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Saturday, July 26, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:33 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Argentina wants to try its dictators. There's a move to repeal legislation that gave those involved in an earlier dictatorship immunity if they stayed away. Now Argentina wants to extradite and try them. This is a bad sign, in that if this is what the Argentine president is devoting his time to it looks like the preparation of scapegoats, not coherent policy, is the order of the day.
Le Figaro: Armstrong-Ullrich: the final summit - in the Tour de France, of course.
Libé: Black Tide: the tarnished pride of the French beaches.
Ouest-France: A Slap to the Unemployed. 600,000+ just got word that their benefits won't run as long, etc.
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Friday, July 25, 2003
posted by gbarto at 6:07 AM:
Dr. Weevil is a wise and witty fellow with much learning to expound. However, he totally misses the boat in this piece mocking the banjo. Says Dr. Weevil,Lynn Sislo (Reflections in d minor) asks: "Why don't serious classical composers write music for the banjo or steel guitar?" I think I know the answer. Because the banjo and steel guitar are totally uncool instruments, and no one interested in classical music can confess an interest in them without losing well over half his or her reputation for sophistication.He then cites an episode of Frasier as proof that the sophisticated eschew the banjo. But he should know that the Crane brothers are not sophisticated, per se; they're sophisticates who live too much in fear of being thought "common" to truly open their minds to the unconventional, which good banjo surely is.
Though good banjo is not, as I say, a thing we have in abundance, nor is it non-existent. There is a serious composer - contrary to the good Doctor's belief - who has mixed it up with the banjo playing sort, namely Edgar Meyer, whose album Uncommon Ritual featuring banjoist Bela Fleck is a wonder to listen to. Meyer has since released an honest-to-God Violin Concerto that the TurkeyBlog quite enjoys and, it would seem, another CD, with Fleck, Perpetual Motion. I have not heard the second CD yet but will be looking, having come across it while double-checking my spellings on Amazon.
To wrap up, the TurkeyBlog is not going to go on a crusade for the banjo. But he cannot simply stand by while good music goes ignored, or worse, outright avoided, because of ill-conceived prejudice.
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posted by gbarto at 5:13 AM:
'Innocent People Are Dying'Daybreak shelling near U.S. Embassy in Liberia kills at least 11
And not just in Liberia. While the TurkeyBlog feels bad for the plight of this nation, the US has to pick its battles well and wisely. That starts with sticking to its own battles. We felt that Iraq was not just our battle but the world's. We dilly-dallied for months with UN Resolutions to make sure the world agreed. And in principle, it did: The UN passed a resolution laying down conditions in which one could agree that Saddam Hussein was in blatant violation of the surrender terms to which he agreed after the first Iraq war. But then France and Germany and others, having kept us in the UN process for months and insisted on the importance of that process, said never mind. And the UN Secretary General (Kofi Inane?) jumped on board to proclaim that if France and Germany wished to be indifferent to what UN Resolutions indicated must be done for the sake of peace, justice and stability - and the credibility of the UN-, that was just dandy for them. Well, the UN may be watching eagerly for us to act. Liberia may be watching eagerly for us to act. The international community may be on the edge of its seats wondering when we'll act. If we're wise, we'll follow the precedent set by France and Germany a few months ago: We'll act if and when we damn well please according to our purposes, indifferent to promises made or signals given in the run-up, and if the world doesn't like it they'll just have to respect our independence of thought.
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posted by gbarto at 5:02 AM:
Kobe Accuser a 'Danger to Herself'Girl had 'mental health issue' in Feb.
Umm... he already said he had sex with her. And that there's no rape. And I realize this might help him claim that she was confused as to what happened.
But planning for a post-trial career, does Kobe Bryant really want the world to mop the sweat off its brow and say, "Whew! We were afraid he was messing around with party girls but it turns out he was just had his way with an emotionally imbalanced girl" ?
