo, el Sr. Tuttle es igual de bien, tal vez mejor, recordado como el entrenador de campo a través por muchos años. En 1988, su entrenador compañero, el Sr. Jim Davidson, recordó que antes de cada carrera, Mark dijo a sus equipos "historia tras historia acerca de los equipos anteriores o los corredores", así como anécdotas de los equipos contrarios, entrenadores y cursos.

El Sr. Gilberto (´Gib´) Chapman (clase de 1979 de CHOATE) señaló que el Coach Tuttle "siempre había los resultados de las carreras individuales escrito y publicado en el vestuario el día después de una carrera. Era verdaderamente un gran entrenador y mentor, quien tuvo un gran impacto en mi vida como corredor."

Un director de Atletismo, el Sr. Tuttle fue incluido en el Choate Rosemary Hall Atletismo Salón de la Fama en 2000. Él era también un maestro dormitorio por muchos años, y el decano de los niños de CHOATE en la tercera forma (igual al noveno grado) durante más de una década.

En Wallingford, el Sr. Tuttle formó parte del Comité de Conservación para el pueblito y era un recaudador de fondos para United Way (consorcio de organizaciones sin fines de lucro) y la Cruz Roja, donando más de treinta litros de sangre a lo largo de los años.

Un ávido ornitólogo, el Sr. Tuttle y su esposa, la señora Marcia, que murió hace dieciséis años, viajaron extensamente para observar aves, incluyendo a Canadá, al Caribe, en África y otros lugares donde habían registraron unos 3.700 especies.

También disfrutaba viendo a los Redsox de Boston (equipo de béisbol). Después de que él se retiró de CHOATE, el Sr. y la Sra. Tuttle se mudaron a Barnstable, Cape Cod (Massachusetts). Luego se mudó a New Hampshire para sus últimos años después la muerte de su esposa bien amada de cuarenta-y-siete años.

Tribute to a gentleman who made modesty a virtue
Edward J. McDonnell III, CFA; CHOATE, clase de 1976
sobre FACEBOOK
Cansado después de una larga semana. Acabo de leer la noticia muy triste de la muerte de mi querido entrenador de Cross Country en Choate. El Sr. Mark Tuttle fue uno de los mejores hombres que yo conocía en mis años creciendo. Tanta admiración estaba fuera de paso con muchos de mis compañeros porque era estricto. El Sr. Tuttle nunca me abandonó, ni siquiera cuando fui expulsado y readmitido. Todavía escribió una entusiasta recomendación para mí para las escuelas. Hay personas en la vida a quien le debo tanto que sé que nunca podré pagarles por su generosidad espiritual. Usted es un buen hombre, Mark Tuttle, y voy a extrañar su distintivo acento de Nueva Inglaterra, consagrado en nuestro vieja broma, "On yeh mahhk. Get set. Stahhht!" (es decir, "Alerten. Preparen. ¡Vayan!" pero en con una pronunciación única).

Una reminiscencia para mis buenos amigos de CIDESI
Ned McDonnell; Cuerpo de Paz; treinta-y-ocho años más tarde

Era el otoño de 1974, un tiempo deprimente en la historia de los U.S.A. El presidente Nixon había caído en desgracia y fue capaz de evitar la prisión sólo por la misericordia mostrada por el presidente Ford (un gran presidente estadounidense que era también, como Mark Tuttle, humilde). Viet Nam se derrumbaba y la moneda estadounidense se hacía lo mismo por primera vez en su historia. América estaba en decadencia.

Si bien el entorno más grande era sombrío, momento en mi colegio de internos no era. Como miembro del equipo junior de campo a través (‘cross’), a menudo terminando en la cabeza de la manada, yo había alcanzado mi paso después de dos años difíciles en la escuela (que fue mil kilómetros de mi familia), donde había sido terriblemente nostálgico.

Viajamos a una escuela preparatoria rival, la Escuela Hotchkiss, para correr una carrera. Estábamos dominando a Hotchkiss y tres de nosotros - un hijo de inmigrantes, un hijo de una familia educada por colegios de internos y un hijo de un gueto negro - tomamos la mano del otro para ganar los tres primeros lugares en unísono frente a todos los padres en Hotchkiss, visitando a sus mocosos, durante el ´Fin de Semana de Padres' en la aldea (¡con un solo semáforo!) de Lakeville, Connecticut.

