tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40708942011-07-31T01:34:48.451+02:00Beyond the Waste LandThe Monarchical Society -- Power and Politics on a Global ScaleKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comBlogger1611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-7197257864263246582010-10-19T15:19:00.002+02:002010-10-19T15:26:03.541+02:00New BeijingMichael Pettis has a thought provoking Modest Proposal that suggests China should invest in American infrastructure to help make up for the huge trade deficit betwee the two countries.What Pettis’ “modest proposal” is really suggesting, once you strip it down to its core, is that reserve-rich export-man countries like China launch a kind of neo-colonial “mission civilisatrice” for the Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-6941540762987003822010-04-01T12:48:00.011+02:002010-04-04T10:51:51.157+02:00KabukiThe following are a couple of comments left at Naked Capitalism that sum up pretty well my attitude towards Democrats in general and health care in particular. What I didn’t see at the time was that the eventual bill passed by the Democrats would pose such a threat to Medicare:This is from October 8, 2009:The Democrats are falling into their "Washington Generals" mode on health care. For those Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-30034481461854891172010-04-01T11:19:00.009+02:002010-04-06T15:19:47.055+02:00Gold featherI spend most of my blogging time at Naked Capitalism. As the Iraq War wound down and the economic crisis hit in 2008, it became clear to me that I was woefully ignorant about economic issues. I started reading Calculated Risk (and I still do) but the posts are short with not much analysis. The comments are lively but again I was pretty limited in what I could learn.Through his links I Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-57142179856162333472010-03-31T21:32:00.006+02:002010-04-01T11:54:29.124+02:00The WarchitectBelow was one of my anti-Iraq rants. It was a comment to a Belmont Club post that referenced a post on bridge design by Stephen Wolfram. Wretchard (the writer behind the Belmont Club) made the case that the US started with a bad plan. I went a little further:Wolfram clearly does not understand which factors are important in determining the design of bridges. While structural loading is Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-82873736314509469092010-03-31T15:37:00.007+02:002010-04-01T12:55:40.465+02:00TenebraeBelow is a comment (slightly edited) that I posted to the Belmont Club probably late in 2004. Those archives are lost but I found this comment searching for the word tenebrific! The discussion was about Global Warming. In order to provide a more mythical justification to rising up to meet this challenge, I employed a much more poetic approach than I would normally use. I always liked this Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-86808211184896519402010-03-31T12:43:00.008+02:002010-03-31T17:04:33.594+02:00I'm BackI've been away from this blog for more than five years but now I am going to attempt to restart it.During the past five years I have been busy raising our three young children while also being occupied with an exciting but stressful project at work. Now the children are in primary school and my work has settled into a more leisurely pattern (but still with the occasion outbursts of stress) so I Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1095423746573508842004-09-17T14:12:00.000+02:002004-10-04T22:11:50.086+02:00 Concerning the current ongoing debate in foreign policy circles regarding attacking Iran, we are seeing a repeat of the errors committed in Europe in the late 30’s that lead to the German invasion of France in May, 1940. This time it is the foreign policy establishment of the United States (and Israel) that is ossified in its strategic thinking, paralyzed by the need to cling on to past Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1085774942870094072004-05-28T21:57:00.000+02:002004-05-28T22:09:02.870+02:00The nature of the Iraqi conflict is about to change if promises for December 2004 elections are taken seriously. From today's Independent:
US retreats after failing to capture militia chief
United States forces agreed yesterday to withdraw from the Shia holy city of Najaf and end fighting with the militia of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. In a climbdown by the Americans, who had vowed to Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1085659827915220962004-05-27T13:47:00.000+02:002004-05-27T14:10:27.916+02:00My Enemy is my Liberator is my Enemy
The Guardian is staying all over the Chalabi is an Iranian spy story. Yesterday it was Andrew Cockburn adding some nice details to the story:
In the aftermath of last week's raid by Iraqi's police and US forces on the elegant Baghdad mansion currently inhabited by Ahmad Chalabi (it actually belongs to his sister), his angry spokesman cited as evidence of Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1085644360632678932004-05-27T09:44:00.000+02:002004-05-27T09:52:40.633+02:00Not So Fast
Four Nations to Seek Delay on U.S. Resolution on Iraq
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- China, France, Germany and Russia say a U.S. and U.K. draft resolution on Iraq shouldn't be adopted by the United Nations Security Council until the Iraqi people and neighboring countries accept the interim government that is scheduled to take over from the U.S.-led coalition June 30.
``Our positions are Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1085485081471899202004-05-25T13:28:00.000+02:002004-05-25T15:08:06.130+02:00The Maximum-Security Iraqi Penitentiary for Traitors and Collaborators.
It was made perfectly clear in George Bush’s speech last night: that talk of Iraqi sovereignty is meaningless.
A new Iraq will also need a humane, well-supervised prison system. Under the dictator prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of death and torture. That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1085476017469736622004-05-25T11:04:00.000+02:002004-05-25T11:06:57.470+02:00Operation Iranian Lebensraum
America’s Newspaper of Record is, as usual, performing its job in an exemplary manner.
