THE FIFTH anniversary of the invasion of Iraq prompted a flurry of speeches from President Bush and the Democratic candidates who hope to inherit the White House next year. Sadly, what they had in common was their failure to grapple with hard realities -- beginning with the elusiveness of any clear or quick path toward Mr. Bush's promise of "victory," or that of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to "end this war."
...
Barely acknowledging the reduction in violence, the Democratic candidates insist that U.S. troops are, as Ms. Clinton put it, "babysitting a civil war." In fact, the surge forestalled an incipient civil war, and U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq don't hesitate to say that if American forces withdrew now, sectarian conflict would probably explode in its full fury, causing bloodshed on a far greater scale than ever before and posing grave threats to U.S. security.

BOTH Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton propose withdrawing U.S. troops at the most rapid pace the Pentagon says is possible -- one brigade a month. In the 16 months or so it would take to remove those forces, they envision the near-miraculous accomplishment of every political goal the Bush administration has aimed at for five years, from the establishment of a stable government to agreement by Iraq's neighbors to support it. They suppose that the knowledge that American forces were leaving would inspire these accords. In fact, it more likely would cause all sides to discount U.S. influence and prepare to violently seize the space left by the departing Americans.

Fantasies on Iraq - washingtonpost.com

I always hoped he would be one of those folks that would make it over a hundred.

Arthur C. Clarke is dead

Friday’s employment report — which was so weak that it had many economists declaring that we’re already in a recession — was bad news. But it was actually less disturbing than what’s going on in the financial markets.
...
Some observers worry that the Fed is taking over the banks’ financial risk. But what worries me more is that the move seems trivial compared with the size of the problem: $200 billion may sound like a lot of money, but when you compare it with the size of the markets that are melting down — there are $11 trillion in U.S. mortgages outstanding — it’s a drop in the bucket.

The Face-Slap Theory - New York Times

Amid increasingly turbulent credit markets and ever-weaker reports on the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve has been unusually swift and determined in its lowering of the overnight lending rate. The White House and Congress have moved quickly as well, approving rebates for families and tax breaks for businesses. And more monetary easing from the Fed could well be on the way.

The central question for America's economy is this: Will this medicine work? The same question was asked repeatedly in Japan during its "lost decade" of the 1990s. Unfortunately, as was the case in Japan, the answer may be no.

The unwinding of excesses - International Herald Tribune

A whole post-cold-war European generation has grown up in peace, give or take “some Balkan horror on television,” which makes it hard to explain that “it’s a political and moral imperative to fight for our core values in the Hindu Kush.”

The Long Haul in Afghanistan - New York Times

The Sudanese government started the first genocide of the 21st century in Darfur, and now it seems to be preparing to start the second here among the thatch-roof huts of southern Sudan.

the Sudanese abetted by the Chinese and the Russians
whilst the West plays the three monkeys -- see, hear speak no evil
and people die, are tortured, women are raped, ethnic cleansing occurs
turn the page on another horror taking place in a far away country of which we know little
what's today's Dilbert?

wash your hands? shame on me! shame on you?

A Genocide Foretold - New York Times

If Europe and the West want to understand what is happening in Russia, they should send observers not to the polling stations, but to Moscow's Basmanny Court, where the Constitution and rule of law are being unraveled on a daily basis.

Here, and not in any electoral race, is where the battle over the presidential succession is playing itself out. The contenders are a group of former KGB officers known as the siloviki, from the Russian word for strong.

Highlights from the battles between these warring factions include murders of politically connected figures and a spate of arrests of public officials on allegations of corruption - arrests instigated by members of one clan or another. The result is a group of jailed hostages from each of the silovik clans to be used as pawns in the power struggles.

The real power struggle - International Herald Tribune

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

By the Bush administration’s standards, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was remarkably candid last week: acknowledging that popular opposition in Europe to the Iraq war was making it harder to persuade European governments to send more troops or take more risks to salvage Afghanistan.

Nearly everything about President Bush’s botched war of choice in Iraq has made it much harder to win Afghanistan’s war of necessity. The fact that Mr. Gates is permitted such truth-telling is a measure of how bad things have gotten in Afghanistan and how much the United States needs more outside help.

definately -- Europe needs to stand up and be counted -- this is our fight just as the US stood up during WW2 -- belatedly and reluctantly but it did -- Japan attacked but defeating Germany was made the priority -- the European priority has to be to secure a stable Afganistan in the global struggle against al-Qaeda -- that means troops and understanding that there will be casualties -- we as Europeans can play ostrich or get real (a new President will help but we shouldn't undermine the struggle by waiting for Jan 2009)

edit
from related article this

These are difficult days for NATO, for reasons few are prepared to admit. The difficulty is finding combat troops for Afghanistan. This is treated by Washington as a failure of political courage due to misinformed public opinion in Europe, potentially correctable if sufficient pressure is applied. It is no such thing.

Gates, Truth and Afghanistan - New York Times

Iran has launched a research rocket to inaugurate a newly built space centre.

oh bollocks

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iranians inaugurate space project