War as a Distraction

What do you do when you have 50% unemployment, your regional allies are no longer tenable for one reason or another and life for average citizens is mired in hopelessness, suffering without any end in sight, dire poverty and a government that seems only able to the meager budget it has on munitions and their deployment? Add a neighbor that you have richly and continuously defined as the devil himself, that your basic political charter was born of destroying this devil, and you have an estimated ten thousand rockets and missiles (incapable of specific targeting), the ability to sacrifice your own citizens (men, women and children) as bloodied victims with global sympathy for the images of carnage you are able to generate. This defines that portion of Palestine between Israel and Egypt, where 1.7 Palestinians (almost all Sunnis) live: the Gaza strip.

As Hamas lost the sympathetic Muhammad Morsi’s fundamentalist Sunni Muslim Brotherhood as an ally-government in neighboring Egypt, as they had to distance themselves from the Sunni-killer Bashar al-Assad (Alawite/Shiite) regime in Syria, and as Israel clamped down around Gaza’s natural borders, Hamas was running out of options and rapidly approaching a “nothing left to lose” scenario (“option zero”). Struggling for economic subsistence, recently Hamas even agreed to a “unity government” with West Bank Palestine’s “Fatah,” Hamas’ moderate political rival, but the concessions angered many in Hamas and generated virtually no economic support for the Strip.

Gazan leadership opted to spend what money they had building lots of exceptionally well-engineered, steel and concrete reinforced tunnels (one is pictured above) into Israel, gathering as many rockets as they could find and training soldiers for war with Israel. As its 40,000 government workers struggled without pay, Gaza seemed cornered with no place to go. The Israel blockade and the closure of the Egyptian border decimated the Gazan economy. If the leadership were going to maintain any semblance of political power, they had to prove to the local population that their focus on military counter-measures against Israel would somehow lead to a better life for average Gazan Palestinians.

Quite willing to store arms in classrooms, station rocket launchers near schools and hospitals or in heavily populated residential areas, Hamas was able to generate reams of photographs and video footage of civilian casualties, particularly children, attributed to the “overkill” of the Israeli military’s response to the two thousand or so rockets Hamas launched into Israel. Meanwhile, while Israel lost soldiers (most in scrambled Hamas attacks through those notorious tunnels), its highly effective anti-rocket defense system (anti-rocket missiles known as the Iron Dome) worked so well that there were no off-setting hordes of Israeli civilian casualties to counter the sympathy-generating Gazan bloody images.

The sympathy based on this imagery alone has generated harsh global criticism of Israel – which asked the question of “what happened to the complete demilitarization of Gaza that Hamas agreed to in a treaty” that simply fell on deaf international ears. The United Nations even hinted that there might be subsequent war crimes prosecuted against Israeli commanders and politicians as a result of the moves that the Jewish state simply views as a path to its own survival.

When Ben Gurian International Airport – Israel’s commercial air connection to the rest of the world – was hit by rocket fire, as international carriers (including American flights under orders from the FAA) cut off their flights, some argued that this was the final straw that would force the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to finish off Hamas. Others said it was clear evidence to the Palestinian people of the success of Hamas hit-and-run ground attacks and surface-to-air rocket slams into Israel. Finally, Hamas was able, they reasoned, to inflict some serious economic damage on Israel.

As much as Gaza’s ordinary residents want all the violence to stop, they also know that they really cannot go back to the pre-conflict life with no jobs and no opportunities. Perhaps Israel, under all this international pressure, would agree to lift a big chunk of their blockade. Maybe Egypt would, as a part of the ceasefire they are championing, agree to re-open their border with Gaza and allow trade to reignite. Of the ten thousand rockets and missiles stockpiled in Gaza, as noted above, Hamas has launched 2,000, lost 3,000 to Israeli forces… leaving a hefty 3,000 left to be deployed. They have noted that Israeli forces have missed a lot of those well-engineered tunnels, that they have been arming their forces with small explosive devices that can still inflict a lot of damage on the IDF. Will reason ever enter this equation?

As Hamas’ fatalities mount, rising toward 700 (75% civilian, over 100 of which are children according to the U.N.) against less than 5% of that total for Israel (virtually all IDF), there comes a day of reckoning. Gaza residents are anxiously watching. Hamas has to deliver both a ceasefire and economic concessions from Israel – which is feeling the hot breath of international criticism as well as the hard economic costs to itself. If the war doesn’t settle soon, if casualties and war damages continues to escalate in the Strip, Hamas faces a hopeless population that is capable of turning against their leaders. Results are needed!