From today’s Guardian:
US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war
An urgent investigation has been launched in Washington into whether Iran played a role in manipulating the US into the Iraq war by passing on bogus intelligence through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1083243763480401472004-04-29T15:02:00.000+02:002004-04-29T15:10:50.623+02:00Iraq Car Bomb Kills Eight U.S. Soldiers
This is very bad news. Eight dead soldiers is horrific, but if this suicide attack is the harbinger of a new insurgent tactic, it will be a devastating blow to the American led coalition in Iraq.
The goal in any insurgency is to crystallize public opinion against the occupying forces. The classic way to do this is to goad the occupiers into committing Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1081673943644692902004-04-11T10:59:00.000+02:002004-04-11T11:04:54.733+02:00We are witnessing the clash of two world-views in Iraq. From today's Sunday Telegraph:
US tactics condemned by British officers
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Senior British commanders have condemned American military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and disproportionate.
One senior Army officer told The Telegraph that America's aggressive methods were causing friction among allied Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1080896896843624832004-04-02T11:08:00.000+02:002004-04-02T11:12:14.450+02:00My blog has been on hold for some time now as I have been trying to juggle caring for our three children and working full-time. My work as an architect looks to be slowing down in the very near future, and the twins are almost one year old now, so I am going to restart the blog, albeit slowly at first, but I should be up to full speed by the end of April.Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1072023668253556822003-12-21T17:21:00.000+01:002003-12-21T17:23:25.280+01:00As war once again began engulfing Iraq last spring, I started reading Alistair Horne’s “A Savage War of Peace (Algeria 1954-1962)” which clarified for me what the events in Iraq during the summer and autumn that followed the invasion really meant. I am not sure if Philip Gourevitch has read the book but he has definitely seen the film and written an excellent essay about links between Algeria Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1071134211480752772003-12-18T15:16:00.000+01:002003-12-18T16:01:15.623+01:00As many in America hope and pray that the capture of Saddam Hussein will bring a quick end to the resistance against the occupation of Iraq, the US military has a more realistic analysis of the possible consequences that could follow the removal of the former dictator from the Iraqi political equation:
A top-secret report prepared for the American military command in Iraq just before Saddam Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1067695740447619362003-11-01T15:08:00.000+01:002003-11-01T15:16:49.840+01:00Toussaint (All Saint’s Day) is a public holiday today across Europe; it is the day of the year that is set aside for remembering departed loved ones. Trips are often taken to cemeteries and many candles are lighted in churches. My three-year-old son is working on a painting that we will send to my sister in California to place on my father William’s grave, it was five years ago that he passed Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1064674077714012022003-09-27T16:47:00.000+02:002003-09-27T16:48:46.370+02:00I have not updated my links for a while. At the start of the Iraqi invasion I started reading the Daily Kos regularly. My favorite posting were by Steve Gilliard, who was sort of the foreign correspondent for Kos. Anyway, Steve has started his own blog, please go check it out.Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1064465966765793512003-09-25T06:59:00.000+02:002003-09-25T06:59:26.110+02:00It looks like the Kay Report that was supposed to prove what a wise choice it had been to spend $7 billion a week on the Iraqi invasion and occupation by documenting what a clear and present danger the Saddam Hussein was to the rest of the world, is going to finally see the light of day. This should knock about ten more points off Bush’s numbers, if it’s followed up by some strong Democratic Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1064430560147493572003-09-24T21:09:00.000+02:002003-09-24T21:11:12.186+02:00Al-Qaeda the winner: Beazley
By Don Woolford
September 24, 2003
The Australian
OSAMA bin Laden and al-Qaeda have been winners from the Iraq war, former Opposition leader Kim Beazley said tonight.
Mr Beazley said the removal of Saddam Hussein gave al-Qaeda the opportunity to operate freely in Iraq and the war had taken pressure off Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The former defence minister, who lostKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1064346589682213872003-09-23T21:49:00.000+02:002003-09-23T21:50:10.650+02:00For anyone who still may be questioning whether it was incompetence or just outright lying that led the Bush Administration to claim that Iraq possessed WMD’s and were about to destroy the “free” world with them, the following transcript may clear up the debate:
Transcript: Briefing by Secretary Colin Powell, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa
(Iraq sanctions, Mideast peace, U.S.-Egyptian Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1063917062667705072003-09-18T22:30:00.000+02:002003-09-18T22:31:02.423+02:00I usually ignore Friedman’s amateurish attempts to show he knows something about foreign policy, but when I saw the title of today’s commentary, I had to take a peek.
Our War With France
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
The New York Times
It's time we Americans came to terms with something: France is not just our annoying ally. It is not just our jealous rival. France is becoming our enemy.
This Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1063492615468291002003-09-14T00:36:00.000+02:002003-09-14T00:36:55.380+02:00A hail of bullets, a trail of dead, and a mystery the US is in no hurry to resolve
By Robert Fisk
13 September 2003
A human brain lay beside the highway. It was scattered in the sand, blasted from its owner's head when the Americans ambushed their own Iraqi policemen.