However the trial goes, this is a career that should be over. We constantly hear whining about the difficulties of being a sports star and pleas that these guys didn't ask to be heros or role models but... too damn bad. The guy who serves you your fries probably didn't ask to be a janitor either, but the odds are good that he gets to clean the bathrooms every now and then if he wishes to stay employed. Kobe Bryant was handed a first class opportunity to make millions doing what a lot of guys do for free in pick-up games across America just so they can have a few hours pretending that they're as cool as Kobe Bryant. The cool's gone. Bryant should be too.
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posted by gbarto at 3:22 AM:
Davis to Face Recall Election on Oct. 7Republican-led petition drive yields ballot vote on California governor
Despite Dem scare tactics.
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posted by gbarto at 3:18 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Abbas demands respect for "road map," suggesting Israel is not showing same.
Le Figaro: Raffarin Sets Goals for Next Three Years.
Libé: Raffarin changes tone to clear minefield before return to school - i.e. to keep teachers from striking, etc.
Ouest-France: Retirement Reform: It's Voted In. Confronting the street was rough, but now that that's been done, there was little difficulty in getting the actual bill through the Assembly which the party of Chirac and Raffarin dominates.
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Thursday, July 24, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:38 AM:
Natalie Solent has stuff on the "bright" movement and ditties about Uday...* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:31 AM:
Cicero has paranoid Germans, 1 in 5 of whom believe the US did 9/11 to itself. A few more years and that will be more than accept Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust!While the EU leaders keep putting together documents and acting as though they're creating a superstate, the political games going on underneath and the weird views their peoples are coming to acquire make it plain that Europe is on the decline. No, it's not going to wind up like the former Soviet Union. But one fears less and less that this crew will put together something to compete with the glory of the Holy Roman Empire and more and more that the whole thing might just collapse under its own weight and give rise to new and very special versions of the Yugoslav conflict, the Czechoslovakian rupture, etc. that we've already seen.
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posted by gbarto at 4:21 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: How Uday and Qusay died. Says Le Monde, three American troops have died since, proving the operation didn't have the intended effect. They didn't add the "neener-neener" they surely felt.
Le Figaro: The "black boxes" that threaten the European Commission. The commission dumped all ties with a French organization involved in fraud and possibly worse, leaving the question of what else it's tied up in.
Libération: Chirac a Pacifier in the Pacific. He's been keeping his cool during protests in New Caledonia, though called every name in the book.
Ouest-France: The "Walker" who sold Uday and Qusay - is believed to be their host.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:32 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: After the Deaths of His Sons, Saddam in Crosshairs. Far be it from me to celebrate the extinction of any human life. Indeed I don't. But there are some that prompt less grief than others.
Le Figaro: The Two Sons of Saddam Hussein Have Been Killed.
Libé: Saddam Heirless.
Ouest-France: Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Two Sons Killed.
Looks like a sweep for the Saddam sons stifled story, and there are your French news headlines.
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posted by gbarto at 1:19 AM:
Just to amplify on the post below, the only interest the US has in Liberia is that which the greatest and most good of nations would have in seeing the promise of every human being realized. While this is not a vellity, nor is it of such urgency that we can blithely let our attention to concrete interests in the steady flow of oil and the gradual decrease of terrorism wane in order to address it. When France and Germany get off their butts and help us restore and maintain order in the Persian Gulf, we'll have a better set of resources for helping out in Liberia. Until then, we'd suggest that Kofi Anan ask Mr. Chirac for some troops, since Jacques' opinions are so essential to the functioning of the UN as a morally sound body whereas we seem merely to render foul all we touch.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:07 AM:
No big links on this one, just a few observations. I checked the news last night and the big story was that the US wanted help in Iraq but was having troubles dealing with the UN. Then I opened the Mercury News this morning and the cover story was the stacking of bodies in front of our embassy in Liberia, presumably because Liberians killing Liberians is something Liberians can't control, only the US. People quoted in the story said as much. So did Kofi Annan in a sidebar. Which leaves the question: Are we, as seems to be argued, the font of all that is imperial, neocolonial and just plain evil, or are we the indispensable nation and a beacon of hope for the world. It seems it's both. To wit, Kofi Annan is all in favor of American men and women fighting and dying to take control of a country, just as long as he gets to pick which one.The TurkeyBlog wholly supports the Bush administration's position to date - that it will keep the peace but not make it. If Kofi and pals are so concerned, we'd suggest that he go to the French and Germans who surely have soldiers to spare, given their absence in the Persian Gulf. He was unquestionably enthusiastic about their role in the world a few months ago and they can surely work something out. For that matter, the United States even let through a resolution so that France could take action in the Ivory Coast with the UN's imprimatur. Given the insistence of Mr. Annan that the UN, not the US, make all judgment calls regarding matters international, we'd suggest he find his own damn army to do it. Given the insistence of France and Germany that their respective positions allow them to control what the UN does by dint of a vow to veto anything they don't like, we'd suggest that Kofi see them about getting that army since the US has got decidedly less excited about things UN since we found out we were the enemy of all that is right and good, not the number one contributor to the UN in dollars and the surest bet for any serious military operation.
