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Saturday, March 15, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:06 PM:
Two B-1 Bombers Employed in IraqHere's a more publicly discussed prelude to war, to be added to the things Den Beste talks about in the post below.
But my question: Is it a prelude? Realistically, aren't we still winding down the first Iraqi conflict while preparing to wind it down in a big way? As this article notes, the B1-B was last used in 1998, seven years after the Iraqi surrender. What's the magic that makes Saddam's shooting at US planes enforcing UN resolutions a touchy peace? What's the magic that makes blowing up Iraqi assets still somehow peace. We've done 12 publicly announced airstrikes recently. Hasn't the war already started?
Answer: Of course. But we're not going to really start it with anything obvious like a declaration until we're ready. In essence, the military war is already on. It's only a question of when someone tells Chirac it's too late to stop the war and the diplomatic fur starts flying.
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posted by gbarto at 12:40 PM:
Den Beste says we're on the cusp and suspects Blair and Bush will announce the war together from the Azores.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:31 PM:
Bush Waits on Mideast Peace PlanWants Arafat successor in place first
Absolutely. Arafat is another one who, like Saddam, makes the right noises when the pressure is really high. But he can't be trusted to lead the Palestinians to peace. He's shown himself too eager to return to violence the second it offers a political advantage for him and irrespective of the repercussions for his people.
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posted by gbarto at 12:27 PM:
Last-Ditch Effort at DiplomacyIraq invites U.N. inspectors back to Baghdad as Bush, allies meet in final attempt to get support for war resolution
Uh huh. They've worked with UN inspectors before. Right up to the moment where they were no longer needed because the internation community forgot about them again.
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posted by gbarto at 3:44 AM:
Natalie Solent and James Lileks say there's too much coming to get interested in what's happening now. I tend to agree. Every night it's another round of things we almost might have decided to do next week. Arrgh. I've therefore made productive use of my time in listening to the late Douglas Adams read his wonderful Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul on CD. Lord knows it had more to say than this morning's Mercury News.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:33 AM:
Oops. The French may be mocked, but the Brits have had their troubles too. Hlatky posts on that here.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:31 AM:
Here's A Dog's Life on California Governor Gray Davis's investigations into high gas prices:These things have been investigated and investigated time out of mind. No price manipulation has ever been found. It's been a long, cold winter. There have been supply disruptions from Venezuela. And Governor Davis hasn't helped anything by ordering a switch from MTBE to ethanol as an oxygenate.I imagine the possibility the Middle East will explode in war any day now - or worse, might not - also has the traders a bit on edge about promising $15.00/barrel oil.
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posted by gbarto at 3:28 AM:
Real interesting column about Bush and God from Leonard Pitts. He notes the conviction that all sides in the present confrontation hold - that the angels are with them - and builds on Abraham Lincoln's thoughts on a similar phemomenon some 140 years ago to investigate God's place in the public sphere, why it's a little troubling, but why the modern preoccupation with avoiding God as anything other than a social convention can be equally troubling.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:16 AM:
French News Headlines:Le Monde: Jean-Luc Lagardère is dead. An engineer by training, he built one of France's major capital enterprises, concentrated in defense/aeronautics and the media (shades of GE?).
Le Figaro: Hommage for Jean-Luc Lagardère.
Libé: Jean-Luc Lagardère is dead. It's the same headline as Le Monde's, but underneath there's a difference. Libé drops the hommage very quickly to wonder where the group he founded will now be headed, whether the son is a credible heir, etc.