A few inches away were a policeman's teeth, broken but clean dentures, the teeth of a young man. "I don't know if they are the Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1063492301782680542003-09-14T00:31:00.000+02:002003-09-14T00:31:41.726+02:00Wounded troops shouldn't be billed for hospital meals
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, September 12, 2003
ARLINGTON, Va. — Talk about adding insult to injury, said one U.S. Congressman. Troops wounded in combat in the nation’s war on terrorism are being handed more than just discharge papers when they leave military hospitals — some also are getting a bill. At a Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1063171547571457062003-09-10T07:25:00.000+02:002003-09-10T07:25:47.546+02:00On a recent trip to California, I was astounded by some of my more intellectually challenged relative’s obsession with illegal immigration. Apparently they had become hooked on some rightwing radio and televison stations and were hopping mad about the fact that children of illegal immigrants are allowed to attend “schools” in California. With all the problems in America at the moment, I was a Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1063092595360604042003-09-09T09:29:00.000+02:002003-09-09T09:29:55.343+02:00Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1062897257551991272003-09-07T03:14:00.000+02:002003-09-07T03:14:19.266+02:00A generation of Americans, after the first Gulf War, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, is getting its first experience of what losing a war feels like.
From today’s Independent
Britain and US will back down over WMDs
By Andy McSmith, Raymond Whitaker and Geoffrey Lean
07 September 2003
Britain and the US have combined to come up with entirely new explanations of why they went to war in Iraq as Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1062890135189351912003-09-07T01:15:00.000+02:002003-09-07T01:16:07.026+02:00This war on terrorism is bogus
Michael Meacher
Saturday September 6, 2003
The Guardian
Massive attention has now been given - and rightly so - to the reasons why Britain went to war against Iraq. But far too little attention has focused on why the US went to war, and that throws light on British motives too. The conventional explanation is that after the Twin Towers were hit, retaliation Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1061637770314426322003-08-23T13:22:00.000+02:002003-08-23T13:25:32.610+02:00From the Guardian:
The Bush administration plans to open a huge loophole in America's air pollution laws, allowing an estimated 17,000 outdated power stations and factories to increase their carbon emissions with impunity.
The Bush administration plans to open a huge loophole in America's air pollution laws, allowing an estimated 17,000 outdated power stations and factories to increase their Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1058809852055268162003-07-21T19:50:00.000+02:002003-07-21T19:50:52.050+02:00Round 2 of the Yellowcake Presidential lies scandal involves the famous claim that it would take Iraq 45 minutes after the order was given to launch a holocaust of chemical and biological weapons towards its neighbors and as far away as the island of Cyprus. Yesterdays Washington Post started this new round of charges that have already been burning hot across the pond in England for the past Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1058534951256474272003-07-18T15:29:00.000+02:002003-07-18T15:29:11.180+02:00There is very troubling news on Juan Cole’s blog today:
A Sunni group in Basra (pop. 1.3 million) is calling for massive Sunni demonstrations after Friday prayers today, in protest of the occupation on Wednesday by the Sadr Movement of a building housing the headquarters of the Sunni Pious Endowments administration (-al-Hayat). In a telephone call from Kuwait to al-Hayat, the Sunni activist Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1058520588569766832003-07-18T11:29:00.000+02:002003-07-18T14:45:56.190+02:00As moral continues to decline among American service people in Iraq, there is open talk among the soldiers of creating their own deck of cards of “Most Wanted to Resign”, featuring politicians who are responsible for their predicament. From yesterday’s Toronto Star:
On the ABC report, one member of the 2nd Battle Combat Team in Falluja, Iraq, talked about his "Most Wanted" list, a response to Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1058162650020734232003-07-14T08:04:00.000+02:002003-07-14T08:04:09.920+02:00I have finally added comments to this blog so please fire away with any of your thoughts.Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1058161974466528872003-07-14T07:52:00.000+02:002003-07-14T08:02:09.790+02:00I found this interesting list on Dwight Meredith’s blog P.L.A. The list shows the average percentage of economic growth (or decline in W’s and Hoover's cases) during the terms of the last 13 Presidents. Each of the last six Democratic Presidents out-performed each of the last seven Republicans, sometiomes by huge margins.
1) Roosevelt (1933-45): +5.3%
2) Johnson (1963-69): +3.8%
3) Carter Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1058088391841520582003-07-13T11:26:00.000+02:002003-07-13T11:32:11.460+02:00Tony Blair is now calling on the world’s democracies to invade the United States of America. From today’s Independent:
Tony Blair is appealing to the heads of Western governments to agree a new world order that would justify the war in Iraq even if Saddam Hussein's elusive weapons of mass destruction are never found.
It would also give Western powers the authority to attack any other sovereignKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057902944639577542003-07-11T07:55:00.000+02:002003-07-11T17:29:10.846+02:00The Blair “Presidency” is starting to take on water as his intelligence agencies turn on him. From today’s Guardian:
A former head of Downing Street's in-house intelligence panel last night accused ministers of "overselling" the threat of global terrorism before the Iraq war by bombarding voters with repeated warnings of "imminent terrorist attacks on London" and Heathrow airport.