Como se esperaba, los padres en Hotchkiss parecían deprimidos y esto deleitó a los tres de nosotros, mano a mano. De pronto, se emocionaron y comenzaron gritar fuertemente. Para ejecutar al unísono, habíamos tenido que correr más lento, pero nos sentíamos muy americano en nuestra unidad en la diversidad. Se le ocurrió a uno de nosotros para dar la vuelta para ver si estos padres locos tenían alguna razón para festejar.

Y, por supuesto, allí estaba él: un atleta de Hotchkiss corriendo duro, a punto de alcanzarnos. Dejamos ir el uno al otro la mano y corrimos delante hacia la línea de meta. Aun así, triunfamos. Los padres en Hotchkiss estaban decepcionados y ¡por buena razón!

Mis compañeros y yo nos sentimos reivindicados y bastante llenos de nosotros mismos. De repente, caminando rápido entre nosotros, llegó el entrenador de ‘cross’ en Choate, el Sr. Mark Tuttle. Fue directamente al entrenador del equipo de Hotchkiss. Él cedió la victoria - con razón - al corredor de Hotchkiss porque los tres de nosotros había efectivamente le impidió desde la línea de meta. Ninguno de nosotros dudamos la decisión; de hecho, nos enteramos de ella.

Alrededor de un mes más tarde, estábamos de viaje a un pequeño pueblo de Nueva Inglaterra, que era el sitio de Exeter, uno de los más grandes y mejores de las escuelas de preparación en toda Nueva Inglaterra. En el camino, en una carretera (I-95), nuestro gran azul feo autobús escolar pasó delante un equipo rival en una camioneta. Atreverse entre sí, tres o cuatro de nosotros bajamos los pantalones y nos sacamos nuestras nalgas desnudas fuera la ventana para avergonzar al otro equipo.

Evidentemente, tuvimos éxito.

El entrenador de ese otro equipo de 'cross' no estaba contento con nuestro gesto de amistad dudosa. Como yo llevaba un distintivo tweed a cuadros chaqueta, el otro entrenador era capaz de reconocerme. Después habíamos llegado a Exeter, el otro entrenador estaba hablando con el señor Tuttle y señalando hacia mí. Sr. Tuttle me llamó para unirme con ellos.

Asustado como estaba, yo estaba dispuesto a ser desafiante, incluso machista, para demostrar, con una valentía falsa, que yo no tenía miedo. Caminé directamente hasta los dos entrenadores. El Sr. Tuttle me preguntó si me había mostrado mis nalgas al equipo rival. Cogido in fraganti, le respondí que yo lo había hecho. El Sr. Tuttle me sugirió pedir disculpas a ese entrenador. Por lo tanto, me disculpé.

Luego el Sr. Tuttle me miró en el ojo.  Miré al Sr. Tuttle en el ojo, o bien, cuando tuve el coraje de no mirar hacia atrás a él, y no hacia mis pies. Sr. Tuttle dijo, con firmeza y con más decepción que la ira, "Estar fuera del campus de Choate no te permite actuar más allá de los estándares de la cortesía."

Lo único que podía hacer era decir: "Sí, señor". Luego sonrió un poco y me dio el corazón para funcionar en la gran carrera para ese día. Más tarde en ese mismo fin-de-semana, él recontó la historia con una risa a mis padres, en Connecticut con mi hermana.  Más tarde en ese año académico, cuando estaba vagando por las calles de París como un adolescente perdido, me di cuenta de que el Decano Tuttle, mucho como mi propio padre, sería  algún día mi tipo de hombre.

 







 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Letter 107: Walk down a stormy lane of memory

Security Cooperation: a ‘Plan Colombia’ for Iraq?                      