Please note that the TurkeyBlog is not going neo-isolationist. The US has interests in the world and it has to stay engaged to protect them. But the credibility of the UN is not one of them. According to the Merc, a Liberian protester was hollering, "What's the problem, is it because we don't have oil that the US doesn't care?" Well, that and because Charles Taylor is only in a position to really foul up Liberia whereas Saddam could destabilize the whole Middle East. But to address the broader question, yes, the US is in Iraq and diffident about Liberia because we have a lot more at stake in the former than the latter and with limited funds and forces the interests of the United States, not those of Liberia, are going to dictate our foreign policy.
I am frankly at this point completely disgusted with Liberia and revolted by Kofi Anan. The two have shown themselves to be but hapless twits in the international community. For Liberia, I feel a little bad. It's not like they'd been disparaging us for months, only to decide we mattered after all. Still, it's a bit conceited to think that because your own citizenry can't get its sh-- together it's up to Americans to get in the crossfire and soak up the bullets. As for Kofi Anan, in my view he can go straight to hell. The man has consistently been a thorn in our side, running around acting like because he could get the backing of enough of third-world thugocracies he ought to get to be in charge of the American military. The only thing stupider is our continuing participation in this morally bankrupt forum for backward nations to try and procure enough filthy lucre from the grown-up nations of the world to be able to maintain a system in which bureaucrats from NGOs and flunkies of tyrants drive Mercedes while ordinary families wonder if they can catch enough rats to keep food on the table another week.
A propos, I've had a glance or three at Jimmy Rogers' latest, Adventure Capitalist, which has as one of its main theses that you can drive a Mercedes anywhere in the world because international agencies and bankrupt governments that can't find money for food and shelter for the people can always scare up enough to maintain a fleet of Mercedes for the "important people" to drive from scene of squalor to scene of squalor, thus assuring that spare parts and service are made available too.
It is time that we stop funding this nonsense, pull out of the UN and give them one year to relocate before property taxes, etc, start kicking in. In the meantime, we should be building the case for the coalition of the willing, starting with a recognition that for noblesse oblige to work for an organization, there has to be more nobility than knavishness in the organization and its participants. It is time, in short, that we asserted what the Liberians are screaming from the rooftops - the primacy of the First World as an agent for change, wealth creation and, yes, justice, and announced that henceforth the proudest international body would not be the one with the most nations but the most civilized nations, as that body would be the only one capable of seriously acting to better the world. As it stands, we have a big muddle in which the scum of the earth rule by their numbers, thus hamstringing the great and the good while the lowly and the foul fester. Enough.
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posted by gbarto at 12:34 AM:
Passed along by the TurkeySister:"Hillary's got this huge book, it's a memoir of her life and times at the White House. In the book she says when Bill told her he was having an affair, she said 'I could hardly breathe, I was gulping for air.'
No, I'm sorry, that's what Monica said."
- David Letterman
"Hillary Clinton's book hits the stores this Monday. Oh boy, it took her a long time to write it. But in her defense, every time she tried to use the desk, Bill was using it for a date."
