It’s good to know our troops are being watched over by true professionals.

Pentagon officials acknowledged Monday that Paul Bremer, the senior U.S. official in Iraq during the first year of the war, told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in May 2004 that a far larger number of U.S. troops were needed to effectively fight the insurgency but his advice was rejected.

Larry Di Rita, a Rumsfeld spokesman, told reporters that Bremer made the recommendation in a memorandum and that it was the only time during his 13 months as head of the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Baghdad that he offered advice on troop levels.

”He on many (occasions) demurred when asked what the proper levels of forces were during the course of his tenure there,” and that was appropriate because troop levels were not his direct responsibility, Di Rita said.

Di Rita said later that Bremer was never asked by Rumsfeld or other officials but was asked a number of times in news interviews. Bremer told ABC’s ”Good Morning America,” in April 2004, for example, that he deferred on this matter to U.S. generals and that as far as he knew the generals believed they had enough troops.

So many people died because of our lack of preparation for the predictable insurgency, especially our careless assumption that light forces on the ground could get the job done. Why on earth is Rumsfeld still in office?

Commenters in the last thread asked where they could buy a copy of this controversial video, and the people who made the film have replied:
—————————————————————
I understand you’d like information on purchasing copies of our film,
The Gate of Heavenly Peace. In the US, it’s distributed by the Center
for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA), based in San Francisco.

Here’s their Gate page:
http://asianamericanmedia.org/shopnaata/videos/title/G/gateofheavenly.html

The Center also distributes Morning Sun, which (unlike Gate) is on
DVD as well as VHS, and is available for home video use.

Outside of the US, here’s who to contact:

Gate — http://tsquare.tv/distribution.html
Morning Sun — http://www.morningsun.org/film/distribution.html

Hope this helps….

Amazing, how a few blog posts can screw a company on the search engines.

Via Instapuppy.

One of my favorite topics. Read all about it.

If Deng is ever listed in Bartlett’s quotations, it will be for two often-cited phrases: 1.) “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice” (paraphrased), and 2.) his adulatory tribute to the PRC’s “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The latter has become the butt of an infinite number of parodies, and whenever we hear the phrase “with Chinese characteristics” our eyes involuntarily roll.

So it struck me as odd to see the following in People’s Daily today:

Chinese President Hu Jintao outlined major strategic tasks for building an innovation-oriented country at a national conference on science and technology that opened Monday morning in Beijing.

Hu said China will embark on a new path of innovation with Chinese characteristics, the core of which is to adhere to innovation, seek leapfrog development in key areas, make breakthroughs in key technologies and common technologies…[blah blah blah].

Don’t they know that “Chinese Characteristics” has become a phrase of ridicule? I can’t believe they’re using it in a serious context.

This larger than life ad, on display in Taipei at the corner of Dunhua and Nanjing Dong Lu, is via this excellent blog. Click to make it even bigger.

In America, unless you are in a hospital, it is rare (to say the least) to come across someone wearing a face mask. In Asia, it’s very different. Many, many people of all ages don face masks here for a number of reasons, such as fear of pollution or when they have a cold. The first few times I encountered someone wearing one, it was a shock. Now, it never raises an eyebrow. Like running into people clad in pajamas walking down a crowded street in downtown Shanghai at lunch hour, it’s something you quickly get used to.

I do have to say, I have never seen so many people wearing face masks as I have in Taiwan. Our office administrator actually keeps a box of face masks in her desk, just in case. Don’t ask “In case of what?” I have no idea.

You tell ’em, Bob. From the unlinkable Times Select.

The Nixon Syndrome
By BOB HERBERT
Published: January 9, 2006

Whether he knew it or not, President Bush was faced with a crucial philosophical choice in the frightening and chaotic aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.s can now listen to a reading of the day’s Op-Ed columns.

He could have followed the wise counsel of Edward R. Murrow, who memorably told us, “We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.” But he didn’t. He chose instead to follow the disturbing course mapped out by Barry Goldwater, who insisted, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice … moderation in the pursuit of

(more…)

What would the world be like without Mormons? Thank God that the elders, clad in their sacred undergarments, are protecting us from evil.