The charge -Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057729127413749092003-07-09T07:38:00.000+02:002003-07-09T07:39:34.366+02:00It looks like the CIA has decided not to sacrifice itself to smother the political hand grenade that is starting to threaten the Bush Presidency. From the BBC:
The CIA warned the US Government that claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were not true months before President Bush used them to make his case for war, the BBC has learned.
Doubts about a claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057641573201431182003-07-08T07:19:00.000+02:002003-07-08T07:19:33.173+02:00One of the advantages of living in Europe is that I get to discover lots of very interesting American writers and political commentators who, outside of their universities, are virtually unknown of in the United States. I came across Juan Cole while reading the latest “Le Monde Diplomatic” where he had written an interesting article on the different Iraqi Shiite groups and their attitudes Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057383859550357732003-07-05T07:44:00.001+02:002003-07-05T11:20:49.363+02:00PUBLIC SPIRIT IN THE UNITED STATES. (continued, please start with the previous post)
How does it happen that in the United States, where the inhabitants have only recently immigrated to the land which they now occupy, and brought neither customs nor traditions with them there; where they met one another for the first time with no previous acquaintance; where, in short, the instinctive love of Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057383415981338882003-07-05T07:36:00.000+02:002003-07-05T11:18:57.846+02:00Here is an extract of Alexis de Tocqueville’s, Democracy in America, in honor of America’s Independence Day. These words were written over 150 years ago. Throughout the book, de Tocqueville contrasts between the totalitarian, aristocratic governments of Europe and the new American democracy. Unfortunately, reading this book today shows just how far America has gone towards resembling the Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057302395266524122003-07-04T09:06:00.000+02:002003-07-04T09:08:06.953+02:00The one blog that I read every day is the Daily Kos. They have a great team of writers who almost always hit the nail on the head. Steve Gilliard today discusses some of the long term problems that the US faces in Iraq.
Every US unit is under daily observation. They cannot move, cannot buy a DVD, without people noticing and recording it. The Iraqis are passing information to the guerrillas Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057299667953187032003-07-04T08:21:00.000+02:002003-07-04T09:28:09.896+02:00It appears that the US military is looking in the wrong places for WMD’s and mobile labs. In fact, they are looking on the wrong continent. From yesterday’s New York Times:
Three years ago, the United States began a secret project to train Special Operations units to detect and disarm mobile germ factories of the sort that Iraq and some other countries were suspected of building, according Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-1057127228114863962003-07-02T08:27:00.000+02:002003-07-02T08:27:08.090+02:00We have finally decided on names for our children. The little girl will be known as Francisca and the little boy Christian. The children are doing really well, they are six weeks old now. It is quite a lot of work, but we are managing.
I am desperate to start blogging again, so in the next day or two I will relaunch the blog and attempt to regularly update it.
Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-947267142003-05-22T09:37:00.000+02:002003-05-22T09:37:11.683+02:00Our new little girl and boy finally saw the light of day on Tuesday morning 20 May 2003. We had been expecting them for weeks, but when they finally decided to come out it was with a speed that surprised everyone, and in fact, was quite dangerous. When her water spectacularly broke at around 6:45 Tuesday morning, it was pretty damn clear that my was going into labor. She started screaming that Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-929787442003-04-21T14:32:00.000+02:002003-04-21T14:32:19.920+02:00I have been very busy around the house, the twins are due any day now, so I have not had any time for blogging. It will probably remain very slow around here for the next two weeks. Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-924545062003-04-12T00:27:00.000+02:002003-04-12T00:30:32.000+02:00My favourite Russian webpage is no longer doing daily war updates, probably due to a lack of a war, but they have, however, decided to describe the American higher education system:
I read a lot of commentaries left apparently by American citizens, which absolutely reeked of ignorance, on this site. Much of those comments were strewn with expletives and provided an impression that Americans Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-924491952003-04-11T22:36:00.000+02:002003-04-11T22:39:16.000+02:00The Saudi newspaper Arab News is reporting that> General Nizar al-Khazraji was also killed in Najaf along with the Shia cleric, and friend of Tony Blair, Abdul Majid Al-Khoei.
Who is General Nizar al-Khazraji? The BBC ran a profile on him back in September 2002:
General Khazraji first came to prominence during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and by the end of that decade had been made head of Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-924091882003-04-11T07:10:00.000+02:002003-04-11T07:10:40.110+02:00Here is a little reality check from the Daily Kos:
White House, June 2002: “One year after President Bush signed the tax cut into law, the economy is growing, consumer spending is up and America is on the path to economic recovery.”
Reality, April 2003: Almost two years after the tax cut, the opposite is true. The economy is now barely growing, far less than the required 3% growth needed to Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-918946022003-04-03T07:33:00.000+02:002003-04-03T07:34:23.000+02:00All that follows is the latest from Moscow. It seems to be much less optimistic than the American / British reports form yesterday.