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posted by gbarto at 3:05 AM:
Too much in the news in the last day or so again, so I'll start with something completely non-newsy. The Hugo Pages have undergone a slight modification that suggests another use for our old friend blogger (or MT or whatever).Because some people are still using horribly outmoded browsers that can't take advantage of all the wonderful things we put in our web pages, there needs to be an easy way to get them our content. Obviously server-side XML transformations and other things will soon become de rigeur (maybe even to the degree that my hosting company will fully adapt to JXP instead of needing - as near as I can tell - their particular parsers to be addressed), but in the meantime, why not have a blogger site where you can paste something quickly and have it up, if less than pretty, in a matter of minutes. That's what I did. The Hugo Pages Blog has some updates on the Hugo Pages, but it's mostly just a place to store largely unformatted text for those whose browsers can't handle the pretty version. So if you've been to the Hugo Pages but couldn't get the poems to come up, go have a look. And if you're looking for a handy way to post stuff - even just stuff ancillary to your blog, why not just get a second blog and dump it there?
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Friday, March 14, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:22 AM:
Republican - You believe that the free market will
take care of most things, but that the
government should be there with moderate
taxation to provide for national defense and
enforcing morality. Your historical role model
is Ronald Reagan.
Which political sterotype are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
(found at Instapundit)
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posted by gbarto at 2:12 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: The US could bypass the UN. It's beginning to dawn on the French that if diplomacy is made impossible, the US will do without it. Notes the article:
A mesure que se révèlent une à une les impasses diplomatiques, l'hypothèse selon laquelle Washington pourrait finalement se passer du soutien des Nations unies paraît de plus en plus vraisemblable. Le plan britannique - par lequel Bagdad aurait été appelé à remplir six conditions prouvant sa volonté de désarmement - n'a pas suscité, selon l'expression de John Negroponte, l'ambassadeur des Etats-Unis à l'ONU, "le moindre début de compréhension". / In the measure that, one by one, diplomatic impasses are revealed, the hypotheses by which Washington will justify passing on UN support begin to seem more and more plausible. The British plan - under which Baghdad would have had to fulfill six conditions proving its intent to disarm - did not elicit, in the words of John Negroponte, US ambassador to the UN, "even the slightest beginning of comprehension."Powell is also mentioned, but not his role in all this. Powell had tried his damnedest to make diplomacy work, had done his best to not have his name mentioned in connection with another Iraq war. But lately he's felt very betrayed - or so say a lot of American accounts - that those nations whom he backed to the utmost when they were looking for any possible path to peace left him hanging when he suggested that some accountability was necessary and that the US needed more for its stationing of hundreds of thousands of troops than encouragement that it was really helpful to Jacques Chirac's plans. Having been played for the fool, Powell is suddenly the point man on the fact that this will be addressed with or without his former friends.
Le Figaro: A few days for diplomacy. But US patience is running out and France just dumped on Britain's latest compromise, making things rougher for Blair with his Labour party but maybe showing the people of England what he's up against if he wants UN support when a Security Council member has decided, in effect, that it won't even back force if Iraq is making weapons of mass destruction.
Libé: Battle over resolution fires rage. Also, Blair unloads on Chirac. The big worry for Chirac: The world hasn't been able to rally against Iraq; the English-speaking world, however, may wind up going to Iraq as an expression of its unity against France and French attempts to abuse its influence in post-WWII institutions.
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posted by gbarto at 1:40 AM:
Iraq Moving Troops, ScudsU.S. following movement of Iraqi troops, heavy artillery toward Kuwait; Scuds within striking distance of Israel
And why wouldn't he, now that France has declared him a protected thug?
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posted by gbarto at 1:37 AM:
Wednesday/Thursday, 3-12 and 13, 2003Well here we go again, with blogger again crashing, just to be helpful, I suppose. So here's our wrap up of the day:
Praise be and hallelujah! Can you believe it?
Elizabeth Smart Found Alive in Utah
Teen vanished from bedroom 9 months ago; turns up in Salt Lake City with man who once did work on Smart family's home
She was indeed with the second handyman. I myself am astonished. I didn't really hold all that much hope, given the length of the disappearance, etc. But miracles can happen.