“But Hamas’s gains could be short-lived if it does not deliver Gazans a better life. Israel says its severe restrictions on what can be brought into Gaza, such as construction materials, are needed because Hamas poses a serious security threat, and the discovery of the tunnels has served only to validate that concern….

“Gazans did not get a vote when Hamas chose to escalate conflict, nor did they when Hamas selected areas near their homes, schools and mosques to fire rockets from the densely populated strip. At the family house of four boys killed last week by an Israeli strike while playing on a beach, some wailing women cursed Hamas along with Israel.

“‘It comes at an exceptionally high price,’ said Khaled Elgindy, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. ‘When the bombs stop and the dust settles, people might have different calculations about cost-benefit.’

“It is also unclear whether, when the fighting ends, Hamas will have the same kind of foreign support it has had in the past to rebuild its arsenal or its infrastructure; Egypt, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has destroyed hundreds of the tunnels that were used to bring in arms, money and supplies, and has kept the proper border crossing mostly closed. There are also some diplomatic efforts underway seeking to force Hamas to surrender its weapons in exchange for a cease-fire, a demand it is not likely to accept.” New York Times, July 22^nd. Simply, Gaza’s leaders won’t accept an overall ceasefire without a release of the Israeli blockade, and the last thing Israel wants is an open right for Hamas to import whatever they think they want (like rockets). Impasse and more violence.

It’s hard to see the winners in this conflict, if indeed there are any. You can sympathize or blame one side or the other. But in the end, this is about suffering and pain with too many victims. One can only hope that when the rockets and bullets do stop flying, somehow this becomes a tipping point for positive change in this war-torn region. We have to pray that this does not become just one more, long pause before death and destruction return to the scene of the crime.

I’m Peter Dekom, and understanding the variables means looking at the horrific conflicts from every side of the destructive equation.

Adjustments

It’s obvious that the job picture in the United States is not truly reflected in the raw unemployment numbers. For the vast majority of Americans, we work more, get paid less, get promoted less frequently when we are lucky enough to have full-time employment. Too many of us have either given up looking for work (and hence are not even reflected in the statistic) or have managed only to get unpredictable work in the part-time world. Average American buying power has been falling like a stone for more than a decade. We buy a new car on average every 11 years, live in smaller homes, take shorter and less expensive vacations, and are decreasingly able to pay for college education. Taking away the “top of the top” of American buying power, almost no one expects their children to live at the same or better level than they have.

Job security has vaporized. Pension stability is increasingly shaky even with ERISA guarantees. And too many workers only have nothing more than underfunded Social Security for a pension. Contract employment – being hired for a specific period to fulfill a limited role (without benefits of any kind) under a contract – and down and dirty traditional part-time work are increasingly becoming the norm, particularly for those at the beginning and end of their working life. While Obamacare remains controversial, for many, it is their only shot at health insurance, particularly for contract and part-time workers.

The other ugly sides of part-time work are the frequent requirements of constantly varying and unpredictable scheduling, which makes coordinating two or more part-time jobs (or going to school or getting someone to watch the kids) exceptionally difficult. For some, it is “on-call” work that destroys their lives. For many, this is just the way is it… and likely to be for the foreseeable future. Why is this a huge issue?

“In a climate where many retailers, restaurants and other businesses are still struggling after the recession, economists point to the increased uncertainty faced by employees. About 27.4 million Americans work part time. The number of those part-timers who would prefer to work full time has nearly doubled since 2007, to 7.5 million. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 47 percent of part-time hourly workers ages 26 to 32 receive a week or less of advance notice for their schedule.

“In a study of the data, two University of Chicago professors found that employers dictated the work schedules for about half of young adults, without their input. For part-time workers, schedules on average fluctuated from 17 to 28 hours a week…

“As more workers find their lives upended and their paychecks reduced by ever-changing, on-call schedules, government officials are trying to put limits on the harshest of those scheduling practices… The actions reflect a growing national movement — fueled by women’s and labor groups — to curb practices that affect millions of families, like assigning just one or two days of work a week or requiring employees to work unpredictable hours that wreak havoc with everyday routines like college and child care.

“The recent, rapid spread of on-call employment to retail and other sectors has prompted proposals that would require companies to pay employees extra for on-call work and to give two weeks’ notice of a work schedule…

“Representative George Miller of California, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, plans to introduce legislation this summer that would require companies to pay their employees for an extra hour if they were summoned to work with less than 24 hours’ notice. He is also proposing a guarantee of four hours’ pay on days when employees are sent home after just a few hours — something that happens in many restaurants and retailers when customer traffic is slow.” New York Times, July 15^th. The odds of this passing through a pro-business, gridlocked Congress are exceptionally low. With unions losing clout, virtually gone from the private sector, there are very few representatives for this seemingly disenfranchised segment of the labor market.

