Wanderlust Heaven!

It’s 2:30 a.m. and I can’t sleep. Not really sure why…it might be an earache that’s been coming and going (gotta go see a ‘chemist’ and get me some over-the-counter chemicals), or more likely it’s because I’m pleased with the results of the US elections and my mind has been covering a lot of ground in the past couple days. My primary source of decent news out here is the Internet, and I sprang out of bed on November 8th to head over to the local Internet joint for a lengthy reading session. But of course, the power was out and it was a couple hours before I could get any news. The local newspapers always seem days behind…which is usually just fine, but not now. I was out for blood and wanted it right away.

And soon got it. I rode to the café with an Englishman transplanted to Seattle, Kelvin, who shares my deeply liberal views. And we were soon trolling the various websites and shouting out the news to each other. ‘Dems took the House!’, ‘Lieberman won’, ‘Senate up for grabs’, etc. I won’t recite the entire panoply of results here, but I do feel the need to comment on a few.

First, I’ll be more than glad to see the back of J. Dennis Hastert, the soon-to-be former Speaker of the House and the prime candidate to play any future Broadway role of Smeagol, Gollum’s dumb, fat hobbitlike persona. How this lame-brained former gym teacher became one of the most powerful officials in Washington is still beyond me…even factoring in the general level of intelligence of the American public. Of course, I have the same question about the President. What I do know is that Mr. Hastert enriched himself well and truly through a highway bill in which he routed a new roadway near property he owned, thus driving up the value of his land several-fold. Hastert is still around, as he won re-election, but now he’s just the average fat shmendrick around the House. Will Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker-to-be, investigate his land deal? Cleaning out the House’s stables would be a nice start to regime change…

Second, I’m annoyed that Joe Lieberman is still with us (in the Senate, that is). I suppose it was well within his rights to shift from the Democratic Party to Independent status after losing the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont. And Lamont could be accused of buying his victory – he poured a hell of a lot of his own wealth into the race. But it still rankles that Lieberman again demonstrated very slithery qualities and in doing so, kept himself politically alive. Many (most) politicians could be accused of believing in nothing more than their own political existence. Clinton was often accused of being poll-driven and ridiculously opportunistic – and Hillary shows all the signs of following in his ample footsteps. But Lieberman now seems to have taken the final (?) step in making himself completely inscrutable; what the fuck does the guy stand for, and who’s he with?

All I can make out is that he’s a Jewish Senator who strongly backed the invasion of Iraq and still does, unequivocally. There are actually a couple positive things to say here. One is that at least Lieberman has a position on the war – unlike Hillary, Kerry, et al. The other is that he probably genuinely thought the war was the right approach – due to his religion and support for Israel, and perhaps due to his conviction that invading Iraq would advance the ‘war on terror.’ So I’ll give him that. I suppose my problem with Lieberman is this: he’s the most prominent American Jewish politician, and he’s the strongest Democratic supporter of the war in Iraq. And so he’s an easy lightning-rod for anyone who perceives Jewish conspiracy theories regarding the Islamic world. The Bush Administration is already the most biased yet in its relations with Israel vis-à-vis its neighbors…then you see Lieberman the Jewish Senator on television supporting the war and the President. To me, it looks very bad, and it’s not difficult to guess how the average Arab in the street thinks. So I wanted to see Lieberman’s back, too, but it wasn’t to be. Oh well, at least he’ll probably vote Democratic, at least when it’s in his best interests. My brother-in-law brought up the intriguing scenario of Lieberman being the swing vote in a 50-49 Senate. Thankfully the Dems won 51 seats, excluding Rabbi Joe, so he can’t play kingmaker.

Third, I must give thanks for the slew of happy news that filtered in over the hours out here. These are important developments, people:

• Dems won both Houses
• Nancy Pelosi will the the first female Speaker in US history – finally
• Don Rumsfeld, our incompetent Ford Administration holdover and current Defence Secretary, is gonzo
• My friend Kathy White won her re-election bid in Michigan (for Trustee of the Michigan university system)
• South Dakota rejected its abortion ban
• Dems have a nice tailwind for the 2008 Presidential race, as long as they don’t shoot themselves in the foot between now and then

So what happens next, at least with Iraq? Probably not much, at least not right away. The key mistakes have been made – starting, of course, with invading the hellhole – and it looks to be a nasty few months no matter what we do. Saddam Hussein will probably be swinging from the end of a rope pretty soon, and the Sunnis won’t be happy about that. Some readers sent in comments regarding my thoughts on Iraq in last week’s post. Ray mused that we could re-install Saddam Hussein and tell him ‘to behave himself this time.’ He’d be chastened and refrain from his normal homicidal tendencies, inside Iraq and across his borders. In essence, put him back on the throne and say ‘just kidding.’ Ray obviously was aware of the impossibility of this approach – but rightly pointed out that it doesn’t sound all that bad, conceptually, and the reason is that things have gotten so very ugly on the ground in Iraq. Johann disliked the idea of pulling out of Iraq any time soon, given that ‘we broke it, so we own it.’ There’s definitely an argument to be made for sticking around and ensuring that Iraq isn’t the next Afghanistan (although we’ve so starved that country of military resources that Afghanistan seems on the verge of becoming the next Afghanistan). Johann also pointed out that a US pullout would probably send the signal to friends and foes alike that we don’t have the stomach for a long, bloody fight. Again, a good point.