April 2, 2003, 1335hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow - Exceptionally difficult and unstable situation has developed on the US-Iraqi front by the morning of April 1. The coalition troops are persistently trying to take control of the strategic "triangle" Karabela - Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-917622772003-04-01T08:48:00.000+02:002003-04-01T08:48:09.920+02:00There have been a few technical difficulties at the Russian site, but in any case all that follows are the two latest reports:
March 29, 2003, 0924hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow - During the past day the situation on the US-Iraqi front remained largely unchanged. The US is continuing reinforcing the attack group near Karabela for a thrust toward Baghdad. By the morning of March 29 up to 20,000Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-917254612003-03-31T21:30:00.000+02:002003-03-31T21:30:22.593+02:00As Bush’s advisers argue about who is responsible for the lack of sufficient fire power in Iraq (and is therefore responsible for the high casualty rates suffered by our troops), George Bush’s main political contributors are fighting it out for the spoils of a war that may never be won. From the Guardian:
Halliburton, the company once headed by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, has failed to Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-916632682003-03-30T22:26:00.000+02:002003-03-30T22:26:17.733+02:00Here’s a quick review of the English press. From the Guardian:
Blair's drawn face, with its deepening gullies set in a near permanent hard frown, tells the story. This is the internationalist who is aiding and abetting, however unintentionally, the break-up of the UN system. The pro-European who is the trigger of the most acute divisions in the European Union since its foundation. The wannabe Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-915927932003-03-29T08:30:00.000+01:002003-03-29T08:30:31.623+01:00Here is what they are saying about the “The Poodle” in Britain. From The Guardian:
But in Blair's war the defeats are not confined to the battlefield. Diplomatically he is being humiliated, running to Washington or Camp David or wherever Bush summons him, only to receive the most meagre reward. So, having reassured a sceptical country and party that this war would be authorised by a second UN Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-915694252003-03-28T22:56:00.000+01:002003-03-28T22:59:00.000+01:00From today’s Guardian:
According to a report to be published today by the US watchdog Center for Public Integrity, at least 10 out of 30 members of the Pentagon committee are executives or lobbyists with companies that have tens of billions of dollars' worth of contracts with the US defence department and other government agencies.
Britain's chief military officer in the Gulf, Air Marshal Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-915325772003-03-28T08:18:00.000+01:002003-03-28T08:20:00.000+01:00The latest from Moscow. The last paragraph is very interesting. It is hard to decide what to make of these reports, I believe there are certainly elements of truth here. What I have noticed with the American explanations of soldier’s deaths is that they are always a result of either Iraqi trickery or friendly fire, never a legitimate battlefield casualty inflected by the enemy.
We will haveKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-913971122003-03-26T07:47:00.000+01:002003-03-26T07:50:08.000+01:00All that follows is the latest Russian intelligence analysis of the situation in Iraq. (This information is current up to Tuesday morning, European time).
March 25, 2003, 1230hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow - As of the morning March 25 the situation on Iraqi fronts remains quiet. Both sides are actively preparing for future engagements. Exhausted in combat the US 3rd Motorized Infantry Division is now Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-913307622003-03-25T07:38:00.000+01:002003-03-25T07:39:19.000+01:00Here is the latest from Moscow (it seems strange to have to get the real news from a Russian source). As usual, I am posting the entire article because of difficulties accessing this web page: (Again, it is too long to put in italics, but all of the following is a quote)
March 24, 2003, 0800hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow - As of morning (MSK, GMT +3) March 24 the situation in Iraq can be Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-912995132003-03-24T21:41:00.000+01:002003-03-24T21:41:59.733+01:00According to the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, the following is how much it cost us to pump up the “Coalition of the Willing to get Paid” so as to make the current adventure in Iraq appear to be somewhat endorsed by the international community:
Colombia: $574,600,000
Afghanistan: $550,000,000
Turkey: $255,600,000
Georgia: $89,900,000
The Philippines: $89,700,000
Ethiopia: $58,900,000
Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-912979992003-03-24T21:14:00.000+01:002003-03-24T21:15:34.000+01:00 Israel is already making plans on where they will send American troops after the nightmare in Iraq is over. From today’s edition of Haaretz: (via Cursor)
A few months ago, Jerusalem learned that the Argentine government had identified the culprits behind the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed, and the July 1994 bombing of the city's JewishKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-912242312003-03-23T15:36:00.000+01:002003-03-23T15:36:29.746+01:00Thanks to someone on the Daily Kos comments page, I have found this Russian website that is telling quite a different tale than the one they are telling on CNN. Most of the articles on the site are of course in Russian but it they occasionally update in English. I really hope that the following is not true, but I fear it might be:
March 22, 2002, 1300hrs MSK (GMT +3), Moscow - Additional Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-910783252003-03-20T21:24:00.000+01:002003-03-20T21:24:55.466+01:00France 1 is showing footage of George W. Bush “goofing around” before giving his speech last night announcing that his massacre of Iraq was beginning. In the footage he is shown making faces and moving his eyes from side to side, basically acting like the frat boy we all know that he is. I am sure this footage is going to become very popular viewing all over the world accept in the US where it Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-910778882003-03-20T21:16:00.000+01:002003-03-20T21:16:39.996+01:00In a Belgian court, a complaint has been filed by some of the victims of the Almerya massacre, in which a US cruise missile was fired into a bomb shelter killing 403 people (among them 52 children) during the 1991 Gulf War. The four people named in the complaint are George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Norman Schwartzkopf. Powell and Cheney both currently have immunity from Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-907300242003-03-14T22:10:00.000+01:002003-03-14T22:10:17.436+01:00This is probably one of the most concise and intelligent statements I have come across during this entire crisis in Iraq. From Jane’s Defence Weekly (scroll down):
Another former Reagan administration official said that Bush appears to be set on the course of action he has already decided because he is out of his depth and is unable to understand the nuances of the arguments that oppose an Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-907272752003-03-14T21:15:00.000+01:002003-03-14T21:15:25.293+01:00“Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it”
From today’s New York Times:
In 1963 Britain and Israel backed American intervention in Iraq, while other United States allies — chiefly France and Germany — resisted. But without significant opposition within the government, Kennedy, like President Bush today, pressed on. In Cairo, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad, American agents Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-906508022003-03-13T16:59:00.000+01:002003-03-13T16:59:25.936+01:00Tony Blair is finally starting to admit that there will be no second UN resolution allowing for a legal invasion of Iraq. In the Guardian:
France today stated its opposition to Britain's six tests for Iraqi disarmament and threw the likelihood of a vote on a second resolution into doubt.