Instead, what little hope there is for such part-timers comes from state and local government, where these are not captives of the local campaign contribution machines of regional business powers. “Vermont and San Francisco have adopted laws giving workers the right to request flexible or predictable schedules to make it easier to take care of children or aging parents. Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, is pressing the City Council to take up such legislation. And last month, President Obama ordered federal agencies to give the ‘right to request’ to two million federal workers…

“In a referendum last year, voters in SeaTac, Wash. — the community near Seattle that also passed the nation’s highest minimum wage, $15 an hour for some workers — approved a measure that bars employers from hiring additional part-time workers if any of their existing part-timers want more hours. The move was a response to complaints from workers that they were not scheduled for enough hours to support their families. Some San Francisco lawmakers are seeking to enact a similar regulation.” NY Times. You can pretty much forget about protecting part-time workers in any region where social conservatives rule.

It is increasingly likely that what started out as temporary changes in work patterns to reflect the recession are settling into our economy with much longer consequences. If we care, and it doesn’t take much or inconvenience business unreasonably, perhaps we should reflect empathy and support reasonable laws and ordinances that protect these part-timers with a touch of normal dignity.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are in this together, so let’s act like it!

Driverless Drones

We call ‘em “cars.” But the F.B.I. sees Google’s little “driverless car” experiment in a different way. With a touch of what undoubtedly will captivate Hollywood audiences sooner or later, that law enforcement agency seems to think the concept provides comfort for the many suicide bombers who can use remote control driverless cars instead. Terrorist lives spared? Harder to find the real culprits? Too easy to misuse? They may have missed the news of the airborne drone fired by Hamas against Israel that kind of suggests that the remote control bomb is hardly a future threat and that the addition of cars to the list of bomb carriers would be a technology step backwards for would-be terrorists.

The F.B.I. isn’t focused on the impact of heavy  randomized traffic on crumbling infrastructure, the need to create greater efficiencies before we spend trillions more to expand our highway systems. They probably haven’t drilled down on the national security impairments that come from climate change driven faster by out-of-control traffic patterns governed by the often-unpredictable decisions of commuters, some sleep impaired, others late for work, a few loving the rush of zigging and zagging and those laced with road rage in the overall mix. You can even add a little alcohol or painkillers to the brew and see what happens.

Bad for fuel consumption in creating the “stop and go” urban nightmare. Worse for those killed or injured in the maze of traffic accidents. The U.S has about 5.5 million car crashes a year. 92 people die every day on our roads generating over 32,000 fatalities and close to 2.2 million injuries a year. But the F.B.I. surmises that such robotic cars will be legal within the next five to seven years and is preparing for the worst.

Indeed, the F.B.I. and some of our national security agencies believe that driverless cars not only can help transport and then detonate WMDs or smaller deadly devices, but can serve as remote get-away cars to help criminals move rapidly away from the scene of the crime, with the ability to concentrate on shooting their pursuers since they do not have to deal with driving. Further, these vehicles can be outfitted as rolling gun platforms, able to take out law enforcement officers with no risk to the perpetrators.

Seriously! “Google’s driverless car may remain a prototype, but the FBI believes the ‘game changing’ vehicle could revolutionize high-speed car chases within a matter of years. The report also warned that autonomous cars may be used as ‘lethal weapons.’… In an unclassified but restricted report obtained by the Guardian under a public records request, the FBI predicts that autonomous cars ‘will have a high impact on transforming what both law enforcement and its adversaries can operationally do with a car.’

“In a section called Multitasking, the report notes that ‘bad actors will be able to conduct tasks that require use of both hands or taking one’s eyes off the road which would be impossible today.’… Self-driving cars use lidar (laser ranging), radar, video cameras and GPS technology to build up a digital 3D map of their surroundings, including buildings, roads, pedestrians and other vehicles. The cars can then be programmed to navigate safely to a destination while avoiding obstacles and (usually) obeying the rules of the road.

“The report, written by agents in the Strategic Issues Group within the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence, says, ‘Autonomy … will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today.’” TheGuardian.com, July 16^th. Oy!

Cars are bad. Guns are worse. “While motor-vehicle deaths dropped 22 percent from 2005 to 2010, gun fatalities are rising again after a low point in 2000, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shooting deaths in 2015 will probably rise to almost 33,000, and those related to autos will decline to about 32,000, based on the 10-year average trend.” Bloomberg.com, December 12, 2012. Think how bad those gun statistics will look when there are lots of driverless cars on the road!

