For a discussion of the advisability of employing it, see Passarge — Naturw. From philological considerations "efflation" would probably be better, but "deflation' 1 has been so long and so generally used that it seems inadvisable to make the change. These spots are also usually places to which fine material is fre- quently supplied usually by water action , as, for example, the playaa. The presence or supply of much resistant gravel will cause the for- mation of a desert pavement gravelly desert ; the presence of much sand either original or as the result of disintegration of weakly resist- ant gravel or rock and the existence of conditions forbidding the escape of this sand by drifting along the surface, will cause a sandy desert, etc.
Of course in the analysis of the origin of desert surfaces 7 agents other than eolian must be assigned their share. The question 4 is one of too great detail and complexity to be fully discussed here. The process of eolian erosion and deflation of the d6bris has recently been suggested in explanation of the origin of the peculiar flat plains of the American deserts out of which rise isolated moun- tains or mountain ranges.
It has always been believed that these plains were composed of immense thicknesses of rock d6bris rain- washed from the higher land. The original valleys had been filled up, leaving the higher mountains projecting as islands from a solid sea of mountain waste. For- tieth Parallel, vol. West of th Merid. His Conclusions are more fully stated in his papers cited below.
Tolman's conclusions are supported by well logs for certain of the bolsons, and the writer has seen logs and other evidence which point the same way in the case of a few others. For these the hypothesis of eolian origin must be abandoned. This failure of the hypothesis to be everywhere applicable does not, however, entirely discredit it. Passarge's conclusions in the Kalahari have not been challenged, and it is quite possible that even in North America the same processes may have been determining in certain places, though in others they seem certainly to have played a minor r61e.
The question is one which can be settled only after the acquiring of more exact and accurate knowledge of the underground conditions in the areas affected. This controversy aside, there is little doubt of the reality of the process of eolian planation and of the activity of deflation as a gen- eral agent of removal. See also Tight— Amer. See also Knight and Slosson— Wyo. According to Petrie c at least 8 feet has been removed by deflation from part of the Nile Delta during the past 2, years.
Mention should also be made of the action of the prevailing wind in modifying the so-called law of von Baer relating to the asymmetric develop- ment of river valleys; which action includes not only direct erosion of the opposing bank, but also eolian deposition behind the wind- ward bank, sidewise blowing of the waters of the river with conse- quent asymmetric erosion , and the action of wind-driven rain.
This tendency is, however, counter- acted by two others; first, the excess of corrasion to which elevated portions are exposed and which tends to wear them down to the com- mon level;' and, second, the action of rain wash sheetfloods in carrying loose material into depressions and tending to fill them up. The results and interactions of the various factors have recently been well analyzed by Smolenski— Peterm. On sheetflood action, see McGee— Bull.
Davis 6 rejects this hypothesis but it is favored by Cross' and by Tolman. If large quantities of fine dust are deflated from desert regions they must be deposited somewhere, and at least a part of the deposition will be on land surfaces. Dust so deposited may have not only a geological but an agricultural importance.
It will be shown later that a considerable quantity of dust blown from the Sahara has been deposited in Europe and that the process is still going on. Other regions show analogous phenomena. The actual size of the particles which can be transported, and consequently the limiting sizes of lag gravel, drifting sand, etc.
On the eolian formation of cirques, see also Barron and Hume — Topog- raphy of the Eastern desert of Egypt, p. The extension of the term to eolian transport is obvious. The forces which tend to place a particle in suspension and keep it there have been explained as due to the impact of the air against the particle and the "friction 11 of the air in passing it.
This means that the wind velocity necessary to support a particle will vary as the square of the radius; or inversely, the radius of the particle which the wind can support the radius of competence will vary as the square root of the velocity. An increase in wind velocity will, according to this formula, produce a less than corresponding increase in competence.
Unfortunately this formula does not seem to be in very good agreement with the rather meager experimental data. Both observers find a discrepancy of about 50 per cent between theory and observation, but in opposite directions. Zeleny and McKeehan find that the observed values are less than the calculated, while Buller finds the reverse. Zeleny and McKeehan, however, in a preliminary announcement of later work d say that Stokes's formula has been found to hold for the fall of small spheres of wax, paraffin, and mercury.
His data are given in Table II. His later, more exact experiments are reported in the Compt. In the table the data of both articles are combined. The values from the earlier experiments are marked with an asterisk. Wind Wind Wind Wind Telocity. Diameter of quarts particles. Meten of quarts parttolee. Meters of quarts parades. Meters of quarts particles.
Meters per aoconn second. The discrepancy between this result and the formula deduced from the Stokes equation is not easy to explain. It is possible that the relations existing in a narrow tube are not similar to those for free motion in the open air. They do, however, lead to the interesting conclusion that the velocity of moving air relative to its surroundings has a marked effect on the rate of fall relative to the air of particles through it. It was found that particles aver- aging 0.
In all the above discussion the velocities mentioned are, of course, the velocities of the wind with reference to the particles or vice versa , and only the components of these velocities parallel and oppo- site to the force of gravity are of interest. The velocities of the wind itself or of the particle as referred to any point in space or to a point on the surface of the earth are of no direct interest in calcu- lating the supporting power. However, the upward velocities of the momentary cross currents see p. Hygiene 68 x The size of the grains which can be rolled and drifted along the surface depends not alone on the wind velocity and the nature of the material, but obviously on the topography as well.
Mechanical analyses of dune sands from different localities show the presence of material varying between fairly wide limits, but this, at county means little, as the history of the sand is usually not fulfcp: Winds of extraordinary strength may, of course, move larger fragments. Pumpelly'saw stones 2 inches across blown along by a storm in Turkestan. In all such cases it is necessary to discriminate between material moved by the wind and material moved by gravity with the assist- ance of the wind.
On sloping ground the wind is able to dislodge v and start off rock fragments far too large to be affected by it on the level. In any event the movement of occasional large stones is of interest only as a curiosity. Of the particles moved to any distance, by far the larger number must lie well inside of Udden's limit of 0. I Carnegie Institution of Washington Pub. On pebbles moved by storms in the Alps see Theobald— Jahrb. Schweizer Alpenklubs 4i For purposes of reference some measurements of the size of undoubted wind-borne particles are given in Table III.
Dwt from atorm at Irvlngton. In I , January M. Uafcb, IMD Blroooo h -. ItOI Sirocco -in -i i 1. Sirocco In i illenatCiamar, dennaoy. BlrocCO i- ii sit Hr.
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ISUS Sirocco dual fallen. Blrocco lusi tallpn on! It haa been eiamlned by Of. Complc" made by Prof. FrMin a in- 1 1 ii-. The total amount of material which can be carried by the wind is a matter quite distinct from the question of the size of the particle which it can sustain. It is evident that water is able to carry particles much larger than can be supported by moving air, but in its relation to transport capacity this handicap is more than counterbalanced by the tremendously greater volume of the atmosphere and by the fre- quently greater velocities possessed by atmospheric currents.
The carrying capacity of the wind has been experimentally investigated by Udden, 8 who determined the amount of quartz flour of varying fineness which was kept suspended by air agitated with a velocity of about 5 miles per hour. His results are given in Table IV. No great accuracy is claimed, as the natural conditions are far too complicated to be susceptible to satisfactory reproduction in the laboratory. Assuming this value and more or less well-known values for velocities and areas of current, he calculates that the transport capacity of the winds blowing over the basin of the Mississippi is one thousand times as large as the transport capacity of the river.
This estimate is based on very conservative data and seems quite worthy of accept- ance. If anything it is probably too low. Of course because the transport capacity of the winds is one thou- sand times that of the river it does not follow that the actual amounts of material transported are in anything like the same ratio. The atmosphere is usually loaded only to a very small fraction of its ca- pacity, and the river, having so much larger a proportion of its capacity actually utilized, possibly does remove more material from the Mississippi basin than does the atmosphere. What is the actual amount of atmospheric transportation out of the Mississippi basin, or from place to place within it, it is impossible even to estimate without extensive measurements of deposited dust and of dust in the air over long periods of time.
The difficulty of making such meas- urements is very great and the value of the results obtained would probably be entirely incommensurate with the labor expended. Some idea of the amount of atmospheric transport may be obtained from the various estimates of deposited dust, of deflation, etc.
Some more or less direct measurements of the material carried by dust-storms are given on pages It will be evident that the amount of material moved by the atmosphere is probably very large, and that the maximum amount which could be moved is certainly much larger still. It may be noted in passing that if these estimates of atmospheric transport can be established they will, to a considerable extent, vitiate the calculations of the rate of geologic denudation which are based on the amount of material carried off by seaward flowing waters.
There is a small fraction of the air-borne dust which is fine enough to remain more or less permanently in suspension and the distance to which such material can be carried is limited only by the limits of the atmosphere. But by far the larger part of the material car- ried by the wind remains in the lower layers of the atmosphere and moves in a series of comparatively short leaps in a manner quite analogous to the process of saltation described by McGee for the detritus of loaded streams and noted on page 33 above.
The lengths of the leaps made by the individual particles depend on their size and shape, on the wind velocity, and to a certain extent on the topography of the country. Very heavy particles, the coarsest of the drifting sand, are dislodged by some unusually heavy gust and carried forward a distance dependent largely upon the initial impulse and the force of gravity, the resistance or assistance of the air being relatively unimportant.