Uh oh:
Serbian Premier Assassinated
Milosevic enemy shot in Belgrade
The guy was pro-west; his presumed killers are linked to a pro-Milosevic movement.
Here's the French news:
Le Monde: Iraq: The US Remains Inflexible. So does France. Neither country is fully satisfied with the new British resolution, though the US is closer to backing the effort to get the UN on board for Iraq.
Le Figaro: Negotiations regarding the American resolution and it's British modifications. Same story as above.
Libération: For Baghdad's well-heeled, the windfall of war, discusses Baghdad's investor class' hopes for internation money coming in after the US cleans out Iraq. We'll see, though of course this would not be the only result of a US/UK led war, even if the war were successful (which it probably will be, but all things are possible).
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Wednesday, March 12, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:37 AM:
Here's Dr. Weevil on the dilemma of what to do with the Iraqi soldiers who tried to surrender a few days ago.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:23 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Lockerbie: A settlement in view,, in which Libya takes some responsibility.
Le Figaro: Bush inflexible. See if you can guess.
Libé: The Four Reasons for Functionaries' anger. A "work action" (inaction would be better) planned for April.
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posted by gbarto at 12:15 AM:
Air Force drops 21,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast on Fla. test range, sending powerful message to IraqSignals are very nice, but just like Saddam's "signaling" of a willingness to work toward an understanding... action is required.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:27 AM:
Says Den Beste, "It's the waiting that wears." He thinks we should just have done with it in Iraq. I agree.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:16 AM:
A Dog's Life has a most splendid observation on Senator Kerry's recent prattle.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:14 AM:
Here's Cicero on one more place where cranky fussbudgets are keeping our country from being the colorful place it once was.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:13 AM:
Wow. Mel Gibson is doing a Passion in only the original languages, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic. On his own dime. The Journal talked to him about it the other day. This I will be most interested to see. (via Cicero)* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:39 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Chirac ready to veto, the UN divided. Chirac has now said he'll veto anything that could lead to war in Iraq. Which, I guess, means there's nothing to be gained in trying to work with France anymore. The US reworked Res 1441 so that France would find it acceptable. France has now declared it has no intention of enforcing it, which means, also, that unless the US is determined to go against the UN, our troops are now in harm's way, targets of a man who knows that the UN will not be putting its imprimatur on American plans. It will be curious to see if compliance drops now that this is no longer about whether the UN can slow down George W. Bush but whether he'll fight it out on his own or slink home. The TurkeyBlog, of course, hopes for the second.
Libé: Chirac proclaims his "NO" before the French.
Le Figaro: France's anti-war pleading.
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posted by gbarto at 1:30 AM:
Makes you proud to be an American:"If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this," Moran said in comments first reported by the Reston Connection and not disputed by Moran. "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should."... to know that in our free and open society, slugs like Congressman Moran are allowed to their ignorant opinions instead of being taken out and shot. Note, however, that what he said might have been illegal in Germany, where the killing of Jews in the past means that today you can only conspire with those who follow in Hitler's footsteps but must never talk about such things.
We hope that Senator Moran will meet with an outrcry like that which greeted Trent Lott when he made of himself a similarly undistinguished ass. But it's not likely. Moran is a Democrat.
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posted by gbarto at 1:25 AM:
Britain Races to Rework U.N. Resolution on IraqIt's unclear whether a retooled measure would win council approval.
Yeah. The US Res doesn't appear to have worked, nor the British ideas about it. We may tinker, but shouldn't too much. We need to make sure the hypocrisy of France and Russia go on the record. We need to force the UN to do its job or get dumped on the ash-heap of history. And we need to beat the drums about a) France's "we're against, no matter what," and b) Rwanda, Bosnia, etc., as proof that unless the US sets the tone and takes charge, the UN is just do-nothings in blue helmuts whose noblest purpose is to watch the slaughter of innocents. In short, we need a gruesome p.r. war against those who extol the UN's successes in calling for internation action only while failing to note that the UN has yet to triumph in anything unless the US was at the head of the effort.