Introduction: current situation.  The current rush-to-consensus on applying Plan Colombia may prove over time to be pre-mature and a product of group-think.1 In working with the Iraqi government (GOI) to create a “sovereign, stable, and self-reliant” nation, the U.S. government (USG) must assist and support the GOI in avoiding three national catastrophes:
  1. a regional war between Arabs and Persians fought on Iraqi soil;
  2. a civil war between the Arabs and Kurds; and,
  3. a continuing relapse into civil conflict creating a culture of chronic conflict.2
The danger of the third point is clear: half of the failed states that emerge from civil war relapse into (often-times bloodier) conflict within ten years.  Iraq may be starting to relapse.  Why?  
  1. Iraq’s contentious factions remain trapped in a "security dilemma", complicating the prospects of long-term conciliation.  A security dilemma exists when paramilitary and other armed groups outside the law tend not to surrender weapons during programs of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (“DDR”).3 The dilemma lies in a militia being defenseless in the face of a rival that has retained its firepower through DDR.
  2. Specifically, in Iraq, we do not know what the Ministry of Interior really did to weed out the death squads brought in during Bayan Jabr's tenure of 2005 and 2006 or thought to be lingering in the Ministry of Defence.4  
  3. The Norwegian government and the Iraqi Ministry of Planning have documented an absolute surfeit of weaponry dispersed throughout the extra-legal fighting elements.  Any actual surrender of arms is likely to be nominal.  The presence of pervasive poverty sharpens the temptation to resort to violence as a means of dispute resolution.
  4. The Maliki government has squandered the reconciliation started by the U.S. program of funding the Sunni ‘Awareness Movement’ with concerned local citizens (a/k/a CLCs).  This surge-related program protected the Sunni population from possible sectarian genocide and, more importantly, began bringing disaffected elements into the political mainstream while establishing the fundaments of community policing.
Community policing re-frames the current insurgency into a crime wave -- not an insurgency -- effectively to cut these murderers off at the source.  Whether the rationale is ethno-sectarian or economic, people who kill people are still criminals.  Neighborhood residents are the best eyes-and-ears for the police, as proven by the Kurdish cities.

Review of Plan Colombia as a Template.  Colombia and Iraq share evident similarities -- high numbers of internally displaced people; drug (or illegal oil) trafficking as a source of funding for militias; widespread corruption; human rights abuses; vulnerable oil infrastructure in need of protection; and, widespread homicide.  A few crucial differences, however, trump these circumstantial parallels.  Additionally, aside from recent tactical gains against revolutionary groups, the ultimate success of Plan Colombia remains contested.5
 
Plan Colombia was basically a de-novo militarization by the USG of the counter-insurgency in Colombia.  Over six years, the United States invested $5-6 billion in military aid, a significant portion of which funded the fumigation of millions of acres of arable lands producing illicit cash crops; not so in Iraq.  Over a six year period, the USG allocated $18 billion to the Iraq Security Forces Fund.  Thus, Iraq’s equivalent to Plan Colombia has likely taken place already.
 
With the funding and equipping to date of the Ministries of Interior and Defence (MOI and MOD) as well as the 100,000 CLCs exceeding $18 billion, $3 billion (or Iraq’s population-based equivalent to the aid under Plan Colombia’s) of funding over six years should prove to be superfluous.  Such a situation would be like Noah, on the thirty-ninth day of rains, walking topside with a pitcher of water to tend to some plants on deck.  Instead, such a USG posture would more likely spoil the prospects for long-term stability as U.S. policies would be perceived – as they already are by many – as taking sides in a civil conflict.
 
Training more men to kill other men, as suggested by applying Plan Colombia, will not enhance the rule of law in Iraq.  The current police force exceeds sustainable levels; the police stations and other infrastructure in place can not handle the levels of forces using them.  One of every 25-30 Iraqis is in the security forces (i.e., the military and police; or, ISF), meaning more police per population than any of the world's five most dangerous countries.  At the height of Plan Colombia, there were -- at least -- one hundred people for every member of the security forces.
 
Iraq lacks the extra-governmental institutions reaching all levels of its society.  Colombia has the Catholic Church and many mature peace-oriented non-governmental organizations (NGOs), allied with wealthier benefactors in the U.S. and Europe, to build a climate of reconciliation that can supplant a culture of conflict.6 Iraq’s NGOs are nascent and under-funded.  Lastly, U.S. interests (i.e., the war on drugs and “nar-corruption” sweeping Northward from Colombia) remain more immediate and vital with respect to Colombia than they do with Iraq.7
 