For a nation that has legalized the use of everything from assault rifles to large magazines, that refuses to implement realistic background checks for a vast horde of prospective gun buyers, where some states have even legalized silencers and “open carry” laws under a complete and total misreading of the Second Amendment, the notion of worrying about “cars as weapons” seems beyond ludicrous. If we really cared about weapons, criminals, terrorists and safety, you’d think that someone might actually start with guns. But after all, driverless cars don’t kill people… people kill people… and with driverless cars, people will have a whole lot fewer opportunities to apply their lethal habits!

I’m Peter Dekom, and where in the world did common sense disappear to?

Crushing Whistleblowers

It’s got to be embarrassing to have a civil services governance system that awards solid performance bonuses to senior managers if their paperwork reflects hitting the requisite benchmarks… regardless of what’s actually happening. And if there is a real disconnect between the paperwork and the reality, the biggest enemy of the reward/promotion-seeker istruth. A loose whistleblower with justice and accuracy on his or her mind is your worst enemy.

Without cracking into whether there should be cash bonuses to any civil servant ever… guess how I feel about that… we really need to prioritize truth with a reasonable balancing act to protect other legitimate interests we cherish. And so many of these balances involve “privacy” pitted against governmental interests.

NSA’s wide-sweeping e-intercepts and wiretaps, embracing leaders in Germany and Brazil as well as just about every American anywhere (until they were reined in), have stunned just about everyone, even including a do-nothing Congress that is passing bipartisan legislation to limit NSA’s frenzied phone frolic. The constitution itself crinkled in its hallowed glass case at the revelations.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has been richly rewarded, and almost uniformly lambasted, with asylum in Russia (would prison be more comfortable?). “He should have complained within the system to protect our national security,” admonish many. Really? And exactly what do you think would have happened to his complaint? In this balancing act, it was “privacy” that seemed to trump governmental interests.

Hmmm, our government mavens seem to have observed, if privacy is that important, perhaps we can use that force against whistleblowers to keep them quiet and send a message that will crush anyone thinking about whistleblowing where someone’s privacy might be involved. And when it comes to menacing medical matters, those seeking to silence whistleblowers have a weapon that they are beginning to use… with all too much joy: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The statute was intended to protect personal medical records from prying eyes that could invade a patient’s most personal information.

But what a wonderful way to silence critics of despicable policies in Veterans Administration medical facilities. If patients are dying or suffering because of phantom waitlists that never end, violations of VA directives, policies and common dignity, to identify the problem – and provide tangible evidence of the malignant medical misfeasance – you’d have to identify the poor veterans whose health or lives have been threatened. And that, my fine feathered friends, could be read as a clear and flagrant violation of HIPAA’s privacy mandate.

“Citing patient privacy, managers have threatened VA employees or retaliated against those who complain about agency misconduct, according to a key congressman and the union that represents most of the department’s employees… ‘VA routinely uses HIPAA as an excuse to punish into submission employees who dare to speak out,’ said Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He is leading a probe into the cover-up of long wait times for VA patients…

“The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which investigates whistleblower retaliation cases, is ‘very concerned about the misuse of HIPAA,’ said Eric Bachman, an OSC deputy special counsel. ‘The potential chilling effect of even a small number of these HIPAA retaliation cases is a serious issue and one that should be addressed by the VA in short order.’…

“[The VA’s] Office of Inspector General (OIG) [has clearly stated that] ‘an employee can legally provide any VA record to the VA OIG.’ … VA managers don’t seem to know or care that employees are allowed to use patient information when informing appropriate authorities about misconduct. ‘If VA cannot protect whistleblowers who reveal corruption it is not a system worth saving,’ Miller said in a letter to President Obama [in early July].”  Washington Post, July 17^th.

As journalists feel the hot breath of federal prosecutors in search of their sources, as civil servants feel untoward pressures to silence needed and legitimate whistleblowing, and as military commanders rail that the thought that sexual assaults in the ranks could possibly be removed from their whitewashing prerogatives, there is something very wrong with our system of government. What exactly should we do to discipline those attempting to crush the truth?s

Democracy is predicated on transparency, on checks and balances that are supposed to make it work. Forget about the requirements of the First Amendment on free speech and a free press, arguing that national security, military disciplineand a privacy statute that was never intended as a mask for wrongdoing trump that need for governmental transparency is an argument for a system of government that is most definitely not a democracy. If we over-protect our nation, we will eventually have nothing left to protect.

I’m Peter Dekom, and democracy is a fragile concept that is easily abused and eroded.