A movie theater owned by Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller abruptly changed its screening plans and decided not to show the film “Brokeback Mountain.” The film, an R-rated Western gay romance story, was supposed to open Friday at the Megaplex at Jordan Commons in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Instead it was pulled from the schedule.

A message posted at the ticket window read: “There has been a change in booking and we will not be showing ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Cal Gunderson, manager of the Jordan Commons Megaplex, declined to comment.

The movie’s distributor, Focus Features, said that hours before opening, the theater management “reneged on their licensing agreement,” and refused to open the film.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said not showing the film set an example for the people of Utah.

“I just think (pulling the show) tells the young people especially that maybe there is something wrong with this show,” she said.

Thanks for telling us what’s right and wrong. (Mormons are all over Taipei, by the way – more than I’ve ever seen anywhere else in Asia. You ought to hear what the locals have to say about them.)

I have to admit it: I’m uncomfortable about the big blogosphere brouhaha over Microsoft’s closure of Michael Anti’s blog. I joined in and posted about it as did nearly all of my fellow regional bloggers.

We all followed the lead of Rebecca MacKinnon, former Beijing bureau chief for CNN and one mf my favorite bloggers. Her monumental post garnered hundreds of trackbacks and sparked worldwide media attention. It premise was simple, specific and backed up by evidence: “his [Anti’s] blog was TAKEN DOWN by MSN people. Not blocked by the Chinese government.”

It was to be three full days before Microsoft was interviewd in the NY Times, offering a somewhat different scenario. Here’s the key sentence, paraphrasing Microsoft spokesperson Brooke Richardson:

Ms. Richardson of Microsoft said Mr. Zhou’s site was taken down after Chinese authorities made a request through a Shanghai-based affiliate of the company.

Whether or not the censorship was ordered by Beijing or Redmond, it’s a depressing and upsetting story. However, what set this story apart was the key assertion by MacKinnon that this was Microsoft acting on its own to appease the CCP, second guessing what the dictatorship would want them to do and zealously going out of its way to cooperate.

Frankly, I’m a little disappointed that Rebecca hasn’t dealt with the now three-day-old NYT story and helped give us her perspective. After creating this tidal wave, she owes us something – at least an explanation and her interpretation of what’s going on.

The way the story was first reported led most bloggers, from Instapuppy to Boing Boing, to blame Microsoft. And maybe there is still justification for blaming them. But the story emerging now is quite different from the one Rebecca first presented, and I feel uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Rebecca, do you still see this story from the same prism through which you saw it last week?

[Note: post edited at 9:30pm Taiwan time.]

From the unlinkable SCMP, this story is an antidote for those believing the anecdotal evidence that China is making big strides in dealing with AIDS.

A Beijing seminar today to raise public awareness on the HIV/Aids crisis in Hebei province is likely to be called off under government pressure, sources say.

The seminar is part of efforts by a group of 11 Beijing-based lawyers to offer free legal help to HIV patients in the province’s Xingtai city, epicentre of a blood scandal in which tainted blood collected illegally has infected – as the government put it – 125 people.

The lawyers planned to host the seminar at a function room at the YMCA of Beijing in the afternoon.

“I arranged for the venue with the [YMCA] organisation on Tuesday. But on Friday they said they couldn’t host the event as `relevant authorities’ asked them not to. They didn’t say who the relevant authorities are, but it’s easily understood to be the government. We are still looking for another venue now,” a source said last night.

The lawyers have launched a campaign to help HIV patients in Xingtai with lawsuits seeking compensation from hospitals, where they contracted the disease through tainted blood transfusions. The seminar was also an attempt to encourage more lawyers to help with the work for free.

So the government brought AIDS to the people, and now they want to keep people from learning about it. Really. There have been a few shining examples of improvement over the past two years that I eagerly posted about, but on balance the situation is as bad as it was when I first wrote my report on AIDS in China.