My response to these thoughts is perhaps unrealistic and egg-headed, but here goes. First, I think we’ve demonstrated more than enough backbone since 9/11. We overthrew the governments/standing armies of Afghanistan and Iraq, and have more or less been fighting since November 2001 – longer than our involvement in WW2. Second, we fucked up and invaded a country that had no strategic value in any ‘war on terror,’ and no power to begin a domino effect of democratization in the Middle East (Bush’s follow-up objective, after no WMD were found). We played into the hands of our worst enemies – al-Qaeda and Iran – and are pinned down while they make mischief. I think that getting the hell out of Iraq would demonstrate a bit of intelligence and mea culpa, as opposed to pig-headed ‘staying the course’ thinking that gets us nowhere.

I certainly don’t expect any US government/President to apologize for making a mistake. Clinton never apologized for anything he did (except for getting a blowjob from Monica, but that was different), and Bush lacks the self-awareness and capacity to learn (and courage) required to make that step. Imagine how refreshing it would be to hear Bush admit that the war hasn’t produced the desired results, and that it’s time for a different strategy. Our armed forces might be discouraged to hear this – but do you think they’re highly motivated and psyched right now?

I might feel differently if it was clear that we had a plan to make things better in Iraq, and that things were improving. I see nothing to give me confidence, though. And so I think we need to leave, and not drag it out too long. As for providing a deadline, well, I think we need to have an internal deadline…and I’m not that sure it would be such a disaster to have the deadline known broadly as well. At the very least, it would communicate that we have a plan and don’t plan to stick around for 5 more years; the supposed drawback mooted would be that the ‘bad guys’ would just wait us out, nip our heels on the way out, then turn Iraq post-haste into a terrorist utopia. My sense is that these things are already happening, and we need to deal with them in different ways. Reactions from the reading audience?

Enough about politics. Let’s discuss more important matters, i.e. my weird life in Goa. Started yoga classes at ‘Brahmini Yoga Centre’ the other day. Instructor was a chatty British woman – a bit too chatty for 8 a.m. I slept through class yesterday – which may be a signal that I need to shift to the 9:45 class soon. Anyway, it’s probably good that I have a few more time-sensitive things in my calendar, in addition to writing this Slog every Thursday/Friday…

Noticed in the newspaper that Miss Universe (Zuleyka Rivera, Miss Puerto Rico) was coming to Goa for a fashion show featuring the designs of Indian-born, New York-based Sanjana Jon (never heard of her). Bought a ticket for 2,500 rupees (about $50) and went on down to La Calypso Hotel in Baga to check out the lovelies. Got there on time, at 9 p.m., and was directed to a large outdoor facility with lots of folding chairs and the requisite catwalk. Drinks were included, so I got to work on those straightaway. Soon an Aussie couple came and sat down next to me. They were good fun – very chatty, had been traveling around India for a few weeks, and fully prepared to consume many drinks. Turns out that he’s a dentist in Brisbane, and originally from Croatia – those two topics alone gave us plenty to discuss, given that my father’s a periodontist, and that I had a Croatian girlfriend and visited her over there in 1997. His girlfriend’s a dental hygienist (not in his office, though), so there were plenty of oral jokes going around that night.

The fashion show didn’t start till 11:30…not too sure how many drinks we knocked back by that point. The show itself was pretty good. Sanjana Jon came on stage, set things up, and then the music started thumping (actually, it had been playing all night) and the models came out. All were attractive – although some looked like they needed a good meal. Miss Universe wasn’t one of them – she’s full-figured and a major league hottie. Eventually it came out that the show’s proceeds were going to AIDS awareness in Goa, and that this is one of Miss Universe’s pet topics. She gave a short speech about AIDS, then the photographers took about a million shots of her. When things died down I shouted in Spanish ‘Te amo Zuleyka’ (I love you Zuleyka) and also ‘beso grande’ (big kiss). She looked over my way, a bit startled to hear Spanish in India – then smiled. That was very nice. I really must go to more fashion shows in the future.

Of course, I brought my digital camera to the show – but had left the memory card in my laptop, so the camera was useless. I took some shots with my mobile, but it looked like ghosts were flitting around the catwalk. So the next day I took a photo of the invitation, and here it is – Miss Universe is on the left:

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 12:18 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.