- Jay Leno
"Hillary Clinton's 506-page memoirs comes out next week. So much of her personality shines through, that in the end, you'll want to sleep with an intern."
- Craig Kilborn
"In Hillary Clinton's new book 'Living History,' Hillary details what it was like meeting Bill Clinton, falling in love with him, getting married, and living a passionate, wonderful life as husband and wife. Then on page two, the trouble starts."
- Jay Leno
"Hillary Clinton has finished her memoirs for publication next year, while Bill has barely finished the first chapter. Well, in all fairness, Fiction is a lot harder to write."
- Jay Leno
"Hillary Clinton, our junior senator from New York, announced that she has no intentions of ever, ever running for office of the President of the United States. Her husband, Bill Clinton, is bitterly disappointed. He is crushed. There go his dreams of becoming a two-impeachment family."
- David Letterman
"Last night, Senator Hillary Clinton hosted her first party in her new home in Washington. People said it was a lot like the parties she used to host at the White House. In fact, even the furniture was the same."
- Jay Leno
"Senator Hillary Clinton is attacking President Bush for breaking his campaign promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions, saying a promise made, a promise broken. And then out of habit, she demanded that Bush spend the night on the couch."
- Late, Late Show host Craig Kilborn
"Hillary Clinton is the junior senator from the great state of New York. When they swore her in, she used the Clinton family Bible. You know, the one with only seven commandments."
- David Letterman
"CNN found that Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America. Women admire her because she's strong and successful. Men admire her because she allows her husband to cheat and get away with it."
- Jay Leno
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Tuesday, July 22, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:11 AM:
Marcus wants to know why Israel, not Liberia, is the darling of US foreign aid, etc. Were this a question of sentiment, he might have a point. But before he gets too worked up, we'd suggest he notice the proximity of Israel to most of the world's major oil reserves outside the former USSR. If the US didn't have a compelling interest in having a halfway stable state and reliable ally in the region, the much ballyhooed Jewish lobby that so disturbs the Buchanans of the world would not have half the clout it does.But Marcus is right on target with this post on David Kelly, somebody who was all for making all secrets known until his secret was one of them. My condolences to the family, of course, but for David Kelly himself I've only a shake of the head and confusion as to why he thought he should be able to freely make accusations that could bring down a government without that government having the right to respond.
Update: Here's Natalie Solent on the matter, and welcome back to her after her time under the weather.
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posted by gbarto at 1:02 AM:
What's Shorthand for Fruitcake?Stenographer records Democrat's outburst at heated committee meeting
Hmm. So Pete Stark's upset with heavyhanded tactics on the part of House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas. But it seems to me the tactics are no different from what the Democrats used when they controlled the House. Indeed, the removal of committee members from a committee meeting they seemed to be holding up has its precedent in the days of Wright and Foley if not Tip O'Neil (and doubtless earlier). But here's something new: Democrat Pete Stark called one committee member a "fruitcake" but declares it was not intended to be a homosexual slur. Says Stark, in effect, he thought it just meant a crazy person. Liberal gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, unsurprisingly gives him the same pass they give all Democrats. No one has cleared up, however, his usage of the term "cocksucker" to describe another committee member. Given his professed appreciation for gay and lesbian causes in the wake of this incident, perhaps he was paying a compliment.
The TurkeyBlog holds that homosexuals are people too and are due all the respect that accrues to any human being. He also holds that Pete Stark is a tactless boob but declines to see true anti-homosexual intent. But he would feel the same way if the slurs were hurled by a Republican. Would the Human Rights Campaign or the Democratic party?
As if.
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posted by gbarto at 12:50 AM:
French news headlines:Le Figaro: Corsica: The Determination of Nicholas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is, of course, the Minister of the Interior. He vows to get the bombers of recent days while extending an olive branch to those who want to work earnestly to improve things for Corsica.
Libération: A-Accounts: The State Passes by Savings Accounts. To encourage savings, the French gov't has long sponsored special savings accounts with guaranteed interest rates. They just dropped the interest from 3% to 2.25% for one of the more prevalent accounts, a move that will put billions in the French treasury - but not the pockets of French citizens.