Such a particle will describe a tra- jectory, which is sensibly a parabola. In all actual cases the path described is affected by so many accidental variations that it loses all resemblance to any regular curve, but the motion is always saltatory in its general character and all eolian transportation ex- cluding that of truly suspended material is by a series of leaps. This manner of progression can be very easily and very beautifully observed in the motion of drifting sand under a moderate wind. With such sand the leaps are very short — a few inches or a few feet — but the finer material intermediate between that in saltation and that in true suspension may make leaps of much greater length, perhaps even of miles.
The particular sizes or surface-mass ratios which such material includes will vary with the velocity of the wind. A heavy storm may carry in what is practically permanent suspension matter which, by ordinary winds, would be moved only in saltation. There is really no intrinsic difference between saltation and suspen- sion. Particles carried in suspension are simply saltatory particles whose leaps are disproportionately in the limiting case infinitely long.
When one particle is dropped another is picked up, and the total load may remain practically constant, though the individual particles are changing.
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Neither does it mean than an individual particle can not travel far if sufficient time be allowed. Unless in some way permanently attached to the surface some of the particles dropped at any spot will be again picked up and started on another leap. The total distance of transport effected by even one storm may be very considerable for some few of the particles. Others will be left from place to place along the way and new ones picked up in their stead.
It is this constant interchange which takes place between the atmospheric load and the soil which gives to the process of wind translocation its importance in mixing soils and maintaining their heterogeneity. The arid region dust storms, described on page 77 and following, frequently carry material so fine that much of it remains in suspen- sion throughout the whole course of the storm, and the distances covered by such material are consequently very great, though well- a See the recent experiments of Olsson-Seffer on drifting coastal sands, Jour.
Of course, in nature this practically never occurs; and owing to eddies and velocity changes in the wind a particle of medium size may be successively in "suspension" and in "saltation" a score of times in the course of a single "leap. Examination of the dust itself usually fails to indicate the place of origin, and one must rely on indirect evidence, such as the existence of a probable source in the direction from which the wind was coming, meteorological data by which the path of the storm can be traced, etc.
A few instances of long- distance transport by dust storms are given on pages It occasionally happens that dust is raised into the upper air by violent storms, volcanic eruptions, etc. Observations on cloud move- ments a have shown the presence of rapid currents at heights of from 2 to 10 miles, and the recent observations of Trowbridge b on meteor trains indicate that velocities of over miles per hour are not infrequent at greater heights 40 to 65 miles.
The existence of cloud glows and similar optical effects due to dust shows that some dust is present at high altitudes, though perhaps not at the highest mentioned, and what dust is there will travel far and fast. The European dust storm of February, , seems to have traveled mainly in the higher strata and with a velocity of about 50 miles an hour. A part of the dust of the storm of March, , also got into the higher strata above the zone of rain formation and was not precipitated with the rain of March Three days later it had sunk low enough to be caught by the rain of the 15th and carried down therewith.
Most eolian trans- portation is by saltation in the air close to the surface. Material carried either in suspension or in saltation is deposited primarily by decrease of wind velocity. Owing, however, to the variable character of the wind, and indeed to the very nature of the process of saltation, material is always being deposited and other material being picked up. The problems of the accumulation of blown material are therefore not so much problems of deposition as problems of the retention of the material which is deposited.
In so far as it causes the deposition of truly suspended atmospheric dust it will be later discussed under that head. What decreases the wind velocity will favor retention as well as deposition. Thus the action of vegetation in causing the deposition or rather the accumu- lation of blown material depends primarily upon the decrease of wind velocity produced by the vegetal obstruction, but this decrease of velocity both causes the wind to deposit its suspended matter and prevents its picking up new.
On account of their retentive action plants are particularly efficient in collecting drifting sand and other material which moves near the surface in a succession of comparatively short leaps. A clump of plants in an area of moderate sand drift will thus collect blown mate- rial around it, forming a little mound. As the sand heap grows the plants grow also and continue their accumulating action until a heap several feet high may be produced. Probably both agencies are often at work at once. Because of the great mobility of the surface material of deserts the plant- a Their universality in such regions is large due to the tendency of desert plants to grow in clumps or colonies with bare spaces between.
These isolated colonies easily catch the blown dust and sand. The plants act toward the water-borne detritus much as they act toward that moved by the wind. Forms of protection other than vegetal will also serve to prevent removal, though they have usually no tendency toward localizing accumulation. The writer has frequently seen mounds and ridges capped with desert pavements, and it seems not improbable that these elevations owe their origin to the pavement which protects them. The surrounding depressions, having lacked this protection, or the material from which to produce it, have been more deeply scoured.
It is certain that a hard surface layer will serve to localize wind scour and produce gullies and local depressions where the protecting layer is absent or breached. The clay "eolian mesas" and wind-scoured gullies of the desert of Lop-Nor 6 have probably been formed in some- what this way, c though the past distribution of vegetation may have been not without influence.
In the humid regions the action of vegetation is not so noticeable, because the plants do not grow in clumps and no raised mounds are produced, but the action is none the less present and the blown dust entangled in the Vegetation goes to raise the general soil surface over areas in which deposition is in progress. In the general movement of detritus from place to place land covered with vegetation is better able to retain material which falls on it, and it therefore happens that vegetation-covered areas, large or small, tend to gain at the expense of those not so covered.
This growth of soil, because of the retention a For examples see Rolland — Geologie Sahara algenen, p. A similar case of eolian undercutting in soft tuffs capped by a harder layer is cited by Hovey — Bull. Of course, decrease of wind velocity and consequent deposition may occur in ways with which vegetation or other surface obstacles have nothing to do; ways which are much more general and affect much larger areas. The more or less constant winds, which are caused by climatic and general meteorological conditions or by the larger features of the topography, often tend to lose their velocity over about the same area, and if these winds be dust-laden this area will become one of eolian deposition.
Of course there must be some- where complementary areas of eolian removal from which the winds have obtained their load. The accumulation of eolian material over wide areas, and even in some cases over small ones, is dependent in the most complex way upon climatic factors, not alone as they influence the path and velocity pf the winds, but even more as they control the presence or absence of vegetation and its nature and permanence.
These matters will find ample illustration in the dis- cussion of the loess and its probable origin, which will be found on pages to Accumulation in special locations may also be caused by the direct action of a moist surface in retaining particles which accidentally drop thereon. Thus the initial impulse to dune formation is occasion- ally furnished by a moist spot, which causes the accumulation of a aProc. Pumpelly — Carnegie inst. It is necessary of course that the surface be possessed of a sufficient supply of moisture to resist the drying action of the wind, and it is apparent from the discussion on page 30 that most land areas are not thus equipped.
Any surface will meet the conditions just after a rain, but very few are wet enough to do so at all times. The extreme case is that in which dust falls on the surface of the water itself. Such material goes to join the load of the stream or is deposited on the bottom of the lake or sea. Another interesting special case is the tendency of the salts of certain alkali soils to keep them moist and thus cause the accumula- tion of dust. It is possible that some few deposits of loess have been formed in this way. The ordinary drifting sand moves in saltation by comparatively short leaps, never rising far above the surface.
On the similar drift of snow in the arctic see Andree— Arch. W J McGee tells me that the Casa Grande Ruins in Arizona have been reduced to their present dilapidated state largely by the sapping of the walls by drift sand. The phenomena of sand drift are most clearly and strikingly exhibited on nearly level plains of some extent, covered with loose sand ; and, in the main, free from vegetational or other obstructions.
Such plains, of glacial, fluvial, marine, or eolian origin, are not uncommon in nature and form the sand wastes of the various con- tinents, as well as the sandy portions of the true deserts. A few of the more important works are referred to on the following pages and cited in the bibli- ography. Viestnik, Prest- wich, Razeburg, Reclus, C. Winkler, Wutzke, Zeiee, Zernecke, and Zobriet; also the authorities on dune-control cited on pages below. Published notices and descriptions of North American dune localities coastal and otherwise are given in the following list: The Hatteras Banks, N.
Pratt and Bond — ibid. Adair Bay Gulf of California: Sykes, in Hornaday — Camp fires on desert and lava, p. Southern end of Lake Michigan: Hill— Garden and forest 9: Along the Columbia River: Arkansas River Valley eastern Colorado and western Kansas: Sheyenne Delta, North Dakota: Willard — Story of the Prairies, 5th ed.
McDonald— Plant world 3: Upham — Final rept. Hall and Sardeson— Bull. The Deserts of the Great Basin: Alamogordo Desert, New Mexico: MacBride — Science n. This drift would be limited in area by borders of mountains, water, or vegeta- tion, but in the direction of prevailing winds the stoppage would be only temporary, for the sand would tend to accumulate just American deserts, p.
Hesse- Wartegg— Mexico; Land und Leute,p. Sable Island off Nova Scotia: Hahn— Meer und Kttste 1: Dorsey et al— Field oper. Dune areas are included in the following sheets of the Topographic Map of the U. Paul, and Camp Clarke, Nebr. In the course of the soil surveys conducted by this Bureau dune sands have been found and reported in the following areas the references are to the Reports of Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils: If the winds were insufficiently constant this would not take place, as the accumulations of one storm would be swept away in another direction by the next.
