-- Now no one who's read this blog is uninformed on the developments in Iraq, but Bob Krumm has a good summarization of the changes taking place over the past 6 months or so. Good email material.
-- While there has been a lot of concern over the past few weeks about the deterioration in Afghanistan, we might be approaching a "pessimism bubble." Gen McKiernan has come out and said "we will win." Not that it's easy at the moment, but that ISAF has the potential to succeed.
The NYTimes article also relays the story about a large-scale attack from the Taliban in Helmand province. From reliable sources it looks like coalition forces killed over 50 Taliban forces. Is it just me, or does this article make it sound like we lost the battle?
I love the quote from the Canadian general about the fight: "If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure." wordplaylolz
-- I think I'm coming to the position with Maliki that this man is a perfect illustration of "Boy Who Cried Wolf", or more specifically "Prime Minister Who Cried Success". He's totally squandered any crediblity on anything deployment-related. He is 100% posture.
-- I don't know much about this Kashmir dam fight, but it seems fairly petty from both sides. I mean, any time you have the mediating World Bank judge that a dam is acceptable only if it's made 1.5 m shorter, you are waaaay into the bureaucratic weeds.
-- "Why did the United States remove North Korea from the list when it is clear to anyone's eyes that the North is a terrorism-assisting country?"
When Japan, one of the US's most steafast allies, is pissed off at your spinelessness in re: North Korea, President Bush, it's time to raise the Lame Duck Threat Meter from 'Elevated' to 'Severe'. (Orange to Red for the illiterate)
-- Armchair Generalist, a quality read for a left-ish perspective on military policy, has some good clean snark about Wolfowitz and nuclear arms policy. Count me in agreement with the gist of the post, that we don't need to worry about our own stockpile being superceded as Best Pile In The World. I don't, however, think that it's just Wolfowitz whose pushing this. I think we have enough of a Cold War bureaucracy still in place that we'd be fretting the Chinese nuke growth anyway.
-- Hitch pulls his rhetorical-lever for Obama. Not Will Smith, the other Hitch.
-- For anyone who thinks a Castro-ated (groan!) Cuba is a place of freedom and all stories of the dictator abusing power are American agit-prop, read this story and shut up. This isn't an isolated incident, and until you've been to the island and seen the abject poverty and deep-seated sorrow in the eyes of everyday Cubans, just keep your idiocy to yourself.
If you can't tell, this is a touchy subject for your bloggespondent.
-- Oh, my city-on-the-Huron, when will you learn? In yet-another Detroit-is-dying article about the possible merger of GM and Chrysler (a bad move, IMHO) there's a deliciously protectionist quote near the end of the piece:
Still, many Detroiters believe it would be better for G.M. to swallow Chrysler before an outsider.
“Should this happen, look for a lot of bloodshed,” wrote one person who posted a comment on a local Web site called DetroitYes.com. “However, it is better than another alternative — a Chinese company buys up Chrysler.”
That's the ticket, Detroit. It's better to be unemployed than to be bossed around by some furriner. That's the kind of thinking that leads to an economic recovery.
-- And finally, an update from Illinois (new state motto: The Land of Obama):
Early voting begins today in Chicago. What does that mean? Bring out your dead! Get 'em to the polls early and often!
And I loooove this picture from some friendly spectators at the Chicago Marathon. Nothing says Windy City like some alcohol while exercising.
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