A (Not-So) New Way for a New Day.  The ideal end-state toward which U.S. can point Iraq includes the following elements:
  1. police primacy through democratic, communally-based law enforcement;
  2. an end to ISF-sponsored violence against prisoners and detainees including torture, false arrest and neglect during custody;
  3. widespread enforcement for the protection of fundamental human rights; and,
  4. ethno-sectarian tolerance strengthened through mutual support.
These elements define President Obama's ideal of “an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and selfreliant”.  It may be prudent not to assume an eventual stay-behind U.S. force.  Such a residual force would be unwelcome and, given its small number and attenuated lines of communication (LOC), far more vulnerable.  A possible exception might be small U.S. Army training contingents in Kirkuk, Baghdad and Basra.  These units would gather intelligence while preventing potential regional peace-keepers -- about 20,000 in all (if requested) -- from indulging in a land-grab of Iraq.  Such an oversight force would tap into the peace-keepers’ LOC.
 
This alternative approach minimizes the constraints mentioned earlier by establishing a postkinetic partnership between Iraq and the U.S. starting in 2012. This alliance will aim for peaceful co-existence within Iraqi society to relieve the poverty and essential service shortages that now detract from the GOI's legitimacy and rule of law.  The Office of Security Cooperation (OSC) would ideally consist of a security assistance component (8-13 people) supplemented by liaisons with civilian agencies (27-32 people) harnessing USG and NGO-sponsored resources.  
 
Toward an Alternate Legacy.  A legacy of goodwill counts in the long-run.  One U.S. approach could leverage each uniformed military trainer deployed from the U.S., U.N. or NATO (about 3,000 in all) with at least five field-workers drawn from the Peace Corps, USAID, DFID, diverse NGOs and the Iraqi population.  These volunteers and the uniformed military would cross-train each other in grass-roots economic development and civil-military operations.  
 
Iraqis could then re-build their villages and their lives in practical ways. In the Iraqi mind, these basic benefits would gradually begin to associate the United States or the West with reconciliation and prosperity.8 The USG would strive, through this radically different OSC concept sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, to impart a legacy of democratic policing, law-&-order, human rights and communal self-improvement.9  The annual cost of this legacy-building would total less than 10% of the average yearly ISFF burden.
 
REFERENCES
1. Irving Janis; Yale & Berkeley; 1972: who did extensive work on the subject, defined it as:  A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink) 
 
2. Paul Collier; Oxford University 2004: “Around half of all civil wars are due to post-conflict relapses…The risks of conflict relapse are very high during the first post-conflict decade – typically around 50%.”  (http://www.un.org/esa/documents/Development.and.Conflict2.pdf) 
 
3. Matthew Kirwin; Michigan State, 2006 “There are several factors that have led to the conflagration of a security dilemma in Cote d’Ivoire. First, a weak state and economic crisis compelled certain groups to revert to a primordial attachment to ethnic and religious background, which supersedes national identity and creates intense power struggles. This reversion to ethnic identity caused the parties to identify each other as offensive threats. Due to the dire economic situation in states such as Cote d’Ivoire, the struggle for the control of resources has become intense. “Any economic improvement by one ethnic group is frequently perceived as an example by the center: the ethnic security dilemma has an economic component, as all sorts of motives and fears are read into any change in the economic status of each ethnic group (Saideman 1998: 135).” Therefore the distribution of resources to one ethnic group and not another decreases the security of latter and increases the security of the former. Control and distribution of resources is primarily the responsibility of the government. Political appointments therefore confer power to the appointee and his entourage, which in turn can be interpreted as a security threat to certain groups. At one point other ethnic groups assumed that the government of Gbagbo and his ethnic group had a stranglehold on the means of entry into the police and gendarmerie.” (http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol15num1/kirwin.pdf) 
 