Its foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said in a statement that the proposed compromise resolution Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-906061772003-03-12T21:38:00.000+01:002003-03-12T21:40:43.000+01:00The US is planning on using Electro-Magnetic Pulse bombs during any possible invasion of Iraq. These weapons create a powerful electromagnetic field radiating out from the point of explosion. All electronic equipment within range is destroyed. At the edges of the weapon’s range, equipment is left functioning, but would be susceptible to constant breakdowns.
The use of these weapons would Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-905475122003-03-11T23:28:00.000+01:002003-03-11T23:28:20.390+01:00Via Cursor. A Russian military analyst discusses how the invasion of Iraq will be accomplished:
For more than 10 years now the United States has conducted exclusively no-contact wars. In May 2001 George Bush Jr., delivering his first presidential speech to students at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, spoke of the need for accelerated preparation of the US Armed Forces for future wars. He Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-905462902003-03-11T23:05:00.000+01:002003-03-11T23:05:33.013+01:00It’s all starting to fall apart for Bush. It looks like Tony Blair does want to keep his job after all. I suppose he would not find being branded a war criminal all that nice. From the NY Times:
Britain, the United States' staunchest ally in its campaign to disarm Iraq, has begun to distance itself from the White House's insistence on confronting Baghdad with or without the United Nations' Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-905442442003-03-11T22:29:00.000+01:002003-03-11T22:29:11.746+01:00Five companies have been invited to bid for contracts to put Iraq's infrastructure back together after a decade of sanctions and the expected US-led war.Among the five is a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil and construction giant run by US Vice President Dick Cheney for five years till 2000.The US Agency for International Development (USAID) told the AFP news agency that the five were part of a Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-905432602003-03-11T22:11:00.000+01:002003-03-11T22:11:52.450+01:00From Atrios today comes this remarkable analysis of the recent Bush “press conference”:
After watching George W. Bush’s press conference last Thursday night, I’m more convinced than ever: The entire White House press corps should be herded into a cargo plane, flown to an altitude of 30,000 feet, and pushed out, kicking and screaming, over the North Atlantic.
Even worse were the qualitative Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-904808552003-03-10T23:05:00.000+01:002003-03-10T23:05:53.840+01:00I just finished watching Jacques Chirac being interviewed by France’s two leading anchormen. It was refreshing to see a 70-year-old world leader handle a fairly hostile situation quite easily. The two anchors played devil’s advocate and argued the American position for 45 minutes, interrupting Chirac often. He held his own quite well, although admittedly the journalist were not all that Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-904147472003-03-09T21:32:00.000+01:002003-03-09T21:32:37.420+01:00Gary Hart has an excellent op-ed piece in today’s Washington Post:
The urgent necessity to disband terrorist networks abroad and to secure the American homeland has been replaced by the Bush administration's puzzling preoccupation with Saddam Hussein. He has become George Bush's White Whale, an obsession that has cost us international solidarity in eradicating terrorism, the goodwill of tens of Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-903211332003-03-07T22:04:00.000+01:002003-03-07T22:04:08.356+01:00The Washington Post had an amazing article the other day:
The United States and Asian countries have begun to accept the idea of a nuclear- armed North Korea, according to officials and analysts here and in Washington. Increasingly, the Bush administration is turning its attention to preventing the Communist government in Pyongyang from selling nuclear material to the highest bidder.
Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-898557532003-02-27T20:58:00.000+01:002003-02-27T20:58:38.640+01:00We are going to Rome for a week so Beyond the Wasteland will be back in operation on Thursday, March 6th.Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-897332472003-02-25T22:17:00.000+01:002003-02-25T22:19:24.000+01:00Here is the latest from Debkafile. This is an Israeli cross between the Drudge Report and Jane’s. They are very sensationalist and feed lots of pro-Likud disinformation but every now and again they are in front of the curve. Now that you have been warned, check this out.