“The Bodies Weren't Fresh”

We know what brought down the Malaysia Air Boeing 777, Flight 17, over the Ukraine on July 17^th: a missile, one capable of reaching well over 30 thousand feet into the passenger airspace allocated to commercial carriers. Not exactly a small shoulder-fired projectile, one that requires targeting radar and a larger launching platform… One that would have to have originated from a country with the ability to manufacture such weapons. Maybe intentional but more likely accidental… loosed by a military commander on the ground too quick to pull the trigger, thinking the jet was a Ukrainian military transport. Evidence supports all of the above “speculation.”

We have tracking satellites above this combat zone, and they record all sorts of interesting stuff from high above the battlefield. “U.S. intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane, and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Council in New York on [July 18^th] that the missile was likely fired from a rebel-held area near the Russian border.” AOL.com, July 18^th. “Likely” became pretty definite as the evidence was reviewed. OK, but we need to examine the debris on the ground, establish the precise missile that did the dirty deed, and it is going to have to be found by an unbiased international body to create the level of credibility necessary to assign blame. We need to be sure.

But just out of curiosity, is someone in a position of power on one side or another – either from Ukraine or the pro-Russian rebels – acting in a manner that suggests guilt? Is anyone laying the groundwork to deny what they know is going to be found sooner or later? “A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash - suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.

“The pro-rebel website Russkaya Vesna on [July 18^th] quoted Igor Girkin as saying he was told by people at the crash site that ‘a significant number of the bodies weren't fresh,’ adding that he was told they were drained of blood and reeked of decomposition… Girkin, also known as Strelkov and allegedly a former Russian military intelligence agent, said he couldn't confirm the information. But it's sure to add to the intense emotions surrounding the crash, with the rebels accused of shooting down the plane.” AOL.com.

It’s no secret that Russian combatants, lots of them, are operating in rebel-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. It’s even less of a secret that Russian arms, from light to heavy, have flowed across the border in support of the rebels… with a “wink wink” from the Putin administration filled with denial. The downing occurred just days after the United States increased financial and travel sanctions on Russia based on their interference in Ukraine. On July 18^th, “[U.S. President Barack] Mr. Obama resisted blaming the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, personally, saying that the American government does not know exactly who fired the missile that took down the passenger airliner. But he made clear that he held the Russians responsible for failing to stop the violence that made the downing possible.

“‘We know that they are heavily armed and they are trained,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘That is not an accident. That is happening because of Russian support.’ He said it was ‘not possible for these separatists to be functioning the way they are’ without Russian support… The president said that the downing of the plane was a direct result of the violence in the region, and that violence had been ‘facilitated in large part because of Russian support.’” New York Times, July 18^th. But the mounting evidence was getting hard to ignore. “At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. pointed blame at the separatists, saying Washington believes the jetliner carrying 298 people, including 80 children, likely was downed by an SA-11 missile, and ‘we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel.’…

“[U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha] Power said that early [on the 18^th], a journalist saw an SA-11 system - known in Russia as a Buk missile system - in separatist-controlled territory near Snizhne, ‘and separatists were spotted hours before the incident with an SA-11 SAM system close to the site where the plane came down…. [adding that] Separatists initially claimed responsibility for shooting down a military transport plane, and claimed responsibility and posted videos that are now being connected to the Malaysian Airlines crash… Separatist leaders also boasted on social media about shooting down a plane, but later deleted these messages.’

“‘Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11, it is unlikely that the separatists could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel. Thus, we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the systems,’ she said…Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin did not respond to the U.S. allegations.” AOL.com, July 19^th.

It would seem obvious that guilty parties might also attempt to thwart the investigation. Did that happen? “About 30 officials, mostly from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, arrived at the crash site between the villages of Rozsypne and Hrabove, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border… The rebels allowed the team to perform a very partial and superficial inspection. While the delegation was leaving under orders from the armed overseers, two Ukrainian members lingered to look at a fragment of the plane by a roadside, only for a militiaman to fire a warning shot in the air with his Kalashnikov.” AOL.com.

Well-armed pro-Russian rebels controlled and limited access to the crash site as international investigators entered the area. Bodies were left to decay in the hot sun, but evidence of tampering with the wreckage was also evident. The disrespect shown to the deceased was stunning. “‘The news we got today of the bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly, has really created a shock in the Netherlands,’ Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told the Ukrainian president in Kiev. ‘People are angry, are furious at what they hear.’ Timmermans demanded the culprits be found. ‘Once we have the proof, we will not stop until the people are brought to justice,’ he said.” AP, July 19^th. If you were a juror hearing the case, how would these events impact your decision as to the likely culprits?

Evidence piles up, and a litany of world leaders have demanded free and open access to the crash site and other relevant venues to establish clear blame. Noting that Russia sits on the U.N. Security Council, they were put in the uneasy situation of joining in a unanimous Security Council vote asking for a “a full, thorough and independent international investigation, in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines, and for appropriate accountability… [also demanding] immediate access by investigators to the crash site to determine the cause of the incident."