Ouest France: Ouest-France joins Libé in worrying about the French pocketbook: Drop for A-Accounts Comes August 1.
Le Monde is currently not responding.
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Monday, July 21, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:43 AM:
Cicero piece on a social outrage from the Depression era: deportation of surplus Mexican-American workers. Be sure to read the piece. The wrongs committed are right up there with the Japanese internment camps and ought to be known about.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:38 AM:
Interesting. Here's a site for something called Folkspraak. It's an attempt to create a universal Germanic language the way Interlingua was meant to be a universal Romance language. The site has a lot of interesting observations on the functioning of the Germanic languages, some good comparative morphology and not half-bad comparative grammar. It seems to be at about "Release 0.5," with promises to be named "Release 1.0" when the first version is done. The only unfortunate thing for the site's author is that someone has beaten him to the punch in creating a universal Germanic language. It's called English.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:31 AM:
Cicero takes aim at the BBC's characterization of our Poet Laureate as "hugely popular," suggesting that the last popular poet was Frost. But he doesn't say whether this is a good thing. We here at the TurkeyBlog find it unfortunate. Billy Collins is a pretty damned good poet and a good match for the president under whom he serves. Unlike the typical professor poet, he writes neither pretentious and incomprehensible crap designed to convince other professors of his cleverness nor angst-ridden, Updikean dirges on the horrors of having to work 6 hours a week and attend a monthly meeting to keep from losing tenure. His poems are plainspoken little stories in forms that do the best of what our oldest verse did when everything was written in verse. One can see the man having had a bad illness and writing "Timor mortis conturbat me" only he wouldn't have mucked about with the Latin. One can even imagine him writing something like Leigh Hunt's "Jenny Kissed me," though the rhyme probably would have been looser or discarded for such a light set piece. In any case, Picnic, Lightning makes for an amusing afternoon. I haven't read any of the volumes in full, but what I've seen has likewise been charming and amusing for the most part. Well worth a look.* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:03 AM:
Damn. Den Beste says it a hell of a lot better than I've managed to:We are not, however, doing this out of altruism. We are not trying to give them a liberalized western democracy because we're evangelistic liberal democrats (with both "liberal" and "democrat" taking historical meanings). We are bringing reform to Iraq out of narrow self interest. We have to foster reform in the Arab/Muslim world because it's the only real way in the long run to make them stop trying to kill us.Btw, a few days ago, Den Beste noted the latest outrage from Pat Robertson, in which he suggested that three Supreme Court Justices ought be encouraged by God to retire due to health problems. While we would not be so churlish as to hope that God convinces Robertson to retire due to health problems one way or another, we don't feel any particular fondness to the man. Says Den Beste, Robertson has of late only been further marginalizing himself, and thank God for that. But it takes two to marginalize. While Robertson has been making an ass of himself, it is to their credit that conservatives and Republicans have accordingly either ignored or denounced his idiocies. Wonders Den Beste, will the left marginalize their idiots, nameth Nader and Noam? Probably not, says the Oracle of San Diego, and so they'll marginalize themselves.
There is thus no inconsistency with the fact that we fought a war to free Iraq's people from Saddam's cruelty while simultaneously not seeming willing to do the same for North Korea, whose people are probably suffering even more badly. At the moment, it doesn't appear to be in our narrow self interest to do that for the people of NK.
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posted by gbarto at 1:22 AM:
Here they come... It's the French news headlines!Le Monde: The FNLC Claims Responsibility for Bombings in Nice and Bastia. The original is " Le FNLC revendique les attentats de Nice et Bastia." I merely note this because it's the FLNC (Front de libération nationale de la Corse), not the FNLC. The story gets the abbreviation right. The group, incidentally, wants independance for Corsica, as the name would suggest. They also bombed a site in Nice in September of 2002. What these bombings accomplished eludes this correspondent.