DEBKAfile’s most exclusive sources accessed the Putin proposal for Iraq and reveals its high points:
1. Acceptance of theKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-897324062003-02-25T22:01:00.000+01:002003-02-25T22:01:58.733+01:00It’s all starting to fall apart. Below are extended quotes from Newsweek.
Hussein Kamel, the highest- ranking Iraqi official ever to defect from Saddam Hussein’s inner circle, told CIA and British intelligence officers and U.N. inspectors in the summer of 1995 that after the gulf war, Iraq destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them.
Kamel was Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-897006582003-02-25T09:30:00.000+01:002003-02-25T09:30:14.810+01:00The following are quotes from the Agonist about the visit by former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov:
Stratfor says 'reliable sources' in the Russian "government say Hussein indeed has promised to cooperate with the inspectors' demands -- including that Baghdad scrap its al Samoud 2 missile program by March 1, an announcement that sources expect to be forthcoming within days."
Moreover,Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-896886282003-02-25T04:52:00.000+01:002003-02-25T04:53:13.000+01:00Body and Soul takes a look at the situation in Afghanistan. Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-896639322003-02-24T21:49:00.000+01:002003-02-24T21:50:19.000+01:00The never–ending crisis in Iraq seems to be coming to a head. There are two processes ongoing, Iraq has been ordered to destroy its ”Al Samoud 2 short-range missiles by March 1” and ”the United States, Britain and Spain are planning to jointly introduce a United Nations resolution later this afternoon saying that Iraq is in violation of requirements that it disarm” (both quotes from the NY TimesKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-895209072003-02-21T23:28:00.000+01:002003-02-21T23:28:48.360+01:00Wow, it looks like the two sides are really close to a deal. From the NY Times:
Without referring to the missile demand directly, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that if President Saddam Hussein of Iraq "complies" with weapons inspectors' requests "or leaves the country tomorrow, there will be no war."
This morning in the Times:
SADDAM HUSSEIN plans to “disappear” once America Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-894582462003-02-20T23:20:00.000+01:002003-02-20T23:20:42.736+01:00Oh my, it looks like Colin Powell is lying to someone. This is from a UPI story, you better hurry because they are likely to edit this real soon.
At stake for the Turks is economic aid and military and political issues. Although there have been reports of as much as $26 billion of assistance for Turkey's troubled economy, well-informed sources in Ankara said Washington would not raise its finalKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-894420632003-02-20T18:16:00.000+01:002003-02-20T18:16:07.010+01:00Isn’t the New York Times supposed to be for intelligent people? Check out this statement in a story about how Turkey is not allowing (for the time being) US troops to be stationed there:
The support of Turkey, a Muslim country, would be in sharp contrast to repeated statements by France, Germany and other NATO allies that further U.N. inspections -- not war -- are the best remedy.
Am I missingKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-893870062003-02-19T22:03:00.000+01:002003-02-19T22:03:20.113+01:00More bad diplomatic news from the NY Times:
Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who has been one of President Bush's strongest supporters, said today that he had recently spoken to Mr. Bush "with candor and loyalty, as real friends do" and had "invited him not to cultivate isolationism." As many as three million antiwar protesters marched in Rome on Saturday. Afterward, Mr. Berlusconi Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-893865152003-02-19T21:52:00.000+01:002003-02-19T21:52:24.806+01:00We are where we are, and not where we would like to be. But Mr Blair has got us somewhere we should not have been in the first place. The responsibility for that lies largely at Mr Bush's door. Getting out of this will not be cost free or pleasant. But it is not anti-Americanism to insist things cannot continue this way. The transatlantic alliance is vital, but we cannot allow our interests to beKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-893834922003-02-19T20:44:00.000+01:002003-02-19T20:44:07.256+01:00The Guardian asked ten prominent historians for there views of the various historical analogies that have been tossed around in the current Iraq crisis. I found this one most interesting:
Norman Davies
I belong to the school that doesn't put much trust in historical precedents. They only show that no precedent ever fits exactly and that history never quite repeats itself.
None the less, it isKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-893270332003-02-18T22:09:00.000+01:002003-02-18T22:09:22.010+01:00George W. Bush is quickly blowing the considerable fortune of political capital that the United States of America has built up over the past century. Like the proverbial heir to the family fortune who gambles, drinks, and wastes away, in a fraction of the time it took to amass, all the hard won fortune of his forefathers, all the good will we have built up with great American successes like Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-892953972003-02-18T10:04:00.000+01:002003-02-18T10:04:24.706+01:00In today’s Guardian, a British General states that an invasion of Iraq would be illegal:
An attack on Iraq designed to topple Saddam Hussein would breach international law and the UN charter, a British former senior military officer warns today.
The warning, from General Sir David Ramsbotham, former commander of one of the army's armoured divisions, reflects widespread disquiet among serving Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-892055632003-02-16T23:45:00.000+01:002003-02-16T23:45:17.396+01:00
We are witnessing a geo-political seismic event of an equivalent scale to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. In fact, we are finally seeing the end of World War II. It seems to me that this is no longer reversible, we will all be living in a different geo-political world soon.