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Monday, March 10, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:13 AM:
Here's Natalie Solent on pre-emptive Iraqi surrenders.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:53 AM:
Democrats against Education: With state budgets tight, a lot of governors are looking to slash education spending. On the one hand, this makes sense: education is one of the biggest things the states are in charge of and often their biggest budget item. On the other hand, we're wondering why the Gray Davises and Jennifer Granholms of the world are getting a pass from liberal media for education cuts that would have prompted a media jihad against Republicans in the same statehouses. Indeed, Granholm's cuts (and particularly her reducing the state merit/need based general scholarship from $2500 to $500!) are far greater than anything Engler ever would have gotten away with (I don't think he even tried for anything comparable). Of course, there's an easy answer for why both of them would go this route: Unlike Republicans, they've got too many chits from union bosses to mess with government worker salaries to cut state budgets and entrenched teachers' unions to propose new formulae for replacing, say, three old teachers with five new ones (when the cost would be the same). On the other hand, lacking a financial stake in the contentedness about government workers, Republicans can work more effectively to stand by the people's interests.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:34 AM:
Apropos of nothing, I was wondering about all those people who think George W. Bush is obsessive or over the top in getting so worked up over Saddam. I think it was Ellen Goodman I saw today who felt that Bush was being silly because Iraq, as a secular evil, doesn't pose the kind of threat Islamic fundamentalism might.Do these people remember that Saddam tried to have a former president of the United States killed? That the president in question is George W. Bush's father?
Would France be making the same case if a plot were uncovered in which someone wanted to assassinate Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing to send a message about French help against Iraq in '91?
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posted by gbarto at 1:13 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Iraq: A decisive week at the UN. Main points: Powell thinks he has enough votes to force France to veto or shut up. France sending diplomats to break Freedom coalition.
Le Figaro goes straight to the point: Diplomatic battles before UN meeting.
Libé: Antiwar America not disarming. All about the persistence and methods of our peaceniks.
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posted by gbarto at 1:06 AM:
U.S. Troops Advocate Wins SeatVictory paves way for Erdogan to become prime minister of Turkey
It might be too late to rearrange our forces, but we should try to reinforce this guy - we might need help on other matters and he is not part of the crowd that went against us last week.
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posted by gbarto at 1:03 AM:
Report: Iran Nuke Program Far AlongRice, Powell: Reports of Iranian nuke program bolster Iraq policy
Indeed.
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posted by gbarto at 1:02 AM:
North Korea Test-Fires MissileAnti-ship cruise missile is second fired into sea between the Koreas and Japan in less than a month
Obviously an attempt to get attention. The real question is, how much damage are they prepared to do to try to get back on Bush's calendar? And, by the way, is even Kim Jong Il stupid enough to think such an escalation would work? I think it's telling that both missiles have landed in the sea. I suspect such trends will continue, since North Korea doesn't want war; it wants to be bought off for not going to war.
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posted by gbarto at 12:55 AM:
From the TurkeySister, jokes about our fellow fowl here.* * *
Sunday, March 09, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:29 AM:
Checking blogger operation.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:24 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Baghdad demands lifting of embargo because they're following some of the terms of their surrender now that a couple hundred thousand US troops are surrounding them. I don't think this is going anywhere.
It's Saturday, so nothing new from Libé or Le Figaro.
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posted by gbarto at 12:04 AM:
Iranian Women Rally for RightsHundreds mark International Women's Day with first protest in decades
But... that's just brown women against brown men. At least, that's the opinion I read somewhere the other day with respect to feminism in the Arab world. Don't remember where, but it was a university professor quoted. That makes sense, since they're the crowd that can never decide if they're going to the march to relive the sixties or turning up in court to defend speech codes.
Given what goes on in some of those countries, the TurkeyBlog is rooting for whatever progress the women can make.
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