Also, if the mountains were too high, or the bodies of water too wide or too deep as, e. A vegetal border is just as difficult to overcome, for vegetation tends to encroach on the sand plain as much as the plain tends to encroach on the vegetation, and to decide whether the plants will tie down the sand or the sand overwhelm the plants there is always a struggle, the outcome of which is largely dependent on the climatic factors which control the rapidity and vigor of vegetal growth.
Those sand wastes of Central Asia which were once vegetation-covered and populous seem to have been invaded by the sand only after the death of the vegetation conse- quent upon increased aridity. On areas of loose sand there soon develop by the action of the eolian agencies themselves, hills or ridges of sand — the "dunes" — concerning the formation and structure of which much has been said and written. If there are gaps in the mountains the sand may be driven through to form wide fan-shaped plains — the so-called "sand glaciers.
Stelzner — Geologie argentinischen Rep. See also Albert — Actas Soc. Ixi-lxiii ; Cholnoky— Fflldtani Kdzlony Many more special works are cited elsewhere. Resumed of dune science are given in all the major text-books of geology. Some unimportant experiments on dune formation are reported by Courty— La Nature, 31, Ii These obstacles may be rocks, buildings, etc.
If the supply of sand be plentiful, the sand heap soon outgrows and kills the vege- tation to which it owes its prigin and becomes itself an "obstacle" about which still more sand will accumulate. An isolated heap of this sort on an open plain, and free from the disturbing effects of other dunes, irregular topography, etc. Under the influence of a wind sensibly constant in direction and velocity, such a simple dime exhibits the action of principles which apply to all dunes and which when once discovered can readily be applied to forms of greater complexity.
The collection of sand into a dune does not mean that it has lost its proclivity to drift, for, unless fixed, the dune itself moves more or less rapidly in the direction of the prevailing wind. The rate of advance depends on the amount of moving sand, e the frequency and violence of the effective winds, and to some extent on the topography of the coun- try. The smaller dunes always move faster. Gholnoky does not believe that dune formation is initiated by obstacles Fdldtani Kdzlony This is, of course, not necessarily the same as the prevailing wind for the whole year.
Wesseley — Flugsand, p. See also note a on page 60 of this bulletin, and Gruner— Erl. Among the coastal dimes of north Europe velocities of from 3 to 24 feet a year are cited by A. Halligan records 60 feet a year on the coast of New South Wales. In several cases the same dime advanced at different rates at different parts of the crest. The average advance for the locality is probably between 50 and 80 feet a year.
J The earth as modified by human action, ed. New South Wales Berendt— Geologie des Kurischen Haffes, p. The result of the process of migration is that dunes tend to form comparatively gentle slopes toward the wind where the sand is blown up and steep ones to leeward, where the sand has fallen over the crest.
A similar case has been observed in the Kaveri delta, India, by Wm. On the migration of dunes see also Jordan — Die geographische Resultate der von 6. Rohlfs gefuhrten Expedition in die libysohe Wuate, p. For instances see Baschin — Zs. These can not be considered dune slopes. The following measurements are found in the literature: This is the greatest slope ever observed by this author. Plate I, figure 2, shows a typical dune of this form in the delta of Carrizo Creek in the Colorado Desert, and figure 1 after ; Central Asia and Tibet, vol.
Wales 16; 94 The following measurements have been made by the present writer: Walther shows a bird's-eye view of a group of such dunes in the Trans-Caspian Desert. Dunes of this form are found in nature only where the winds blow mostly in one direction and where the dunes are not interfered with by the topography of the country or by each other. In most cases the typical form is variously modified and obscured. The angles of rest of various dry pulverulent materials have been investigated experimentally by Auerbach Ann. A similar slope on the dune lands southwest of San Francisco, Cal.
The lee slope of crescentic dunes of granular snow at Winnipeg, Canada, was measured by Cornish Geog. Wanderings in Baluchistan, p. These same dunes were later visited by McMahon, who observed no change of form. These dunes are shown in fig. Bailey; in the Colorado Desert by Holmes,? See also Hol- land — Geologie du Sahara algerien, plate 23, fig. See also Marsh — The earth as modified by human action, ed.
On other crescentic coastal dunes see Jen tzsch— Gerhard t's Dunenbaues, pp. On the fossil crescentic dunes of the German heaths see Solger— Zs. AReise der Prinzess Louise, vol. J Peru, Reiseskizzen, vol. V Field Operations, Bureau of Soils These dunes were visited in June, , by Dr. Livingston and the writer, who found conditions practically unchanged since Tolman's visit. Crescentic dunes of drifting snow have been described by Cornish — Geog. Quite analogous crescentic forms are sometimes formed from loose sand or gravel under flowing water.
The author has seen them on sand-sprinkled street pavements over which a thin sheet of rain water was flowing. Cornish has observed them in beach shingle Geog. The author observed at Fallon, Nev. A common variation of the crescentic form is that produced by the joining of two or more adjacent dunes as they increase in size. Several good examples are shown in fig. At c are three other dimes which are likely soon to do so. If only two or three dunes join, the final result is usually simply a larger dune of the crescentic form," but if the number of joining dunes is large, there is a tendency to produce more or less irregular forms of great complexity.
Sometimes, either by the union of isolated dunes or possibly in other ways, there will be formed long and passably straight ridges transverse to the ruling wind direction and frequently in series parallel to each other, like huge ripple systems. Such transverse ridges are similar to isolated dunes in their proclivity to migration, in their slope relations, etc.
Mention should perhaps be made of the unusual crescentic dunes whose points face the wind instead of stretching to leeward. These occur on certain coasts and are generally believed to be formed by the lag of the flanks of an ordinary rounded dune as it moves forward. The sand at the edges of the dune being thinner, is believed to be more easily fixed by vegetation or held by ground water rising from below. The central higher part is therefore the more free to move, and gradually leaves the flanks behind.
This hypothesis explains the occurrence of such dunes mainly on coasts, for it is exactly here that strong winds are combined with a relatively strong tendency toward fixation of the sand. On these dunes see Sokolov — Die Dun en, pp. W J McGee tells me that he has observed many instances among the dunes of western Nebraska. I have myself observed one on the Pacific coast near San Francisco. The fossil crescentic dunes of Galicia and of north Germany may be of this type. See Friedberg — Atlas geol. Solger' a last article loc.
It is, of course, possible that some observations of crescentic dunes whose points face the wind may be in error, due to the dunes having been observed during a wind contrary in direction to that by which they had been formed. Barchans are, however, very sensitive to changes in wind direction and are rapidly modified in form by a reversed wind.
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See Hedin — Geog. On the union of crescentic dunes see also Hedin — Scientific results, vol. Coastal dunes are also usually linear and transverse to the prevailing wind, but are not so likely to be regular in form as are the ridges of the desert, being largely determined by the shape of the coast line, the amount of sand supplied at various points, etc.
In addition to these forms, all of which have their greatest exten- sion in a direction transverse to the wind, there are also dunes which stretch out parallel thereto. The precise nature of the processes which give rise to these longitudinal dimes is very uncer- tain, but such forms seem to occur most readily where the supply of sand is small relative to the strength of the wind. The brief discussion of dunes above given is based on the theories of dune formation which find general acceptance at present.
Hedin — Through Asia, vol. Wellsted— Travels in Arabia, vol. Tristram— The great Sahara, pp. Sturt— Central Australia, vol. It appears, however, that these often-cited Aus- tralian ridges are composed not really of sand, but of ' ' loam " covered with sand. Their true nature and origin remain in doubt. Transverse ridges of drifted snow occur in the arctic regions. It is possible the longitudinal dunes may be formed by the erosion of the troughs rather than by accumulation see Cholnoky — Foldtani K5zl6ny This is probably true of the longitudinal snow dunes of arctic and antarctic latitudes Philippi— Zs.
The first stage of the dune of accumulation is, however, longitudinal, and consists simply of a long tongue of sand stretched out behind the inducing obstacle. See Bertololy — Krauselungs- marken und Dunen, pp. See also the works cited on page 57 above and elsewhere in this chapter. The nature of the eddy thus produced is indicated by the diagram, figure 2 after Darwin , where the directions of the moving air are indicated by the stream lines and arrows. This back eddy not only blows sand up the lee slope, thus maintaining or even increasing its steepness, but it is also active in excavating and keeping clear the trenches between the dunes of a dune complex.
Similarly Foureau Documents scientifiques mission saharienne, vol. Hedin has observed similar conditions in some of the troughs between dunes in the Takla-makan desert Through Asia, vol. W J McGee, who has observed that the most lofty and therefore most exposed dune of any complex fre- quently has on its summit a hollow surrounded on all sides by a raised rim. Similar hollows have been observed in the Capetown dunes by Braine Proc.
Hedin observed among the dunes of the Takla-makan desert circular hollows which he believed due to the meeting of two crescentic dunes, facing in oppo- site directions Through Asia, vol. The mechanism of ripple formation is not perfectly clear, and it is not improbable that in this case, as in so many others, forms apparently the same may result from quite dissimilar causes.