Le Figaro: Le Figaro takes it up a notch, evoking the possibility the French have a war on their hands: Corsican Nationalists Take Up Arms Again. The newspaper notes an end to the "truce" of Corsican bomb setters. Unclear is whether the US, with its vow to oppose terrorists, will offer France assistance or merely snigger and suggest that claims of terrorist wars are often overblown.
Libé: Morocco: To Sources of Terrorism from Misery. A look at the mass trial of those involved in the May 16 bombings in Casablanca and an attempt to tie them to the hopelessness of life for many Moroccan natives. While I'll agree that life might get hopeless over there, the decision to die in a bomb blast destroying others doesn't just take hopelessness. It takes a belief that taking others with you - particular sets of others, in fact - will better one's own lot or those of one's survivors. That requires a movement with an ideology of hatred and scapegoating, a movement rightly on trial. The TurkeyBlog again reminds of the core conviction of the leaders of these Islamic movements: Until the Sheiks are made kings and all the Jews and Christians are gone, the only good Muslim of modest means is a dead one. No efforts to better these young men's lots, no efforts at self-improvement. Just holy war to expel from earthly existence all infidels including, as we saw in Pakistan a week ago, fellow Muslims who aren't "Muslim enough".
Ouest-France: Dr. Kelly Haunts Tony Blair. It was Dr. Kelly who suggested to the BBC that the dossier on Iraq nukes was overdone. It was also he who disavowed the story. And he who committed suicide as questions started being raised as to how much he told the BBC. As the TurkeyBlog suggests below, there are three questions about the info in dispute: Did the British intel committee "sex up" (his phrase) claims about Iraq weapons? Did Kelly "sex up" his claims of perfidy on the part of British intel? Did the BBC "sex up" what Kelly told them anonymously about questions about British intel? Of the last two, we'll never know since the a-one source is dead. The first one might be learned by another route, but even that's doubtful. An intel assessment constantly evolves according not only to the info at hand but to the angle from which it's being considered and the demands of those using it and there's no good way to recapture what was in the hearts and minds of those who put together the assessment as they did so. As I've noted earlier, for example, one considers evidence differently when studying evidence in a trial than in making a snap judgment as to whether lives are in immediate danger and deadly force warranted. In the case of Iraqi nukes, hearing they wanted them should not surprise. Hearing that someone with ties to Iraq was trying to scare up some uranium should likewise come as no surprise. Every third world dictator with pretensions to importance has probably put out feelers at one point or another with the hopes of joining Russia and Pakistan in the backward but still feared and respected among nations. But when you get the sense that those pretensions to importance might be realized, you're looking at that question of clear and present danger and the assessment must err on the side of caution. Telling the PM you think they've got the bomb so act accordingly is 99% of the time sound advice. Telling the PM they don't and then having to assess why Jerusalem just got nuked is embarrassing in the extreme. It takes the bungle of UN bureaucracy and French dithering on a joint quest for inaction to reach the surreal moment where the prudent response to the question, "Do they have nuclear weapons or are they about to acquire them?" is "Don't get excited, they might not."
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posted by gbarto at 12:40 AM:
BBC Admits David Kelly Was Source for Disputed Iraq StoryThe reporter quoted his source as saying the government had "sexed up" its evidence on Iraqi weapons in order to justify war and insisted on publishing a claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy some chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes, despite intelligence experts' doubts.The question that must now be addressed, and whose answer may never be known, is this: Did the BBC "sex up" Kelly's questions about the weapons report to justify a media war against the Prime Minister of Great Britain and the President of the United States? We've heard a lot about governmental accountability. When will we hear about the accountability of a news organization that answers neither to advertisers nor particularly to the government that funds it?