4. James C. Jones; U.S. Institute of Peace 2009; Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War (page-365) “Indeed doubts exist about the degree of real paramilitary [i.e., ‘government coddled militias’] demobilization.  Recent reports of the emergence of new groups, or reemergence of old ones, throughout the country.  Moreover, investigations as well as informed testimony under the controversial Justice and Peace Law have revealed disturbing links between lawmakers – most of them [President] Uribe supporters [in favor of Plan Colombia’s militarized program] – and paramilitaries.  And there is strong evidence of widespread paramilitary penetration of governmental institutions.” Please note that the writing of Dr Jones is likely to be biased against the government of Colombia (GOC); he was under investigation by the GOC for possible ties with leftist guerillas opposing the rightist paramilitaries.  The Department of State gives the GOC higher marks but states in its 2009 narcotics report: “The GOC does not, as a matter of government policy, encourage or facilitate the illicit production or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. While criminal organizations are greatly weakened, concerns remain over their corrupting influences. In September 2008, two CNP [i.e., Colombian National Police] generals, Antonio Gomez Mendez and Marco Pedreros, were fired as a result of alleged ties to narco-paramilitary leader, Daniel “El Loco” Barrera. Separately, several members of the GOC were found to have supported right-wing paramilitary groups. Seventy members of the 2006-2010 Congress and 15 current and former governors have been investigated in the “para-political” scandal, with 34 congressmen and eight governors jailed as a result of the aggressive investigations.” (http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2009/vol1/116520.htm)
Deborah Haynes; The Times of London, 2009: “….in January the human rights office of the Defence Ministry found more than 1,000 detainees at three centres in Ninevah, northern Iraq, including about 550 who had orders issued for their release…Many prisoners were held in cramped and unhygienic conditions. More than 700 were eventually freed.” (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6737870.ece)  
 
5. Associated Content News; “Top 5 Nations Where Safety is Last” 2007: “Colombia. Infamous for its guerillas, illegal cocaine "industry", and corrupt government, no wonder Colombia ranks as ‘The Most Dangerous Country in the World’. Bombings targeting civilians are common and terrorism is a way of life for most citizens who have grown accustomed to the chaos. It has a high rating for kidnappings with ransoms, with businesspeople, tourists, journalists, and scientists being frequent targets, though no one is actually excluded from kidnappings. Hot spots include ATMs, taxis, restaurants, and simply walking down the street. Those who try to resist robberies usually get shot and killed. Bogota, Baranquilla, Cartagena, and Medellin are statistically categorized as the most dangerous cities, with Medellin holding the title of the Drug Capital and ‘Most Dangerous City in the World’. With 11 murders a day in a city of merely 2 million, its murder rates is quintupled that of New York City. In recent years, murder rates in Colombia have dropped, but not enough to pass the title to South Africa. Though what was previously mentioned [falling homicide rates] may be misinformation, as critics have accused President Uribe of manipulating the crime [rate], making Colombia seem safer than it really is. What is behind all the heinous crimes? An expanding drug market and a plethora of terrorist groups, and a government that does nothing about it. Colombia averages 47 murders a day in a nation of 45 million, giving it the crown of ‘Most Dangerous’.”  
(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/159175/top_5_most_dangerous_countries_in_the.html?cat=9
U.S. Office on Colombia; 2009 “The…Working Group on Extrajudicial Executions has identified new modalities of extrajudicial executions where killings are no longer publicly reported, as happened in the case of false positives, but rather hidden, with measures taken to conceal the identity of those responsible. One example is the increase in cases of forced disappearances of human rights defenders and social leaders, with the person being subsequently killed and put into unidentified graves in the majority of these cases. In many of these cases members of the armed forces are alleged to have been involved either directly, through cooperation, or at the least through acquiescence with paramilitaries.  According to a recent report by the National Commission for the Search for Disappeared People, between January 1, 2007 and October 21, 2008 alone, there was a total of 1,686 people forcefully disappeared.” (http://www.usofficeoncolombia.com/uploads/application-pdf/2009-%20June%20EJE%20memo.pdf) 
 
6. Arturo Carrillo; U.S. Institute of Peace 2009; Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War (pages 148-149) “As a result, by 2000, the Colombian non-governmental human rights movement was a critical player…Colombian NGOs had powerful allies in the Colombian Congress as well as among foreign governments, intergovernmental organizations…[e.g., U.N.]…and, of course, international NGOs….” 
 