The formation of the typical eolian ripples is, however, probably con- nected with the tendency of all moving fluids to take on a sinusoidal Brunhes, following out his theories of the importance of erosion by whirl- winds, considers isolated circular hollows among dunes as formed in this way Mem. While this may be true in certain caseB, it seems hard to imagine the circumtances under wnich a vertical eddy would be regu- larly produced on the top of a high and approximately conical dune.
On the other hand, it is easy to see that the top of such a dune might be hollowed out by the hori- zontal eddies set up by winds blowing up the dune slope from different directions at different times. It may be, as suggested by Shone Geol. See GQnther — Sitzungsb. Eolian ripples in moder- ately coaree gravel have been described by Richardson — Rept. Similar ripples occur on drifting snow. See Cornish — Rept.
Drifting sands may be of the most varied materials, ranging from the nearly pure limestone sands of coral-fringed coasts to the quartz sands of equal purity found on some beaches and in the older deserts. Interesting dune areas of nearly pure gypsum sand occur in New Mexico c and in Utah. Even in these extreme cases there is usually, however, some slight admixture of other minerals as is shown amongst other evidence by the not inconsiderable productivity of the sands when rendered stationary and supplied with water.?
In mechanical composition dune sands are somewhat more uniform. In connection with the latter papers see Rayleigh — Proc. For an observation of sinuosities in natural air currents see Baddeley — Whirlwinds and dust Btorms in India, p. This uniformity is a natural result of the means by which the sands have been collected, and is to be expected in the light of the process of air sorting, as described on pages ; The shape of the grains is largely dependent on the history of the sand.
Desert sands formed by insolations! See also Keilhack— Chemztg. See Fraas— Aus dem Orient, pp. Other observations have been made by Wellsted — Travels in Arabia vol. Ball— Aswan Cataract of the Nile, p. It has been shown by Slichter d that for spherical grains of uniform size a con- dition nearly approached by dune sands the closest possible arrange- ment of the grains leaves These percentages of pore space are, however, not large More important is the relatively large size of the individual spaces, which enables water to move into and through dune sands more readily than is the case with more normal soils of less mechanical uniformity.
The rates both of absorption and of drainage are greater than in deposits composed of or containing finer material. The sand grains become wetted very slowly and the intergranular capillary films are not readily set up. This may occur in certain cases, but it is probably not a property of all sands, and in no case does it apply when water is actually covering the general surface. Although amply absorptive, sands have little power of retaining moisture. All added water flows at once to lower levels and the amount held by capillary action is far less than in finer materials.? The water content of sands above the ground-water level is therefore a See Sorby— Quart, jour.
Kemna has made the same calculations Bull. Some actual measurements by Ramann give values of Kohler— Physika- liache Eigenschaften des Sandes, , where further literature is cited. It has been shown by Buckingham 6 in this laboratory that evaporation from all soils takes place almost entirely from the surface, and that the water in the lower layers can be lost by evaporation only by being first raised to the surface by capillary action.
The process of mulching, by destroying this continuity, prevents or retards the rise and loss of the soil moisture. In sands the capillary films are less numerous, less closely interwoven, and more easily broken, so that when evaporation is at all rapid the surface layer is dried out faster than new moisture can be supplied by capillary rise, and in consequence the connection with the lower moist layers is broken and the rise and loss of water is prevented.
Thus, although evaporation from the surface may be very rapid on account of the loose and open texture, the total evaporation from sands is usually less than from more normal soils. The low capillary capacity of sands causes on them the same results which are produced on the soils of arid regions by the intensity of evaporation. The dry surface layer acts as a natural mulch and protects the layers below.
On dune flora in general Bee Wesseley—Flugsand, pp. Hart and Gleason, E. Bibliographies are given by Cowles — Bot. Where the water table is close to the surface this internal moisture may be due to capillary rise, but the height to which water will rise in uniform sand is not great, and in the majority of cases the dune moisture must be rain or dew which has been absorbed at the surface and retained. The occasional rainfall sinks at once into the sand, and, protected from evaporation, flows easily and quickly to the lower layers, becoming available to plants growing in the oases situated in depressions of the surface.
A photograph showing the means of propagation of this plant is given by Westgate — Bull. Brown — Pine plantations on the sand wastes of France, pp. Wales 12 x ; Fippin and Rice — Field operations, Bur. The presence of moisture in dune sands is well illustrated at many points in the Colorado Desert and probably elsewhere by the greenness of the bushes mainly Covillea tridentata growing thereon, while bushes growing on less sandy soils are yellow and faded. In the heart of the Takla-makan desert Hedin dug a.
It is of course possible, as suggested by Oleson-Seffer New phytologist 8x [] , that some dune moisture may be due to internal dew formation, the water coming from lower layers moistened by the ground waten. Buckingham's experi- ments above cited indicate, however, that the amount of water thus transferred can not be great.
On the absorption and storage of water by the dune sands of the Arkansas Valley, see Darton— U. The native wells of the arid southwest, the water holes of the Kalihari, the "soakages" of central Australia are all evidences that in these deserts at least the aridity is of the surface only. Even in the deserts of the most complete aridity, as, for instance, the Takla- makan, ground water can be gotten by digging in wide areas con- tiguous to the borders and to internal depressions or stream valleys.
Of course, this underground water may sometimes be derived from lower water-bearing strata whose supply originates outside the desert basin. Such are probably the artesian strata of the Sahara, Central Australia, parts of Arizona, etc. In most cases, however, external supply is impossible and the desert ground water must be from rainfall in the desert basin and on its watershed, which rainfall is absorbed and conserved in the deep sandy soils. Travelers in the desert speak often of the "intense evaporation" which leaves the soil dry a few minutes after a heavy shower. Of course, evaporation is intense, but the disappearance of the rain water from the surface soil is due as much to absorption as to evaporation.
Though dune areas are usually barren, the sands are not infertile in the sense that they lack the mineral elements of plant food. The great potential fertility of desert soils is well known and all travelers and residents therein have noticed the rapidity with which the desert will spring to life after a rain.
Der Tag im Überblick
The vegetable matter is "burnt out," and both for this reason and on account of the physical disadvantages of sandy structure, dune sand seldom forms soil of a Quart, jour. On the theory of Courbis that the great dunee of the Sahara owe their position and fixity to the escape of water underneath their site, see Courbie— Compt. King— Masked Tawareks, p. Suitable plants will, however, grow very well on it, and many dune areas now waste could be agriculturally utilized if properly handled. The first step in the control and utilization of dune areas is the stop- ping of sand movement and the establishment of a stable and perma- nent surface.
Such fixation is sometimes profitable because of the value of the lands thus made available for agriculture, but more often the work of control is rendered advisable on account of the encroach- ment of the moving sands on more valuable land or on works of man. In many parts of the world coastal dunes have caused great damage to agricultural lands and in some cases to harbors, seashore villages, etc. Dunenbaues, ; Davy— U. The general methods employed with special reference to European conditions are fully described by Gerhardt — Handbuch des deutschen Dunenbaues The particular plant which is most useful in any individual case depends upon the general ecological environment as well as upon the efficiency of the plant as a sand binder, and many different plants have been successfully used in different parts of the world.
Of these the mar- ram or beach-grass Ammophila arenaria 6 hoA been found particularly useful in temperate climates, and especially so upon coastal dunes. Other literature on dune control is given in the bibliography under A. Most of the early Hungarian literature there cited is not included here. Much of the extensive Russian literature is also omitted but will be found, for the most part, in the columns of the Lfesnol zhurnal.
On its use in the interior of Aus- tralia see Maiden — Agr. They are eager to return but have no idea how badly the fighting damaged the city. Mohamed said with a wince, as his American guides led him off to look at another ruined clinic. As military officials here prepare to start letting the first residents return to Falluja, possibly as soon as mid-December, they face an unusual challenge: Their task will be made harder by the need to deter returning insurgents, who will try to sabotage the reconstruction with attacks, commanders say.
American officials say they cannot afford to let this former insurgent bastion become a microcosm of the broader struggle in Iraq - a rapid military victory followed by a lapse into violence and chaos. Yet even some American officers here are skeptical about their ability to bring back safely more than a small number of residents in time for the national and provincial elections in January - a central goal of the offensive. American troops have found an unexpectedly large number of weapons storehouses, commanders say, and the need to dispose of them safely has delayed rebuilding efforts in those areas.
The full extent of the damage inflicted by American bombs, tanks and artillery is only now becoming apparent. The number of buildings destroyed in the fighting is far higher than , the figure released last week by the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, engineers and commanders say. American planners also say it is essential that much of the actual rebuilding work be given to Iraqi contractors but acknowledge that those contractors will be subject to intimidation and that qualified Iraqi engineers may be hard to find. It is still far from clear how the military will communicate its neat plan to repopulate the city sector by sector, or how the returnees will react once they arrive.
Falluja, where resistance to the American occupation ran high, has a long history as a rebellious city. American officials say they fully understand the risks, and have been planning for them since last spring. The American plan here involves a carefully phased renewal. The city will be opened to residents sequentially, starting in the north and moving southward as basic services are restored to 16 separate areas designated by American military planners, said Col. To prevent looting, the head of every household will be asked to wear an identification badge, Colonel Ballard said, and American and Iraqi troops will be given special rules of engagement to deal with theft.