“[U.S. President Barack] Obama also called for such an investigation, adding: ‘The eyes of the world are on eastern Ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out.’… On [July 19^th], Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott echoed calls for an international investigation. ‘Australia takes a very dim view of countries which facilitate the killing of Australians,’ he said.

“Obama called for a cease-fire in the conflict between the separatists and Ukrainian forces. At a Kremlin meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged that ‘all sides in the conflict should halt their fighting and enter into peaceful talks,’ according to an official website… On [July 17^th], Putin blamed Ukraine for the crash, saying Kiev was responsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking eastern regions. But he didn't accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and didn't address the key question of whether Russia gave the rebels such a powerful missile.” AOL.com. Award moments for the Russian bear!

Nope, we don’t know for sure who or why. But as the facts roll in, it’s easy to make a reasonably-educated guess. Let the experts determine for sure, but if indeed this incident came from a Russian-supplied missile to under-prepared pro-Russian rebels, Mr. Putin is going to have a lot of explaining to do… and if the evidence is overwhelming, we can expect more than a few fabrications like the one from Igor Girkin noted above.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if this incident helps stabilize and end a violent civil war as well as plunge a mendacious tyrant’s credibility through the floor, it might provide some small consolation to those who lost loved ones in this debacle.

Death to Death Sentences?

Use of the death penalty around the world (as of 2012).

  Abolished for all offenses** (97)

  Abolished for all offenses except under special circumstances (8)

  Retains, though not used for at least 10 years (35)

  Retains death penalty (58)*

* While laws vary among U.S. states, it is considered retentionist because the federal death penalty is still in active use. **Russia retains the death penalty, but the regulations of the Council of Europe prohibits it from carrying out any executions.

As society has shifted, the question of maintaining executions for certain criminal behavior has been debated fiercely in the land of the free and the home of easily-obtained guns: the United States of America. The discussions have ranged from the exorbitant costs (see below) of convicting, handling appeals for, housing, maintaining and occasionally actually executing death row inmates to the barbaric cruelty of this act of sanctioned homicide and the rare but very real possibility of killing an innocent man or woman in the process.

For many executioners these days, the inability to get the necessary drugs to implement the sequential death cocktail has stalled a number of scheduled executions. No problem, at least in Tennessee as of early July: “Eight states authorize electrocution as a method of execution but only at the inmate's discretion. Now Tennessee is the first state to make use of the electric chair mandatory when lethal injection drugs are unavailable.” CNN.com, July 2^nd. How about getting rid of the entire process?

“Opponents of the death penalty have cited a number of factors that argue in favor of abolishing the death penalty. It is, they say, not an effective deterrent against crime. Statistics appear to back this up: states which impose the death penalty continue to report the highest murder rates in the country with only three states without the death penalty ranked in the top twenty five (Michigan, New York and Alaska)…

 “For years, these reasonings have failed to sway a majority of Americans. But now, something else may be turning the tide of public opinion – and it has little to do with ethical, moral or legal arguments. It’s all about cold, hard cash.

“As states face increased pressure to cut costs in their budgets, every line item is getting a second look. One startling finding? Death penalty cases are, from start to finish, more expensive than other criminal cases including those that result in life without parole.” Forbes.com, September 22, 2011. A California study of the cost of the death penalty tells us that it costs well over 10 times more than a life-without-parole sentence, adding about $130 million a year in excess costs to that state alone. The costs may vary from state to state, but the general order of magnitude is pretty much the same everywhere.

In April, we watched a horrific execution in Oklahoma in the state’s lethal injection chamber, apparently from an ill-positioned needle. “The botched execution of Clayton Lockett has spawned a new lawsuit accusing Oklahoma prison officials of shoddy lethal injection practices. The suit, brought by a group of death-row prisoners, says that one of the drugs used in Lockett's case — midazolam — is unsuitable for use in executions and that the execution teams lack expertise, backup plans and supplies.

“Lockett, a convicted rapist and murderer, appeared to regain consciousness and writhe in pain during his April 29 execution, which was halted — but not in time to save his life. Executions in Oklahoma are temporarily on hold while the state reviews the Lockett case.” NBCNews.com, June 25^th. Given what happened, the plaintiffs have a point.