7. Bruce Bagley University of Miami; 2001: “During most of the 1980s the Medellin cartel dominated the Colombian drug trade and its principal trafficking routes passed through (or over) the Caribbean into the United States via south Florida and elsewhere along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard. As these "traditional" smuggling routes came under increasing pressure from U.S. drug enforcement over the second half of the decade, a gradual shift away from the Caribbean routes to new ones passing through Central America and Mexico and across the U.S. southwest border took place. By the early 1990s 70 to 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled out of Colombia entered the United States from Mexico while only 20 to 30 percent continued to come in via the Caribbean.” (http://clas.berkeley.edu/Events/conferences/Colombia/workingpapers/working_paper_bagley.html) 
 
8. Eugene Burdick and William Lederer; The Ugly American; 1958   “But despite the dual meaning, the ‘ugly American’ of the book title fundamentally does refer to the plain-looking engineer Atkins, who lives with the local people, comes to understand their needs, and offers genuinely useful assistance with small-scale projects such as the development of a simple bicycle-powered water pump. It is argued in the book that the Communists are successful because they practice tactics similar to Atkins'.  According to an article published in Newsweek in May 1959, the ‘real’ Ugly American was identified as an ICA technician named Otto Hunerwadel, who served in Burma from 1949 until his death in 1952.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_American) 
 
9. Bonnie Bucqueroux; Michigan State, 2004 “By embracing strategies that decentralize and personalize police service, police departments that have adopted the community policing philosophy have been able to engage communities in comprehensive, collaborative, community-based problem-solving aimed at crime, fear of crime, and disorder. Many efforts involve assigning individual officers or teams to specific beat areas, to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility. The marriage of police and community brings together the power of the formal criminal justice system with the informal social control that communities can exert. Police departments have also been a catalyst in forging new partnerships with other professional and civic institutions (municipal agencies, non-profit groups, the business community, schools, and the faith community).“
(http://www.policing.com/articles/rcj.html)
 
Ned McDonnell; 'Letter to President George W. Bush, 2006': “The three themes of this rationale – crime prevention, national sovereignty and economic development – are based on precedents in…New York City…The Ministry of Interior has been infiltrated by militias backed by Iran...Trustworthy policemen, vetted and approved by local inhabitants, will empower Iraqi citizens to turn over the insurgents who are nothing more than people enjoying the blood-sport of – and financial gain from – killing, destruction, kidnapping and mayhem.  This plan will save time, energy and money which can then be better allocated to Afghanistan to complete Operation Enduring Freedom in support of a tenuous democratic government….”

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Letter 106 to Friends and Familiares: thoughts on the Charle Hebdo murders

The recent article in the New Yorker about the murders of admittedly distasteful journalists in Paris (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/blame-for-charlie-hebdo-murders) brings up so much so quickly. To me the defining statement of that short-but-sweat article is, "Islam today includes a substantial minority of believers who countenance, if they don’t actually carry out, a degree of violence in the application of their convictions that is currently unique."  I disagree with the size of this malevolent minority.

My sense is that it is smaller; it does not take many people to wreak havoc and intimidate fellow congregants. The key word is "currently". It is difficult for Westerners to understand the lethal power of religious wars since we are three or four centuries beyond them; indeed, the two great splits in Xianity are five hundred and a thousand years in our past. There are three inflammatory divisions here, two within Islam:
  1. At its start, Islam was a reaction to "corrupted Judaism", much as the Calvinist reformation was to corrupted Catholicism.
  2. Within Islam has been the schism between the Sunnis and Shi´ites (vaguely analogous to intra-Xian arguments over graven images and trans-substantiation).
  3. There has been a pervasive fear since the 1970s that there would someday be a clash, not so much of civilizations, but between poorer regions and wealthier ones (the North-South conflict).
There are two other concerns I have, one specifically with the Holy Qu’ran (a beautiful and majestic work) and the other with the history of Islam as a bedrock of social values.  It is likely that the Holy Qu’ran has no more violence in it than the Tanakh (the Old Testament). The subtle distinction that concerns me is the temporal difference between the two. The violence recounted in the Old Testament was a distant and redacted historical narrative of events occurring centuries before.

As such, descriptions of the violently triumphant arrival and mastery of the Promised Land by the tribes of Jacob were not intended as current “how-to” instructions on getting even while getting mad. We all know of the radical Israeli Jews, often living in settlements, who condone violence against Palestineans for just these historically attenuated reasons. They hold little currency with their fellow faithful; as a small minority of a tiny religious population, they are too few to be taken seriously.