No cars will be allowed in the city at first, to prevent car bombs. Instead, a bus system will provide free transportation. Badly damaged homes will be bulldozed and rebuilt, or owners will be compensated. In short, the Marines envision a huge effort of social and physical engineering, all intended to transform a bastion of militant anti-Americanism into a benevolent and functional metropolis. But if similar rebuilding efforts in Najaf and elsewhere are any guide, the project under way here - far more ambitious than anything yet tried in this country - will be more expensive and time-consuming than its planners think.
Reconstruction projects undertaken in Najaf since the fighting there in August, for instance, have been plagued by corruption, overpayment and shoddy work, relief officials said. After an American corporation there began rebuilding a wastewater treatment plant, they found a lack of local people with the training to operate it, said Lt. Michael Woltz, a member of the team of Navy Seabees helping rebuild Falluja. DeFrancisi, a Marine civil affairs officer. If they fail, as they did in April, the whole project could unravel. American and Iraqi forces will provide security for all the reconstruction projects, at least initially, Colonel Ballard said.
They will also form a cordon around the city, screening anyone who enters and checking for weapons. While some Iraqi companies have already been taken on, none wanted their names disclosed because of security concerns. Officials would not comment on whether any American contractors had been hired. So far, it is far from clear that the Americans can keep insurgents out of the city. Some appear to be living there now, relying on the Americans for emergency food and water during the day and attacking them by night, according to both American commanders and Iraqis living in the area.
All of them are young men, some with suspicious wounds, and all have the same story: Some even wear the distinctive black clothes and tennis shoes favored by the insurgents. Last week, Hamid Humood, a year-old cigarette seller who had stayed in the city during the battle, was one of those seeking American food and water at the Hadra mosque. But most are waiting in small towns or rural areas outside the city, and they are growing impatient.
Just east of Falluja, several hundred exiled residents are now living on the grounds of a cement plant. During a visit there on a day when the temperature was just above 40 degrees, many displaced residents were dressed in light summer clothing and complained that they had no blankets and had left their winter clothing in Falluja. Americans who brought them emergency food and water could only apologize and explain that they had no blankets.
But when they return, they will suffer even more. The White House has repeatedly proclaimed its respect for the Geneva Conventions, international law and American statutes governing the treatment of prisoners. Lewis showed how hollow those assurances are. It found mistreatment similar to that at Abu Ghraib, including beatings, prolonged isolation, sexual humiliation and prolonged "stress positions" for prisoners. The Red Cross reported the same level of abuse in the spring of By this June, it said, the regime was "more refined and repressive.
Yesterday, Lawrence Di Rita, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld, said the Red Cross had "their point of view," which was not shared by the Bush administration. The recent debate over prisoner abuse has not been brought to the courts, but the Supreme Court has ruled that Mr. Bush cannot suspend due process for prisoners of his choosing.
The White House, the Pentagon and the Justice Department clearly have no intention of addressing the abuse. But Republican leaders have ignored the issue. Senator John Kerry never even raised it during the campaign. During confirmation hearings, the Senate Judiciary Committee should press Mr.
Gonzales about why he signed off on two legal opinions that justified torture and claimed that Mr. Bush could suspend the Geneva Conventions whenever he liked. They should ask what he intends to do about fixing the problem. Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, should resume his valuable hearings on prisoner abuse. Ideally, he would finally ask the Senate leadership to create a investigative committee with subpoena powers to impose accountability on high-ranking generals and civilian officials.
Mein Freund schlug ihnen sanft vor, ihre Wahlaussage auf einen einzigen wesentlichen Punkt zu konzentrieren. Einen Moment zogen diese Leute die Augenbrauen hoch, dann kam die ebenso lapidare wie nonchalante Antwort: Ein regnerischer Morgen in Kiew. Im Hinblick auf die ehemaligen Sowjet- Republiken gilt Pseudo-Nationalismus jedoch als anti-russisch und daher als demokratisch. Sie erzeugt die Vorstellung, die Regierung versuche, Justschenko loszuwerden.
Dabei ist sein Revier, die West-Ukraine, wirtschaftliches Brachland. Janukowitsch andererseits wird als pro-russisch dargestellt, ein Statist. Unter Janukowitsch konnte die ukrainische Wirtschaft ein eindrucksvolles Wachstum verzeichnen. Neglect Follows Siege of Fallujah Dahr Jamail The Iraqi ministry of health is failing to provide enough support to hundreds of thousands who fled Fallujah, and doctors in Baghdad are perplexed. During the Najaf fighting it was not like this, said a Baghdad surgeon. But for Fallujah they have done next to nothing.
Doctors in Baghdad are perplexed why there has been little or no assistance from the health ministry to residents or refugees. Riad Hussein, a resident surgeon in Baghdad. Aisha Mohammed from Baghdad. Mohammed said she and several doctors from her hospital had struggled to get supplies from the ministry of health to refugees stranded in camps around Baghdad. We are in a crisis. Musir Khasem Ali who heads the public relations department of the health ministry says there are more than , refugees from Fallujah.
He was unable to provide any details about how his ministry was assisting the refugees who are now spread all over central Iraq. Fellow Iraqis rather than the government or even non-governmental organisations are providing most of the aid the refugees need. The ministry claims to have done the necessary. The Fallujah general hospital remained a no-go zone for people in the city trapped in their homes until very recently. The refugees meanwhile continue to suffer. Is what they did to our city not enough for them? Guerrillas in the town of Baiji north of Baghdad detonated a car bomb in a crowded market, killing 7 persons and wounding nearly Elsewhere in Baiji, a guerrilla fired a rocket propelled grenade at a US tank, wounding a soldier and damaging the tank.
On Monday, near Ramadi, a suicide car bomber targeted Iraqi policemen who had gathered to collect their paychecks at a police station, Monday, a suicide car bomber plowed into policemen waiting to collect their salaries at a police station. The attacker killed 12 persons and wounded at least One describes the confidence of US Ambassador to Baghdad John Negroponte that the Sunni Arabs will vote in the upcoming elections rather than boycotting them. What would be a good turnout? That would be 9 percent of seats in parliament, which would not be enough to satisfy Sunnis as the new constitution is hammered out.
And,it could be less I think it will be less. The proportional voting system put in by the Americans is almost certain to amplify the Shiite and Kurdish votes, and even the best likely outcome for Sunni Arabs is fairly severe marginalization. The enthusiasm of the Shiites for the elections is the point of her second piece. But that enthusiasm is apparently not actually good news for the Bush administration.
Are You an Author?
She reports a widespread attitude among Shiites: Rory McCarthy of the Guardian tells us more about the Shiite mega-list being formed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, which will probably dominate the elections. The negotiations appear to have gone exceedingly well. His report is the first indication I have seen that the Fudhala Virtuous Party will join the Sistani coalition. The Fudhala are an offshoot of the Sadr movement, who reject the leadership of Muqtada al-Sadr. Az-Zaman reports that a communique of dubious soundness was issued by a shadowy organization called the Mujahidin Brigades, claiming to have found and killed the assassin of Shaikh Faidi al-Faidi, who was killed in Mosul last week.
Al-Faidi had been a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, which has called for a boycott of the Iraqi elections. They called the assassin Kamran Abd al-Sattar a Kurdish name and accused him of working for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. That Sunni fundamentalists in Iraq are blaming Kurds for this assassination is a very bad sign. The same article says that the Association of Muslim Scholars has called for a boycott of the US military, especially of the Iraqi national guards. It says that dozens of Iraqi military are resigning from the national guards, as a result of the AMS call.
Since the AMS is also calling for a boycott of the elections, this is another sign that can be characterized as "not good. Wednesday, December 01, War News for December 1, http: From one little article in the Detroit Free Press: A resurgence in armed action broke out Tuesday in areas west of Fallujah along a key highway leading to Jordan weeks after a massive U.
Heavily armed anti-American insurgents on Tuesday took over and briefly held nine police stations and highway checkpoints, blowing up two buildings, police said. Drivers reported that insurgents took control of large sections of the highway leading west out of Iraq, stopping traffic and shaking down passengers. The takeover of police installations came on a day of bombings against U.
The worst was in Beiji, an oil-refining town miles north of Baghdad, as a U. A car bomb killed seven civilians and wounded at least 15 people. Two of the wounded were U. In a simultaneous attack elsewhere in Beiji, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U. Insurgents blew up two badly damaged buildings Tuesday in Khaledia, between Fallujah and Ramadi, a small city on the highway leading to Jordan, police said. Insurgents also took over six checkpoints west of Ramadi, al Delemi said. Otherwise there could be real problems. Fuad Kubaysi, one of those staying at the Red Crescent compound, said, "What has happened to Falluja is a horror beyond anything imaginable.
Let them have it. Let whomever wants it have it. We cannot ever call this city home again. A review of international media coverage reveals that, in general, the US press, as in this instance, focuses on battle tactics and keeps score of US casualties, while elsewhere in the world the press is emphasizing the human costs of the war.
Since the initial attack on Fallujah, the mainstream US press has failed to mention the civilian casualties—though they number, according to international reports, in the thousands. The tone of these stories is clinical, cold and distant. Either that, or the US press is choosing to mirror the worst in US society: Which of these conditions, one wonders, is more difficult to cure? The Department of Defense has identified U. At least eight more have died but remain unidentified, according to the military. The total of , which includes non-combat related deaths, matches April of this year for the deadliest month since fighting began in March About 21, American soldiers, most of them from units sent to Iraq, have been treated at the biggest U.