And now we have yet another reason why the death penalty may just be unconstitutional, at least in the way states just keep prisoners on edge for decades without clarity or reason. A mid-July decision from a federal trial court ruled California’s capital crime punishment as violative of the U.S. Constitution.  “The ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, was unprecedented and likely to further inflame the debate over the state's death penalty. Several prominent judges have excoriated California's death penalty for its dysfunction, but Carney was the first to rule the delays amounted to a constitutional violation and left the system without any legitimate purpose…

“Carney focused on how the state enforces the death penalty and ordered lawyers to present written arguments on it… California's system, ‘where so many are sentenced to death but only a random few are actually executed, would offend the most fundamental of constitutional protections — that the government shall not be permitted to arbitrarily inflict the ultimate punishment of death,’ wrote Carney, who serves in Orange County… Carney noted that more than 900 people have been sentenced to death in California since 1978 but only 13 have been executed.

“‘For the rest, the dysfunctional administration of California's death penalty system has resulted, and will continue to result, in an inordinate and unpredictable period of delay preceding their actual execution,’ Carney wrote. ‘As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary.’… Carney said the delays had created a ‘system in which arbitrary factors, rather than legitimate ones like the nature of the crime or the date of the death sentence, determine whether an individual will actually be executed.’” Los Angeles Times, July 16^th.

Globally, the number of countries applying the death penalty has fallen dramatically as the above chart (from Wikipedia) illustrates. With the exception of Belarus, European nations have effectively eliminated the death penalty for any crimes. “The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007, 2008 and 2010, non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions, with a view to eventual abolition. Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world's population live in countries where executions take place, such as the People's Republic of China, India, the United States of America and Indonesia, the four most-populous countries in the world, which continue to apply the death penalty (although in India, Indonesia and in many US states it is rarely employed). Each of these four nations voted against the General Assembly resolutions.” Wikipedia.

Isn’t it time, for whatever reason you choose, simply to abolish the death penalty entirely in the United States? Perhaps if we made those who support the death penalty pay an extra tax to support their belief? Disgusting, right?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if human beings have the slightest claim to social evolution, let’s prove it by banning the death sentence in at least the United States.

After the Sky Falls: The Benefits of Disengagement

We’re still sorting the mess of the missile-downed Malaysia Air 777 over Ukraine… where the sky really fell. But meanwhile, on the ground many miles away, death still stalks other cadres of innocents. Sunni extremists (ISIS), using captured American weapons and hundreds of millions of dollars of looted Iraqi cash, are successfully expanding their quest to establish a brutal caliphate over northern Syria and western Iraq. Other Sunnis have accepted ISIS – for the time being – simply in order to take back control of the Sunni regions of Iraq, over which the majority Shiites have been running roughshod. Among ISIS’ current “partners of convenience, are political Sunni secularists, notably the Baathists that supported the brutal Sunni dictatorship of deposed and executed Saddam Hussein. Rumors abound that Baathists are purportedly assassinating ISIS leaders that cannot tolerate, just as ISIS forces are rounding up dissident Baathists for who knows what.

The ethnic Kurdish part of northern Iraq is taking back oil fields, circling the wagons and acting very much as if they never want to return to that Iraqi state we worked so hard to resurrect as a regional democracy. They despise incumbent (and Shiite) Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who has done little to nothing to appease call for a more neutral, inclusive Iraq, to stem the tide of extremism that has enveloped his country. U.S. Secretary of State has joined a rising chorus demanding or suggesting that al Maliki step aside, just al-Maliki tells the world he expects to stand for re-election for a third time. Shiites may be happy with this position… in the short term…

That he allowed a Sunni moderate Islamist (???) to take the job as speaker of the Iraqi parliament may be way too little, way too late. “But after quickly picking Salim al-Jabouri as speaker, lawmakers argued bitterly for hours over his Shi'ite deputy, suggesting they are still far from a deal on a new government or a decision on the fate of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.” Reuters, July 15^th.

The minority Shiite government in Syria and its long-standing ally, the Shiite dominated government of Iran – with Russian (and Iranian) money and military arms (including fighter jets) – have united to support the Shiite-dominated “elected” Iraqi Prime Minister. Shiite militia (some already formed and others rallying to be formed in response to Shiite cleric Ayatollah al-Sistani’s fatwa for Iraqis to fight for their country) have also jointed the battle. Their mission: defeat ISIS.

On Iran’s northeastern side sits a big enemy, profoundly anti-Shiite Taliban, struggling patiently to resume their efforts to re-control Afghanistan and are testing Pakistani forces who have announced their intention to rout the Taliban from their Western Tribal Districts. When Saddam Hussein (Sunni) ruled Iraq and the Taliban controlled Afghanistan (with strong sway over Iran’s other neighbor, Pakistan), Sunni power effectively surrounded and contained the only Islamic Republic in the world, a Shiite powerhouse with extreme hatred for the United States: Iran. When Saddam was toppled by American intervention, the dominant Shiite population elected their own Iraqi government, to the consternation of the minority Sunnis. Iran’s containment crumbled. Iraq became Iran’s puppet government, and Syria’s Assad regime a staunch ally.

