Harsh Musings: NY Times Op-Ed on Iraq, Fillmore Jazz Festival, chair, Rodin Sculpture Garden, Turkish Morning

On Sunday, the Times published an op-ed on "The Road Home" (registration required) from Iraq.

Blurb: "It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."

It is an enjoyable read and skims over the different issues that must be considered in an organized exit strategy.

Bush's approval rating is somewhere in the high 20s. Maybe it might be time for an exit strategy, not because of the lack of popularity of the president, but because it just makes sense.

We are caught in sectarian conflict. To understand more about the sectarian conflict see this Salon.com interview. It's an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an archivist who covers the insurgency.

Here are some snippets.

Every day you look at Iraq through the lens of insurgent videos and Internet postings. What do you see?

A picture of fundamentalism. Shiite fundamentalism clashing with Sunni fundamentalism clashing with American fundamentalism. We have tried imposing things upon Iraq that are totally foreign to it. Now each side is unwilling to acknowledge the right of the other to have a voice in what's going on. It's a disaster.

What drives people to join the insurgency?

I've called up families of fighters and when I ask that question, the response is always the same: Wouldn't you? They are extremely upset about what's going on in Iraq. Some of them have a burning hatred for the U.S. They see the U.S. as imposing its will on their countries. Some of them have a burning desire to be a missionary and martyr for Islam. You have people who have broken out of prison and gone to fight in Iraq. It's now a vacuum sucking in every disaffected voice in the region.

What happened to the U.S. message of democracy?

It totally failed. The idea of Western-style democracy in Iraq doesn't appeal to anyone. It was our own myth. We thought that if we get rid of Saddam Hussein, people would come together and celebrate and democracy would reign throughout the Middle East. The people who thought that up are people who think Iraq is like Texas. Iraq is not Texas. To Iraqis, tribal affiliations, religion and family mean a lot more than saying, "I'm from Iraq." You know we're doing a bad job of communicating our own message when we're losing the propaganda war to people who cut other people's heads off on camera. Think about it: People in one of the most Westernized countries in the Middle East would rather trust al-Qaida than the United States. That's a terrible sign of things to come.

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here's a clip from the fillmore jazz festival:

Weatherwise, it was a perfect (slightly windy) day in SF to just sit on the street and chill out with some jazz.
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check out this chair @ the DeYoung museum in SF.