Landstuhl doctors treated 17, U. A Slight Difference of Opinion: Disintegrating security in Baghdad was underlined in a sombre warning yesterday from the British embassy against using the airport road or taking a plane out of Iraq. The embassy says a bomb was discovered on a flight inside Iraq on 22 November.
It shows that insurgents have been able to penetrate the stringent security at Baghdad airport. The embassy says its own staff have been advised against taking commercial planes. The warning is in sharp contrast to more optimistic statements from US military commanders after the capture of Fallujah in which they have spoken of "breaking the back of the insurgency". I recommend reading the whole article. The British embassy no longer allows any travel on the Baghdad airport road. The reference to the use of shaped charges should give US commanders a cold chill. Faced with the real threat of terrorist attacks during Iraqi elections next month, U.
Marines who were scheduled to leave Iraq this month may be ordered to stay longer, while soldiers from the 3rd Infantry and 82nd Airborne could be ordered into Iraq earlier than scheduled. Even then, it would seem impossible to protect all 9, polling places in Iraq from terrorist attack. In areas populated by Shiites, who are the majority in Iraq, the process is going relatively smoothly.
In contrast, intimidation and fear are rampant in some areas where Sunnis reside. The success of the registration drive - and the success of the parliamentary election itself - matters greatly. After such an election, Iraq might be rocked by charges of minority disenfranchisement, weakening hopes for quelling violence and reducing sectarian strife. The member panel, appointed by U. Secretary-General Kofi Annan after the U. Security Council has the legal standing to authorize such a "preventive war. A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees, a finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison that touched off investigations into prisoner mistreatment.
The report, which was not released publicly and was recently obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that some U. It also said coalition fighters could be feeding the Iraqi insurgency by "making gratuitous enemies" as they conducted sweeps netting hundreds of detainees who probably did not belong in prison and holding them for months at a time. The Human Cost Deaths in combat ricochet here at home: The love affair of Deborah and Donald May began in September as a happy collision of two hearts. It ended March 25, , during the first days of the Iraq war, when the tank commanded by Staff Sgt.
May, 31, plunged into the Euphrates River and sank to the bottom. He and his three tankmates drowned, trapped inside. Unlike so many accounts of a conflict that has reshaped Iraq, it came not from the U. A blacksmith turned insurgent, Abu Mohammed undertook an odyssey this month that took him from the battlefields of Fallujah, roiled with religion, to a harrowing escape across the Euphrates River, to a lonely exile in Baghdad, where he waits to fight another day.
It began with the death of his son, Ahmed, whose short life was ended by an American bullet. GI threatens suicide over return to Iraq: A serviceman, apparently distraught over the prospect of being sent back to the war in Iraq, threatened to kill himself as he stood naked and screaming outside his house. Police took the man into custody at his Fernwood Drive house.
He was taken for treatment to Bridgeport Hospital. A mutilated body discovered in Fallujah a fortnight ago was not Margaret Hassan, the missing British aid worker believed murdered earlier this month, British sources in Baghdad said yesterday. But others in Iraq, including her husband, cling to the slim hope that she may still be alive.
Casualty Reports Local story: One NYC firefighter killed in Baghdad, another wounded in same incident. Let the sexually bitter and morally frantic conservative groups now dictating governmental policy and FCC agendas and paranoid media attitudes have their time, their brief cultural burp, their little speed bump on the great and beckoning highway that will still lead us all, inexorably, irreversibly, though often agonizingly, toward grinning open-thighed progress.
All this and more, is gonna happen. This is my belief. Because right now, we seem to be stuck. Hateful and narrow and sexually small and the country is right this minute being led, morally speaking, by a cadre of sexually barren males and prim humorless vaginally denuded women who have about as much sex appeal and libidinous acumen and raw divine awareness as a beige Dodge Caravan. This much we know. The recoil always happens.
And the further the petrified fundamentalists now squeezing the testicles of our born-again administration cram us down the bleak hole of s-style sexual ignorance and misogyny and homophobia and silly whining to the FCC about bare breasts and curse words and heavily Botoxed white women daring to expose themselves to black NFL stars, the more potent and delicious and the backlash will be.
Call it the slingshot effect: But, alas, some might argue we have yet to progress at all. Some might argue that for every gleeful step forward, we take a dozen back. For every overturned Texas antisodomy law, there are 11 sad states that ban same-sex marriage in a misguided panic of homophobia and ignorance. These groups, by the way, they actually compare Kinsey, the world-famous and hugely respected researcher, to notorious Nazi doctor Josef "Angel of Death" Mengele. And for child abuse. And probably for organic food and yoga magazines and Buddhism and sacrum tattoos on teenage girls.
But look just beneath the headlines. Look behind the moral smoke screen. You know the answer. It might not always be easy to see and it might get buried in layers of screeching sound bites and regressive policy and silly religious nutballs finding sneaky and insulting ways to teach creationism in schools, and it is always viciously resisted by the most morally rigid of the culture, but this vital truth remains. Change always forces its way through the muck, despite -- or perhaps because of -- heroic attempts by right-wing homophobes to nail its foot to the pseudo-Christian floor.
Look at it this way: And the potentially enthralling place we will likely be in, say, a decade or two will not have been possible without the vicious pseudo-sanctimony that defines the current BushCo era. But by many accounts, all this means is that we are indeed on the verge of a huge leap forward. Darkest before the dawn, baby. It is never easy. Americans must often be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the future. And it is, as always, our choice on how we embrace these imminent changes.
And one look at the cataclysmic hypocrisy of the Catholic Church is all you need to realize what happens when you attempt to deny human nature and reject our sensual heat and shut down the libido in favor of some sort of misguided and falsely pious agenda. Forget the alarmist headlines. The Great Sexual Revolution 2. Deny it at your peril. Thoughts for the author? Subscribe to this column at sfgate. Monday, November 29, Tired in Baghdad The situation in Falloojeh is worse than anyone can possibly describe.
It has turned into one of those cities you see in your darkest nightmares- broken streets strewn with corpses, crumbling houses and fallen mosques I keep having flashbacks of that video they showed on tv, the mosque and all the corpses. There was one brief video that showed the same mosque a day before, strewn with many of the same bodies- but some of them were alive.
They say that a morgue in Baghdad has received the corpses of citizens in Falloojeh who have died under seemingly mysterious conditions. Electricity has been particularly bad. Our telephone has been cut off for the last week which has made communication and blogging particularly difficult. The phone difficulties are quite common all over Baghdad. It usually happens in an area after a fresh bombing. We spent the last week fixing up the house. Around 10 days ago, there were a series of very large explosions in our area and the third or fourth one took out three of the windows on one side of the house.
Riverbend and family spent two days gathering shattered glass and sticking sheets of plastic over the gaping squares that were once windows. Our window man has become a virtual millionaire with an average of about 20 windows to replace daily. The situation is really bad in Baghdad. Many areas have turned into mini-warzones. The rest of us just get our usual dose of daily explosions and gun fire. Elections are a mystery. Allawi, in spite of all his posturing and posing, has turned himself into a hateful figure after what happened in Falloojeh.
As long as he is in a position of power, America will be occupying Iraq. People realize that now. He has proved that time and again and people are tired of waiting for something insightful or original to come from his government. The weather is cool now. Baghdad is popular for a dry, windy cold. The kerosene heater has become my cherished friend these last couple of weeks. An Iraqi Police truck races by on the wrong side of the road, sirens blaring…to do what? Without our joking, we would have lost it a long time ago. While the humanitarian crisis facing families who remain trapped inside Fallujah grinds on, US-backed interim prime minister Ayad Allawi announced yesterday that the crime rate in Fallujah was down after the US siege of the city.
Remember that not long ago, Allawi also announced that every person killed in Fallujah was a fighter, ie-not one civilian was killed. As heavy traffic of Apache helicopters roars incessantly over Baghdad, fierce clashes continue against the occupation forces while the interim prime minister is in Jordan, attempting to persuade Iraqis living there to participate in the upcoming elections.
With at least US soldiers killed in Iraq this month so far, yet another huge car bomb detonated into a military convoy on the dreaded airport road. While witnesses reported seeing several bodies lying on the ground at the scene, the military has yet to announce any casualty counts. Another car bomb in Beji detonated near a US patrol, killing 4 Iraqis and wounding at least 19, including 2 US soldiers. Allawi continues to insist that violence in Iraq is decreasing since the siege of Fallujah.
After picking up some friends, we are snarled in more horrendous traffic near the airport road on our way to another refugee camp. Razor wire stretches across the road as helicopters and military hardware are clustered just up the road. Meanwhile, the military refused to allow yet another aid convoy into Fallujah.
While a few ambulances were allowed into one section of the city a few days ago, there are at least three main neighborhoods that the military is keeping a tight lid on. Refugees continue to report the use of napalm and phosphorous weapons-of seeing dead bodies with no bullet holes in them, just scorched patches of skin. More refugees at the Amiryah bomb shelter camp in Baghdad are telling the same horror stories.
