Cheating on your ex-boyfriend at The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War
- So, according to President Bush, if we leave Iraq, the communists will triumph? Like how they won the Cold War? I don’t get it. The argument from civil war doesn’t move me much, either—the only thing keeping Iraq from civil war before was a tyrant; short of that, I don’t see how we can prevent the random butchering. We can’t even beat Sadr’s Army, and they are not even the enemy AQI.
- I guess this free Iraq Bush sees in his crystal ball will have to buy its electricity from the militants in control of the switching stations. That is, if there is a free Iraq leftover once Maliki goes searching for “other friends.” Or, you know, if the entire country doesn’t unravel completely in the next 12 months.
- It may not be indicative, but this comparison of this summer versus last summer in Iraq doesn’t paint a pretty picture. By every measure of the tactical situation, with the exception of the number of multiple fatality bombings, all over metrics show the opposite of improvement. Even the multiple fatality bombings metric is a bit suspect: the recent mega-bomb that killed 500 people near the Syrian border would go a long way toward making the number of fatalities from multiple-fatality bombings similar.
- So again, what are we doing there? I hadn’t considered Ron Bailey‘s take of the two main justifications for Iraq: Imagine how this sounds to the average Iraqi. “America is fighting this war for your freedom and safety. Also, we’re drawing all the world’s worst terrorists into your backyard so they blow up your markets and police stations, and steer clear of ours.”
- That, and the historical ignorance on display by Bush becomes more disheartening by the day.
- Oh, and how great is it that General Cody thinks it is appropriate to blame Bill Clinton for the lack of good general officers running the Iraq war?
Around the World
- Don’t think I mentioned this, but the Afghan ambassador to the U.S. and I have remarkably similar ideas as to what is most needed in Afghanistan. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not drug legalization.
- I like how National Review is so glib about things it just doesn’t understand: Kosovo’s current ambiguous status is not the fault of multi-lateral diplomacy, but of outsiders imposing an alien solution through force, and that being followed up not with prudent diplomacy but the blatant choosing of sides in a civil war with no protagonists. There is no reason to cleave Serbia’s territory, nor do the Kosovars have any real claim to independence—the EU wants that because they feel sorry for them, nothing more.
- Estonia is trying to come to grips with its brutal occupation by Soviet forces by charging former officials with genocide for their role in the mass deportation of 1949.
- Bangladesh’s military government has been facing protests, so they imposed a curfew. They even shut down cellular networks, in an attempt to stymie the self-organizing protesters.
- This is an interesting take on the Bush administration’s approach to North Korea: “The portrait that emerges is not one of a confrontational, militaristic administration; what instead becomes apparent is an image of a White House with extremely poor conceptual strategies and decision-making processes.” That works, I think. It explains, too, why they settled for the awful, already-failed Agreed Framework 2.0.
- But for real, North Korea is getting straight up CLAZY. Well, no more so than usual—it is still, I believe, quite accurately described as the closest conception we have of Hell. OFK has a budding review of what looks like a penetrating book on the numbers behind the Great Famine. Meanwhile, on Channel 4 there was a harrowing story of one family’s escape from North Korea (Kurt Russel has no idea), and a new report about the horrifying treatment refugees face when China illegally repatriates them. Oh, and let’s not forget Kim Jong-il’s nasty stash of biochem weapons.
- Zimbabwe is a basketcase: inflation hit 7,625% in July, and the IMF predicts it will hit 100,000% by the end of the year if drastic changes are not made. That being said, their stock market is booming… a clever illusion, alas.
- I’m totally starting a trend with Central Asia blogs doing news roundups. Pride!
Back at Home
- Oh look, we’re in the habit of covering up (so to speak) big spills of nuclear waste and materials. That is certainly comforting.
- I LOL when bloggers complain about the media, especially over petty crap. Most are just as bad, if not a good deal worse.
- Would any of you want to turn your cell phone into a ‘high-powered microwave transmitter?” Don’t those, like, cause cancer and stuff?
Look at this: Gates to Tell Turks to Leave Iraq Soon