Muhamad, on the other hand, was conveying God’s wishes to a beleaguered group of devout followers who found themselves in danger of being wiped out. Thus, the Prophet advocated resorting to violence in the present to survive. This defensive doctrine evolved into a justification for imposing the religion upon others when his new tribe was on a roll. With that text forever being in the present (not pluperfect) tense, a potentially tragic resonance remains available to violent personalities looking for an excuse.

Second, as corrupt as the Churches of Constantinople and Rome might have become, they represented a core belief around which believers and dissenters oriented themselves and centered their societies, values and debates. When the Mongols smashed Baghdad into a million pieces in the mid-thirteenth century, Islam’s core was ripped out, leaving far-flung communities of the gutted caliphate to mutate into culturally conditioned, at-times virulent, off-shoots.

So, at least in my fettered (¿fetid?) mind, none of these strands in isolation can explain the current wave of the murderous ideology described in the New Yorker. The great majority -- and I mean on the magnitude of 98% -- of the Muslims brush aside these ideas and live for a better life for their children, their kin and their countries. For example, the doctrine of jihad, for these warm-hearted people, is not a call to conquer others but to subdue their self-will. Perhaps I am reading my values into the equation here, but these people are as friendly and peaceable as anybody else I know.

Yet, we live in a post-nihilistic global culture that segments people through the social media and inter-net; the world remains awash with guns. These themes -- and others -- are conflating into a wave of violence as unfamiliar to us as it is uncivilized to almost everybody else. Remember, if 98% of 1.2 billion people live peaceably while the remainder insist on violence, the world has twenty-four million people who embody a credo of homicidal hatred looking for a reason. This sad phenomenon is hardly phenomenal as another article on the murders argues persuasively (http://tabletmag.com/scroll/188143/je-suis-charlie).

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Letter 105 to friends and familiares: Yes, I am a Republican; but still unsure enough not to be a bully.

Republican friends believe I have slipped into political apostasy.  They have a point, given my frequent defenses of President Obama, usually with a lame disclaimer of my not liking many of his policies. Truthfully, I believe the President did act within his authority on immigration. Yet, the G.O.P. has a convincing narrative by some Republicans that his action was motivated by not wanting to concede the upper hand to the Republican-led House of Representatives and, soon, the Senate.
 
My conservatism remains intact. There are many policies I dislike of this Administration, while I admire the man at the head of it. Here are six policies – two foreign and four domestic – that I have never really liked, nor ever will. While previous essays cited are often dated in their examples, analogies and details, they are based on certain fundamental beliefs that place me firmly on the right. Yes, my principles differ from those of liberals; no question.
 
President Barack Obama deserves respect from each and every American for having beliefs in the first place. Yes, they often get bogged down in the partisan free-for-all that now seems to pass for the people’s government. After all, in my own case at least, I have to admit that I am far from the smartest person in any room. That may sound silly and presumptive, but it is not. There is always the possibility that those principles so obvious to me may not be so obvious to others; they may even be wrong.
 
Abortion on demand. People know why I am a right-to-life conservative  (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2012/01/letter-52-to-friends-and-familiares.html). Kulturkampf aside, we should maintain a large margin of compassion for the hellish dilemma weighing down on decent, often poorer, women. Nevertheless, the notion of foetal viability is an intellectual hoax and I fear that part of the demoralization of American politics and culture came out of Viêt Nam and Roe v. Wade. Coercing religious institutions with the corrosive abortion-on-demand ideology violates the Constitution and further trivializes the sacred value of the life taken.
 
The second bank bail-out. The first bail-out was not a great idea but President Bush basically had four days to react decisively to prevent a collapse of the financial markets. President Obama had four months. The two situations were qualitatively different. Senator McCain articulated a better approach in 2008 that would have been easier to implement, less costly and far less intrusive. That program, at least as I perceived it at the time, would have held people accountable as well as, cleaned up the mess made by a minority of unethical bankers and a broken system
(http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2013/09/this-is-yet-anotherpolitical-letter-home.html).
 
The Affordable Care Act.  True, there is a case to be made that President Obama brokered a compromise against which the Republicans turned their backs. Nevertheless, the mode of resolving the underlying question of a right to health-care and weaving it into the larger body politic was wrong (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2012/05/letter-56-thoughts-on-health-care.html). Additionally, the deceptions to get the law passed and implemented only under-cut and already fragile and unbalanced consensus.
 