Crowds of men stand outside gates holding their food ration papers in the air to prove they are from Fallujah in order to receive small heaters, stoves, foodstuffs and blankets. Thankfully, an international NGO managed to donate funds to purchase much of these desperately needed supplies for refugees. Medicines have also been purchased with the donations for Iraqi doctors to dispense to the refugees. Sheikh Hussein who is in charge of the relief effort at the mosque is struggling to cope with the crisis. We stand in a small courtyard behind the mosque away from the crowds talking.
I notice a white military surveillance balloon nearby, as helicopters rumble overhead. Women and children are crying outside the gates as men grapple for the small heaters and stoves. Similar to what the US military has done to Fallujah, the German Nazis leveled Lidice as payback collective punishment for the death of a high ranking member of the German security administration, Reinhard Heydrich, who was killed by Czech patriots in Last March, four mercenaries were brutally killed in Fallujah, which led to the first US siege of the city in April as collective payback for the attack. Mostly for political reasons that siege was ceased, which set the stage for the recent attack on the city.
Similarly, Heydrich was assassinated by Czech patriots who were accused of being aided by the village of Lidice. Thus, Hitler ordered the village to be erased, and all men in the city over the age of 16 were killed. Musar, a woman at the mosque standing nearby is weeping. And now the soldiers are coming to our refugee camp and detaining people! My brother is a doctor there and they made him leave his work. You must help us. I need my cousins and my uncle! I just want to see them.
None of them are fighters. It is located on the banks of river Euphrates, the largest river in Southwest Asia. The miles long Euphrates is linked with some of the most important events in olden history. The city of Ur, found at its mouth, was the birthplace of Abraham. On its banks stood the city of Babylon. In the past, the army of Necho was defeated on its banks by Nebuchadnezzar. Cyrus the Younger and Crassus perished after crossing it. Alexander traversed it and continued his journey eastward. Fallujah has been laid waste. It has been bombed, re-bombed, its citizens gunned down, its structures devastated by powerful weapons.
It is a hell on earth of crushed bodies, shattered buildings and the reek of death. In addition to the artillery and the warplanes dropping , , and pound bombs, ton Abrams Tanks and the murderous AC Spectre gunship that can demolish a whole city block in less than a minute, the Marines had snipers crisscrossing the entire town firing at will at whatever moved outside the buildings. For those inside, the US troops were equipped with thermal sights capable of detecting body heat. No body has an accurate idea of how many Iraqis—combatants and noncombatants—have been killed by the thousands of tons of explosives and bullets let loose upon the city.
Mortuary teams collecting the dead rotting in the city streets are fighting the wandering dogs that are busy devouring their former masters. The hundreds buried beneath the rubble and debris will be dug out later. The world is awaiting the toll from more reliable sources with a wincing anticipation. Parents have been forced to watch their wounded children die and then bury their bodies in their gardens. Meanwhile, people forage in their gardens looking for something to eat. Those that have survived this far are looking gaunt.
The opposite is happening to the dead—left where they fell, they are now bloated and rotting US general John Sattler declared: The city has been razed to the ground because its political, spiritual and tribal leaders, motivated by Iraqi patriotism and opposition to the presence of foreign troops in their country, organized a guerilla resistance to the US invasion. The aim of the US assault is to make Fallujah a model to the rest of Iraq of what will happen to those thinking on similar lines.
It is the leading thrust of an orgy of killing intended to crush and drive underground every voice of dissent and ensure that elections this coming January will throw up a weak-willed, pro-US toady regime. The American military is rumored to be planning similar attacks on scores of other Iraqi cities and towns. Not a single major voice has been raised in the American media against the ongoing destruction of Fallujah.
While much of the world recognizes something dreadful has occurred, the US press does not even bat an eyelash over the organized leveling of a city of , people. In none of the US media commentaries is there a single phrase of unease about the moral, or legal, questions involved in the attack on Fallujah.
None have dared say it in as many words that the American military operation in the city is an unlawful act of aggression in an equally illegal, criminal, aggressive war. The opposite is true in fact. Ralph Peters, the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace.
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If that means widespread destruction, we must accept the price. Those who remain have made their choice. We need to pursue the terrorists remorselessly While we strive to obey the internationally recognized laws of war though our enemies do not , our goal should be to target the terrorists and insurgents so forcefully that few survive to raise their hands in surrender. We need terrorists dead in the dust. And the world needs to see their corpses We need to demonstrate our strength of will to the world, to show that there is only one possible result when madmen take on America.
For the first time since the Wehrmacht swept through Europe, the world is witnessing a major imperialist power launching an unjustifiable war, placing an entire people under military occupation and carrying out acts of collective and visible punishment against civilian populace. This terrorizing of nations and individuals by various US governments has been going on full bore since at least the late s, when Americans obliterated a million Filipinos to keep them safe from the Spanish. The difference with past is that George Bush does it in the name of his God, a God far superior to any other and sanctioned fully by his coterie.
Ironically, both George Bush and his nemesis, Osama Bin Laden, refer to God almost equal number of times in their public pronouncements. They killed 10, innocent Afghans but could not find their man. They killed tens of thousands of Iraqis but found no WMD. The city and its inhabitants have been blown to smithereens but there is no Zarqawi. Is it not only too convenient? Next when they want to attack Pakistan, or Iran, they simply have to say that Bin Laden is taking refuge there.
Is one imagining things here? Or is it that the US imperialism is indeed now riding full time on the back of gargantuan lies? After granting George Bush a carte blanche to do what he likes the American citizens, of course, continue their daily lives oblivious to what is being done in their name. Between their work places and the nearest fast food joints, they just do not have enough time to check back on the activities of the man who is playing the Terminator in the name of God and in their name.
Those who do get to know a little are in a constant state of denial. One thing is sure though. Just like in post-war Germany where some even denied the holocaust. Bush and his cohorts just four years to do exactly that, and not just in the eyes of the Muslim world. As America sinks deeper into the heart of darkness, its thinking citizens need to jolt themselves out of their apathy. With each passing day their beloved America is scaling ever greater heights of hideous glories.
The man in charge, George W. But as the falsehood dies and gives way to truth, as all lies must one day, it will be the Iraqi dead that will form a legion of phantoms and would throng around Americans in a macabre dance to haunt them for decades. The fury of those phantoms will be hair raising. Fallujah will enter history as the place where US imperialism carried out an offense of heinous proportions this November, a monstrous crime far beyond any possible forgiveness. The crimson waters of the Euphrates are now emptying into the Persian Gulf the hopes and aspirations of innocent people whose lives were snuffed out on the orders of a man rewarded for his monumental crimes by his great nation.
The Euphrates flows on. At his memorial service, the Associated Press reported, he was remembered "as a marine who died for his country. Clinton Wisdom, said a reporter for Channel 13 news, was "a soldier who had died for his country. Wisconsin lost three men in Iraq that week, including Todd Cornel, Have any of the Iraq war dead really "died for their country"? But with 1, U. What does it mean to fight or die for the United States? When we hear that soldiers fight for our country, we immediately think of their role guarding our borders, protecting us from invaders.
During the ensuing years, no member of the U. If you participate in a war of retribution, are you "fighting for your country"? There have only been four attacks on American soil by a foreign power. Pearl Harbor, the now-forgotten submarine strafing of a California oil refinery, balloon-borne bombs dropped without casualties on Oregon and Washington state, and an air raid on Dutch Harbor, a remote U. There is no evidence that the Axis intended to invade the U. The defeat of Nazism liberated millions from tyranny, but that was a happy byproduct of a war we fought to expand our military and economic influence.
What about avenging an attack, not on U. In President Reagan ordered bombings in Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a German disco that killed off-duty American soldiers. The most recent bona fide assault on a foreign asset by another country took place in when Iranians took over the American embassy in Tehran. The truth is, U. Of the approximately deployments of U. True, had the U.
We lost Vietnam and made a friend; we won in Korea and created our most dangerous enemy today. For an empire, military action is its own reward. Our willingness to wage war intimidates adversaries and their neighbors into giving us what we want: When American sailors invaded the Falkland Islands in , it was "to defend American interests.
Ditto for the Dominican Republic action where defending U. The soldiers who fought in those invasions were told they were fighting for their country. Those who lost their lives were called heroes. Everyone, even the Bushists who manufactured the war from whole cloth, admits that Iraq never had weapons that could hurt us or means to hit us with them if they had.
Our soldiers may be doing their duty, fighting fiercely, and giving their lives in the bargain. Ted Rall writes for a generation unjustly maligned as a pack of lazy slackers. But history - if written by Iraqis - may well enshrine it as the new Guernica. Paraphrasing Jean-Paul Sartre memorably writing about the Algerian War , after Fallujah no two Americans shall meet without a corpse lying between them: The new Guernica Fallujah is the new Guernica.
The residents of the Basque capital in were resisting the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Fallujah in was resisting the dictator Iyad Allawi, the US-installed interim premier. Franco asked Nazi Germany - which supported him - to bomb Guernica, just as Allawi "asked" the Pentagon to bomb Fallujah.
Guernica had no air force and no anti-aircraft guns to defend itself - just like Fallujah. In Guernica - as in Fallujah - there was no distinction between civilians and guerrillas: The Nazis shouted "Viva la muerte! Marine commanders said on the record that Fallujah was the house of Satan.