With today’s turmoil turning the conflicts back to an effort towards controlling Iranian and Syrian Shiite expansionism, Iran’s quest for regional hegemony has collapsed in this regional mess… what’s not to like? It’s pretty clear that the Geneva-based nuclear arms negotiations between and Iran are going nowhere. With Iran’s Supreme Leader’s recent remarks on the necessity of continuing that nation’s nuclear enrichment program, hopes for a negotiated nuclear settlement seem to be vaporizing. It’s equally clear that the region is and is likely to remain unstable, no matter the regional political and religious configurations. Islamic turmoil rages from the Boko Haram insurrection in northern Nigeria to the battles to contain Uighurs in Western China. We are not going to see stability in this region any time in the foreseeable future.

As Israel and Sunni-Palestinian Hamas in Gaza pound each other with murderous ferocity, as Israeli forces crosss into Gaza to seize a passel of rocket launching sites, hell-bent on eliminating the networks of border tunnels used to import rockets or infiltrate Israel, we see evidence of this horrific clash of cultures. Ceasefires fail, and you have to ask yourself if Hamas actually wants Gaza civilians to perish; their corpses make great posters for international sympathy and recruitment of more extremists. Israel won’t have the same “opportunity”; their Iron Dome anti-rocket force has been highly effective. Disgusting. Moderate Muslims are completely frustrated and terrified of the killings outside their front doors; they want nothing more than to be left alone to live their lives without fear. Israeli parents make the same protests. Hard to believe that this time Israel isn’t going all the way into Gaza. Bad goes to worse. Worse goes to much, much worse.

Muslim extremists have seized upon two powerful emotional forces: the almost two century humiliation of the Islamic world by Western colonial and economic powers and the failure of modern economic success to filter down to the average citizens in the area (being scooped up instead by the ugly Western-supported dictators at the top of the food chain). Fundamentalist Islam, Shiite and Sunni, addresses the failures of the temporal world with promises of an afterlife based on extreme piety and identifies the targets for the mandatory jihad charge to the faithful.

While is hard to dissociate the slaughter of innocents, the brutality of mass killings, the collateral casualties of indiscriminate shelling and rocket fire and the decimation of farms, cities, businesses and a way of life for too many caught in the cross-fire,  it is equally apparent to those who understand the region that there is one huge target, once the Great Satan against which al Qaeda fighters could prove their abilities, notably absent from the center of the action: the United States of America. By embroiling ourselves into this battlefield again, we would attract even more anti-Western Islamic militants ready to test their devotion in a direct head-to-head confrontation with the King of the Hill.

Washington is certainly aware of the risks. “In short, the marriages of convenience formed among ISIS and Baathists, Sunni nationalists, Sunni tribal groups and Sunni jihadists to fight a common enemy — the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki — are coming under strain. Those fissures are being watched closely as the United States military’s Central Command is expected to deliver to the Pentagon this week a classified report on whether Iraq’s shattered security forces can rally to combat the threat.

“Exploiting any rifts among the Sunni militants is a top priority for American and Iraqi officials and their regional allies… The United States has weighed sending former American officials to meet with Sunni tribal leaders. Ideally, the United States would try to re-create the Sunni Awakening alliances formed in 2007 that had nearly 100,000 Sunni tribal fighters to combat an earlier incarnation of ISIS. But these efforts are still very much in their infancy, officials said. At the same time, Saudi Arabia has reportedly urged Sunni tribes to turn against ISIS.

“The Sunni insurgent groups are not widespread in each province and, by their nature, are small — whereas tribes are dispersed throughout provinces and even across provincial borders. In many ways, the biggest opportunity to foment an uprising is with the tribes since they have the sheer manpower that could be harnessed to face down ISIS…

“But there is a strong feeling among many tribal leaders that if they fight against ISIS before the government commits to replacing Mr. Maliki and offering a new deal to Sunnis, they will lose out and help the government but not get any political compromise.” New York Times, July 12^th. There is no place for our usual knee-jerk reactions. Sloganeering politicians on both sides of the aisle need to clam up and let the experts sort this out. What’s more, exactly how much money are we prepared to divert from desperately-needed domestic programs once against the big target drawing Middle Eastern focus? Our track record in this region is abysmal, and I am being polite. Show me the clear path we can take that will assure regional stability?

I’m Peter Dekom, and in this complex and volatile amalgamation of competing interests, this is one arena for which unprepared amateur opinions are less than relevant.