The Bush Administration is horribly overextended and is now being routed by a European counterattack that the US Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-891838322003-02-16T13:56:00.000+01:002003-02-16T13:56:31.750+01:00The Final Days
Tony Blair’s time is running out. For the last few months, the British press has spoken only in the quietest of whispers about what has been obvious for some time. Now they are shouting it out. From The Observer:
Tony Blair laid his political future on the line yesterday as he spelt out the moral case for waging war on Iraq, warning peace marchers that there would be 'Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-890527842003-02-13T22:27:00.000+01:002003-02-13T22:27:31.033+01:00Here are some excerpts from a powerful commentary by Seumas Milne in today’s Guardian:
Hitler analogies have long been the stock-in-trade of Anglo- American war propaganda - perhaps not surprisingly, since the second world war still retains near-universal legitimacy, just as Nazi Germany remains the archetype of an aggressive, genocidal state. Nasser was the first to be branded the new Hitler inKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-890262362003-02-13T12:11:00.000+01:002003-02-13T12:11:39.666+01:00Kevin Drum, who has lots of great posts from yesterday, discusses the missile system that the Iraqis have declared to the UN inspectors to be in violation of the 150 kilometer range limit, as a possible precursor to war. The British press is saying the same thing. In today’s Times:
The chief United Nations weapons inspector will report tomorrow that Iraq has been developing a ballistic missileKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-890197162003-02-13T07:49:00.000+01:002003-02-13T07:49:12.113+01:00From the Independent:
The majority of European Union and Nato governments agree with the United States. Does that put France out on some cynical, self-serving, cowardly, anti- Semitic, cheese-eating limb? Hardly.
The French viewpoint is shared by the vast majority of public opinion in all European countries, including Britain. It is endorsed by the majority on the UN Security Council. It is Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-889930612003-02-12T22:24:00.000+01:002003-02-12T22:24:40.526+01:00Steven Den Beste should cruise the web a bit more. I think he is a very sharp guy, but as I have said before, his ideological straightjacket sometimes gets the better of him. He thinks Reuters is some sort of anti-American, anti-Israeli, surrender monkey-loving news organization, and nothing is going to shake him from this belief.
Today he contrasts an AP report to a Reuters story on a BelgianKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-889916442003-02-12T21:56:00.000+01:002003-02-12T21:56:42.683+01:00At least someone agrees with me. From today’s Washington Post:
CIA Director George J. Tenet warned yesterday that the "desire for nuclear weapons is on the upsurge" among small countries, confronting the world with a new nuclear arms race that threatens to dismantle more than three decades of nonproliferation efforts.
"The 'domino theory' of the 21st century may well be nuclear," Tenet said Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-889635552003-02-12T09:52:00.000+01:002003-02-12T09:53:25.000+01:00Fox has the entire bin Laden tape on it web site here.
In the first two minutes of the tape, bin Laden calls on the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam Hussein, in other words, he agrees with George W. Bush and wants regime change in Iraq.
“We want you to believe in God, the one and only God.”
“We, we want you to get rid of the, uh of the government that you have, the unjust non-islamic Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-889389442003-02-12T00:31:00.000+01:002003-02-12T00:31:25.686+01:00Plan B
The headline in Le nouvel Observateur Irak : face aux USA, l'axe Paris-Berlin-Moscou-Pékin pretty much says it all. There will be no UN resolution authorizing force being used against Iraq. The Belgian national news has been reporting all day that it is 11-4 against force among the countries currently seated in the Security Council. It takes nine votes for a resolution to pass. A vetoKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-888759862003-02-10T23:58:00.000+01:002003-02-11T00:00:11.000+01:00Here’s what happens when you take a Stalinist approach to foreign policy. From today’s Independent:
Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, whose speech immediately followed Mr Rumsfeld's at the security conference, was noticeably taken back as he reached the podium. "Why now?" he asked of the Defence Secretary's thunderous insistence. "Are we in a situation where we should resort to Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-888709812003-02-10T22:26:00.000+01:002003-02-10T22:26:31.680+01:00I would like to welcome Progressive Gold, the Best of the Left to the web log list. He has a very interesting article from a Norwegian newpaper that states:
An Iraqi refugee in Norway, former nuclear scientist, 52 year-old Jamil Aziz Slewa, says that Powell’s recording of two Iraqi officers discussing the movement of weapons is probably pre-1998, if not false. (I cleaned up some spelling.)
InKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070894.post-888695022003-02-10T21:58:00.000+01:002003-02-10T21:59:10.000+01:00 The Iraq Bush will Build, from yesterday’s Guardian.
The plan is in three stages: first, US-led military rule; second, a transitional phase with an American military governor ruling alongside a civilian leader appointed by (or at least acceptable to) the international community; and, finally, handover to a regime sympathetic to and nurtured by Washington.
Many pundits have been commenting on Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953308500930808566noreply@blogger.com