Franco denied the Guernica massacre and blamed the local population - just as Allawi and the Pentagon deny any civilian deaths and insist "insurgents" are guilty: Fallujah has been reduced to rubble, and thousands of civilians have died. But Asia Times Online sources in Baghdad confirm that according to residents, the southern - and larger - part of Fallujah is still controlled by the resistance; the Americans control only the north and some eastern spots.
Small groups made up of five to 20 mujahideen still conduct hit-and-run attacks. More than 15, refugee families may be living in sordid makeshift shelters around Fallujah - not to mention the upwards of , residents who escaped the city before it was leveled. Talking to al-Jazeera television network this past weekend, Sheikh Abd as-Salam al-Kubaysi, chief of the public relations department of the powerful Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars AMS confirmed that "until now, more than half of Fallujah is in the hands of the resistance".
Al-Kubaysi added that "the Americans are entrenched in Fallujah but cannot get out and on to any street or alley in more than half the city, whether that be in Jolan, Shuhada or the industrial zone, or Nazal, or in many places". Dr al-Kubaysi is an unimpeachable source. AMS clerics in Baghdad also confirm Iraqi Red Crescent estimates, via its spokesman Muhamad al-Nuri, that more than 6, people - mostly civilians - may have died. Nuri confirms "bodies can be seen everywhere and people were crying when receiving food parcels.
It is very sad, it is a human disaster. Fifteen years ago in Halabja - at a time when Washington was an enthusiastic supplier of chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein - thousands of Kurds were gassed. Assuming Saddam did it, and did it deliberately, the US may have done the same thing in Fallujah. As Asia Times Online has reported, Fallujah doctors have identified either swollen and yellowish corpses without any injuries, or "melted bodies" - victims of napalm, the terrifying cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel.
Our sources confirm testimonies by residents who managed to escape the Jolan neighborhood of bombing by "poisonous gases". A resident called Abu Sabah told of "weird bombs that smoke like a mushroom cloud The pieces of these strange bombs explode into large fires that burn the skin even when you throw water over them". This is exactly what happens to people bombed with napalm or white phosphorus. The UN banned the bombing of civilians with napalm in The US is the only country in the world still using napalm. Upwards of , Fallujans at least had the chance to escape: Practically not a single word from them about the massacre is to be found in US corporate media.
This is yet one more extreme, bitter irony of the war: President George W Bush and the neo-conservatives invaded Iraq based on "intelligence" supplied by five-star refugees like Ahmad Chalabi and Allawi - but refugees nonetheless. The counterinsurgency blueprint The defining image of Fallujah - for Iraqis, for the Arab world, for 1. This execution, caught on tape, suggests "special" rules of engagement were applying. These "rules" are all confirmed by residents of Fallujah who managed to escape. The counterinsurgency blueprint in Iraq is a page field manual distributed to each and every soldier and issued in October by the Pentagon.
Counterinsurgency missions must achieve the end state established by the president. All leaders must keep in mind the purpose of their operations and the criteria of success used to assess them. Achieving success in counterinsurgency operations involves accomplishing the following tasks: Establish local political institutions. Exploit information from local sources. By any standards, the whole mission was a political disaster. Political institutions were already in place: No local government can possibly run a pile of rubble to be recovered by seething citizens, not to mention be "reinforced".
All this to achieve the "end state" established by Bush. This course favors violence rather than mass mobilization and normally results in an inverted pyramid, with the combatants themselves the bulk of the movement. This was the approach taken by [Fidel] Castro in Cuba during the s and may be an approach some insurgents in Iraq have taken against the post-Saddam government, although some efforts to mobilize have been reported.
The combatants are not "the bulk of the movement": Whole cities are mobilized against the occupation. Many in the Sunni triangle told this correspondent one year ago they were at the tipping point of joining the armed resistance. Security of the populace is an imperative. This is security from the influence of the insurgents initially. The population is then mobilized, armed and trained to protect itself. Effective security allows local political and administrative institutions to operate freely and commerce to flourish. The resistance has widely infiltrated the US-trained Iraqi forces.
Additional proof is that hundreds deserted and joined the resistance immediately before the Fallujah offensive. As quickly as possible, though, HN [host nation] military and police must assume the primary combat role. A long-term US combat role may undermine the legitimacy of the HN government and risks converting the conflict into a US-only war. That combat role can also further alienate cultures that are hostile to the US. On the occasion when the threat to US interests is great and indirect means have proven insufficient, preemptive US combat operations may be required.
Direct use of US combat forces in counterinsurgency operations remains a policy option for the president, and army forces provide it when required. The majority of Iraqis know this has always been a US-only war; they have been "alienated" for a long time now, if not downright hostile. Excessive or indiscriminate use of force is likely to alienate the local populace, thereby increasing support for insurgent forces.
The Pentagon describes Fallujah, even before it happened. The American way of war has been to substitute firepower for manpower. As a result, US forces have frequently resorted to firepower in the form of artillery or air any time they make contact. This creates two negatives in a counterinsurgency. First, massive firepower causes collateral damage, thereby frequently driving the locals into the arms of the insurgents. Second, it allows insurgents to break contact after having inflicted casualties on friendly forces. A more effective method is to attack with ground forces to gain and maintain contact, with the goal of completely destroying the insurgent force.
This tactic dictates that military forces become skilled in pursuits. The unit that makes the initial contact with the insurgent force requires rapid augmentation to maintain pressure against the fleeing force, envelop it, and destroy it. These augmentation [reaction] forces should be given the highest priority. The "American way of war" once again messed up in Fallujah, whatever the method.
The successful conduct of counterinsurgency operations relies on the willing support and cooperation of the populations directly involved. Greater priority and awareness is needed to understand the motivations of the parties involved in the conflict and the population as a whole. The understanding of the background and development of the conflict into which US forces are intervening is of particular significance.
This requires a detailed understanding of the cultural environment and the human terrain in which the US forces will be operating and thereby places a heavy reliance on the use of HUMINT. When you have marine commanders justifying an attack on a whole city because it is the house of Satan, any "detailed understanding of the cultural environment" had already been buried in the desert sands. Failure to recognize, respect, understand and incorporate an understanding of the cultural and religious aspects of the society in which US forces are interacting could rapidly lead to an erosion of the legitimacy of the mission.
In fact, this whole scenario started playing out as early as April , when the resistance movement was born at the Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad and when marines opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in Fallujah. The mission of PSYOP [psychological operation] is to influence the behavior of foreign target audiences to support US national objectives. PSYOP accomplishes this by conveying selected information and advising on actions that influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign audiences.
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The record shows that the majority of world public opinion does not support "US national objectives" in Iraq, regardless of whatever extensive PSYOPs they have been subjected to. Deny insurgents access to the population and resources. Deny the enemy the ability to live. Cut them off from food, water, clothing - everything. Identify and prioritize population sectors and resources to be secured and protected. Unify and coordinate all civil and security forces and assets within the community with special attention given to around-the-clock security, intelligence collection, PSYOP and civil affairs.
Include HN forces in security-related plans and operations to the maximum extent possible. Mobilize, arm, and train the local population to provide their own local community security. Structure security force activity and actions to lead to the populace overtly picking a side.
However, these activities and actions must not be abusive. This is the same old "starve the water and the fish will die" tactic, already analyzed in a previous article Counterinsurgency run amok , Nov Once again it has been an abject failure, as the "fish" keep breeding, the "water" is no less than the whole Sunni triangle, and nobody is able to identify a single tangible benefit of life under occupation.
Typical objectives for a population and resources control operation include the following: Sever any relationship between the population and insurgents. Identify and destroy insurgent support activities within the community. Identify and destroy insurgent organizational infrastructure. Identify and eliminate the insurgent political apparatus communications.
Institute harsh penalties for those caught supporting the insurgents. Create a secure physical and psychological environment for the population, one in which people are free to go about their business and prosper without worrying about insurgents taking their freedom and prosperity from them. Conduct a national IO campaign strategy with interagency planning and resources that distributes its message and is responsive to current events to ensure relevancy. The cumulative US failure is due to well-known reasons: Moreover, counterinsurgency "experts" have no definitive weapons against the democratization of high technology.
A marine can call an air strike with a satellite phone? The resistance replies with thousands of engineers, technicians and mechanics able to rig thousands of cellular phones and remote-control doorbells to set up ambushes and booby traps. Regardless of the legal status of those persons captured, detained or otherwise held in custody by US soldiers, they receive humane treatment until properly released. They are provided with the minimum protections delineated in the Geneva Conventions. Compare it with Abu Ghraib prison, where abuses took place.
And compare it with the leveling of a whole city in order to "save it". The facts of the occupation The "success" of US counterinsurgency efforts can also effectively be measured against the occupation record so far. Dead Iraqi civilians are estimated to be anything from 15, to , the British Lancet report. The resistance was around 5, strong in late Now it is at least 20, strong. Some British generals put them at 50, strong - and counting. Our Baghdad sources confirm the capital has degenerated into a giant, hyper-violent slum, getting worse by the day. At least , Iraqi children suffer from chronic diarrhea and have almost no protein, according to a UN development report.