blackshoeswhitesocks

What a stunning week.

It’s a bit early to start talking about the ebbing of American power. Far too early. And I don’t think that Mr Keller has it right that somehow ‘now’ we are seeing a resurgence of authoritarianism; or that this is somehow springtime for Hitler.

And while freakish apologists for Russian expansionism like Dimitry Rogozin aren’t worth their weight in dirt, the man does have a point:

the United States and NATO can use brute force where they want to, and Russia has to abstain from it even if it has to look at thousands of its own citizens being shot? If [that]’s not hypocrisy, then what IS hypocrisy?

International Herald Tribune

(Rogozin, by the way, was pretty chummy with that butcher Mladic, back in the day.)

The insanity of last week’s escalation is still not easy to digest; clearly, the Russians were anticipating something of the kind -

In fact, Pentagon and military officials say Russia held a major ground exercise in July just north of Georgia’s border, called Caucasus 2008, that played out a chain of events like the one carried out over recent days.

New York Times

(I can’t believe Saakashvili didn’t have access to that intelligence; it probably provoked him into taking some kind of action, thinking Putin was trying to bully him. But man, those Russians just completely dominated; nothing could withstand them.)

And so in the midst of that carnage, with the State Department waving its ominous and provacative agreement with the Poles and our idiot President playing nice with the thuggish Chinese government, who among us could not sit shame-faced, wondering who bears the torch - or even a candle - for liberty and democracy? Who can sit and be proud of the blundering, myopic, insipid and craven pile of lies and half-thoughts that our government has passed off as ‘foreign policy’?

Oh, I’m sure there are plenty who can actually. But not me; not me.

This is really an exciting, historic day. It’s not really the end of anything except this one awful man’s freedom. But it does bring one sad chapter in our shared history to a close.

I have no connection to Serbia or to that awful war; but I remember Srebenica and the embattled Bosnian 5th Corps; I remember the awful fate of Sarajevo (I remember when the Olympics were there; and I remember when that beautiful city was shelled into rubble because of men like Arkan and Karadzic).

And I remember that it was a joy to see American air power rip Serbian warplanes out of the sky and send their army scurrying for cover, but it was far too little and too late. All those lives were senselessly cast away while we sat and watched, and then again, like so many times before, muttered ‘never again’. Darfur, anyone?

The pro-western government that ostensibly aided in apprehending him will pay a heavy price I think; it’s not like the nationalists in Serbia have just rolled over. Neither, I think, are they a dying breed.

But this is a good day, a happy day; whether or not justice is served, he will not likely ever go free.

here’s a take I had not even really considered: Obama is an apostate. that will be unhelpful in dealing with the muslim world in general, contrary to the claim that he would be welcomed. This is well-argued in a Times op-ed today.

In fact, in Iran in 1994,

the intervention of Pope John Paul II and others won a Christian convert a last-minute reprieve, but the man was abducted and killed shortly after his release. Likewise, in 2006 in Afghanistan, a Christian convert had to be declared insane to prevent his execution, and he was still forced to flee to Italy.

Muslim apostacy, unlike many others, is a very, very serious crime, mitigated only by “modern” law.

I guess at the least it will be useful to review and monitor his presentation on Al Jazeera and other networks. In particular, I’d like to know how the Wahhabi Muslims in Saudi Arabia would deal with him - is it actually worse than dealing with just a non-Muslim?

from the Agence France-Presse, US troops from 9th Cavalry Regiment are not reacting too well to the extension of their tours:

“Bush can come fight here. He can take my 1,000 dollars a month and I’ll go home.”

How is this different from American companies (general motors, IBM) supplying Nazi germany with materials prior to the declaration of war?

I recall her from the judith miller affair; this is a good summary of her, courtesy of media matters.

just watched her now on pbs’s news hour and she was breath-taking in her incoherence. I mean, need-the-transcript incoherent. its all she can do to shill for libby & co. ‘no crime has been committed’, almost like a chant she repeated it half-a-dozen times.

her main contention appears to be that prosecutors have to be very careful about what they consider ‘lying’ in a grand jury.

also, she thought bizarre the notion that a juror would ask ‘where’s karl rove?’. the level of her discourse is the same as her buddy bob novak, and really just a hair above that of convicted narcotics felon rush limbaugh.

Next six months critical to US’s effort in Iraq… again?: it reminds me of winston smith and the memory hole. Christian Science Monitor has a nice run-down of all the different times the Iraq war has seen “critical months”.

(Via The Morning News.)

It’s a nice preliminary read to this gem, about how even options are not an option for the A-Team in charge of our foreign policy, from today’s Post, and is also courtesy of TMN.

I know China is gigantic and is burning coal and oil at prodigious rates, but I always wonder about these sorts of charts, this one from the BBC, sourced to the IEA.

Current plans call for the opening of a new power station every week, most of them coal-fired. That is a lot. But these forward projections are based on assumptions which appear to change quite easily.

I do still fear the consequences of this though. It isn’t as if China, or India, or the EU, or the US, is some kind of organization that can react quickly. The rate of change we can expect is at best dismal.

The only thing to save us at this point — I really believe this, in my technocratic heart — is some kind of dramatic breakthrough.

Iraq Troop Boost Erodes Readiness, General Says - washingtonpost.com: “Outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said yesterday that the increase of 17,500 Army combat troops in Iraq represents only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and will potentially require thousands of additional support troops and trainers, as well as equipment — further eroding the Army’s readiness to respond to other world contingencies.”

The next step, after we get over the growing downed helicopter count, will be daily enemy body counts, which should start to shore up morale at home…. oh wait, we’ve already passed that point, sometime in late 2005:

The revival of body counts, a practice discredited during the Vietnam War, has apparently come without formal guidance from the Pentagon’s leadership. Military spokesmen in Washington and Baghdad said they knew of no written directive detailing the circumstances under which such figures should be released or the steps that should be taken to ensure accuracy.

Indeed, I have to agree with General Franks —

the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth

A friend passed over this link which I regret not seeing when it first came out. Oh my, what a piece of work he is, and still in such a grand position of authority.