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Sunday, July 20, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:45 PM:
Things getting ugly in Liberia. Le Monde reports heavy fighting and a vow from the supposedly outgoing president Taylor that he and his troops will fight to the last man to keep the capital out of rebel hands. Mr. Bush needs to issue a short statement reminding Taylor that he's promised to go and assuring that the US led peacekeeping force could have the capital well in hand and the rebels free of any need to try to take it were Mr. Taylor to turn up in Nigeria tomorrow instead of mucking about his departure. We probably need to add that the US will have no part of any peacekeeping force before there is peace and that if Taylor won't go as promised we will feel regret, certainly, but absolutely no sense of responsibility, for anything that happens to him and his men as the rebels take the capital. Ugly, yes, and with ugly humanitarian consequences. But thus it is, however bad we feel about it.Here's the thing: The people of any country bear the costs of the leadership they allow. However unkind it sounds to insist that they are accountable for who runs their country, in a way they are for they inevitably pay the costs. No amount of fussing about unfairness, the powerlessness of the people, et cetera, can change this: in a country with crappy leadership the people suffer. Which brings us down finally to this equation: The time for revolution comes when the costs to the people of allowing the present leadership to continue exceed the dangers of effecting his (or her) ouster. The time has come for a great number of Liberians, which is why they either support the rebels or are indifferent to their rule as opposed to that of Taylor. And if Mr. Taylor will not ratify the significance of events, we'd best let nature take its course, for it will one way or another anyway. At the end, we can help pick up the pieces and do our best to prevent post-war humanitarian disasters. But until Taylor is gone - as he surely will be - we should stick to the sidelines.
This raises the question of the contrast with Iraq and reaffirms something the TurkeyBlog has been talking about that does certify him as soft of heart but not a blithering humanitarian. Why did we pick sides in Iraq and even to some ways of thinking start the war (Saddam forced it by his refusal to abide by the surrender terms of the last one but we'll take that up another day)? We did so because we had a compelling interest in a) removing a thug who financed and encouraged threats to our friends - Israel in particular - and to the general peace and seemed to want to hang onto and procure weaponry with which to further make a nuisance of himself (from Fr. nuire, to harm, injure or, etymologically, bring the black of night upon, cf noxious) and b) sending a message to other thugs about the inadvisability of taking up his ways. This is why the blather about the Iraqi people, potential resentments, etc, is ridiculous. We fought the war to be rid of Saddam. Endeavoring to create a better future for the Iraqi people was merely a nice touch of class and a way of attempting to prevent the ascension of another Saddam while freeing us of the obligations that full-fledged colonialism entails.
So, here's the final word if the above paragraphs got a bit overdone: Bad times in Liberia, but the US must stay out until there's a peace to keep, while preparing faux condolences if Taylor winds up dead in his efforts to cling to power. In the meantime, we'll act in Iraq because we had a mess we needed to clean up to serve our purposes and we'll be there until our purposes our served. If the Iraqi people wish to make the bettering of their interests harmonize with our purposes, we'll be delighted, but we should have no illusions about whose cause we're in Iraq for and should make our own interests the paramount consideration in any actions we take.
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posted by gbarto at 1:29 AM:
French news headlines:Here's the big French news from FNC:
Two Blasts Rock French Resort City
At least 11 injured in Nice; explosions under investigation
Now a look at what's topping headlines for the French media:
Unfortunately, not a lot. As regular readers know, the French newspapers online are generally useless on Saturdays. Today is no exception so all we have is Le Monde. Still Le Monde is ahead of Fox. Here it is.
Le Monde: Double Bombing in Nice. The bilan: 16 injured. Unidentified caller in unverifiable call makes claim that FLNC is responsible. A similarly unverifiable claim of responsibility was issued after a Sept. 25, 2002 attack on a gov't building in Nice.
The FLNC is the Front pour la Libération Nationale de Corse, a group that favors Corsica's independence from France. Corsican nationalists have experienced a lot of blows of late. There is the arrest of the alleged murderer of a former prefect of Corsica named Erignac. There are the sentences for alleged co-conspirators who were nowhere near where the shooting took place. And there is the rejection of a referendum (by a very close margin) to make Corsica the first laboratory for PM Raffarin's decentralization theories and thus a much more locally independent entity.
We should have more on the story tomorrow as more details become available. The important thing to know for the moment is that this was by all accounts domestic terrorism for reasons of pure politics, not an action by international Islamicists.
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