Economic stimulus.  The Stimulus package was a blunderbuss approach to the Great Recession that failed to lay the foundation for manufacturing and its attendant wealth and job creation. Yet the infrastructure crumbles and corruption is detectable. The manner of financing this corrupted measure through quantitative easing has bankrupted the country. Sadly, we will only get it when the baseless dollars -- the specious specie -- flood home from overseas. Lastly, combined with the coercion of the A.C.A., this piping tepid approach has turned the Great Recession into a depression for young people; call the millennials the "tossed generation".
 
The Middle East. The President’s current policy in Iraq has been correct and sober-minded (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2014/06/letter-102-to-friends-and-familiares.html). Yet, the situation ought never have degenerated to this extreme. Inaction in the face of power grabs in Iraq in 2010 plus the unmitigated slaughter of Syrians and the infiltration of refugee camps in and around Syria by ISIS – when inexpensive means were readily available to respond – has pushed a difficult regional transition into becoming a possible flash-point for world war (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2013/08/letter-83-thoughts-on-syria-case-for.html).

Compounding these failed polices has been the use of drones to assassinate unindicted terrorists  in a manner clearly outside the laws of men and war (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2013/02/letter-75-doj-white-paper-for-black.html).
 
Russia and Ukraine. This is a complicated question, since Ukraine’s Eastern borders were drawn as arbitrarily by one colonial power as had the dotted lines across the Levant had been imposed by two others.  There are genuine questions of sovereignty to be resolved. The means employed by President Putin and tacitly condoned by President Obama, however, are wrong for Ukraine, Eastern Europe and, ultimately, Russia herself (http://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2014/03/letters-to-friends-and-family-94.html).  President Obama's mismanagement in this case rivals that of President Clinton in the Balkans.

As Yugoslavia crumbled into chaos, President Clinton's half-hearted measures and sanctions hurt the wrong people and managed only to harden a tin-horn dictator into a slaughter-house operator. In the case of Russian aggression, appeasement and procrastination have only made a bad situation worse and whetted the appetite of an aggressor, as the Baltics and Poland are finding out these days.  One should note that Unkraine, each of the Baltics, Hungary and Poland have been steadfast allies in Iraq and / or Afghanistan. Pulling missile defenses and conceding outcomes too readily to the Putineer by President Obama hardly seems to return their favor.

Toward a creative and inclusive dialectic. Yes, there is little doubt in my way of thinking that these and other policies from the Administration are bad for the country in the long-run. In some cases they chip away at our singular experiment in governance: due-process, the rule of law and the courage to do the right thing when it really counts. What is difficult for my more liberal friends to argue is that President Obama was simply doing what he could in the face of thorny dilemmas with no visible alternatives.

Not at all true. With the possible exceptions of health-care and abortion, each of these policies had better alternatives at the time proposed by other mainstream leaders. Within these two issues, the use of the law to enforce an ideology on long-established religiously based and funded hospitals is very, very dangerous.  That said, however, there is a palpable racism in much of the vitriol hurled the President’s way While these policies are headed toward popular repudiation, delighting in President Obama’s failure is even worse.

Such an attitude of political vindictiveness makes compromise harder to achieve and fails to recognize that critics have it easy in a policy debate; that is, changelings have the intellectual burden-of-proof when they attack a status quo. It is easier to attack a status-quo than to defend it. Yet the burden-of-proof needs to be pragmatic: one that permits a resolution of a debate even of morally ambiguous situations, like that of Ferguson, Missouri. Because the officer was not indicted does not nullify the contention that the police are open to criticism for often using excessive force, especially against minorities.
 
Critics tend to compare the best case scenarios inside their heads to the often disappointing policies carried out in plain sight. People seem to forget that many of these now-reviled policies emerged earlier as politically poignant and timely best case scenarios in the heads of other bright and well-intentioned thinkers. Thus, the foreign policies of President Obama, ones that I often see as feckless, may very well be avoiding unacceptable levels bloodshed that my best-case scenarios would otherwise impose.
 
Debilitating personal attacks, especially those that are unfounded, help no one, especially Republicans, as we now bear the onus of “manning up” with a new, better and attainable contract with America, one that is far-reaching, flexible and durable. We need a new consensus toward compromise, badly.