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June 04, 2006

Playing Catch-up

I have been extremely slack in the blogging department lately. To prevent the blogosphere from imploding due to a lack of unsubstantiated opinion, here is my (abbreviated) take on recent events:

  • Iran: Excellent move by the administration to gain support for a unified stance against Iran by the EU3 plus Russia, China and the US. I doubt that it will be successful in persuading the Iranians to drop their nuclear weapons program, but it dramatically increases the probability of multilateral sanctions being approved.

  • Haditha: I don't know what really happened there. But it is very possible that a group of young Marines, traumatized by the death of one of their comrades in an IED explosion, may have taken reprisals against nearby civilians who (quite probably) had been aware that a bomb had been planted and may have participated in the plot. Summary execution of civilians suspected of collaboration is not pretty, but it often happens. Tellingly, I heard one NPR correspondent in Baghdad say that the reaction in Iraq to the story was much less pronounced than it was in other Arab countries or the west. I predict that when the Iraqi army takes greater responsibility for counterinsurgency efforts, these types of reprisals will become the norm, rather than the exception.

  • Harry Reid and the boxing tickets: As much as I dislike Reid, this is a nothing story. As a former boxer, past member of the Nevada State Boxing Commission, and the senior Senator from Nevada, there were plausible reasons why he should have received free tickets from the state agency. Also, Senate ethics rules carve out accepting gifts from state agencies. Finally, he continued to oppose state efforts to stop increased Federal regulation of boxing. In short, he did nothing wrong.

  • Kerry and his pals at the NYT: Finally, the NYT should be ashamed of itself for the shoddy whitewash of the substance of the "Swift Boaters" charges against Kerry in last Sunday's Magazine. First the paper ignored the controversy during the campaign (when it was actually newsworthy). Now they distort the truth by reporting that Kerry decided to release his military records for public scrutiny. The truth is that Kerry has allowed several journalists he personally selected to see the files. Not surprisingly, no Kerry critics were allowed. If this counts as full disclosure, I am a Leprechaun.

  • Global warming and mass extinction events: a couple of interesting scientific developments this week: scientists analyzing sediment samples taken from deep under the Arctic Ocean concluded that this area had had a tropical climate 55 million years ago. In another study, scientists identified a massive crater in Antarctica formed by a 30 mile wide meteor. (The crater is 300 miles across and is buried under miles of ice.) They believe the meteor hit Earth 250 million years ago causing a massive die-off that allowed the dinosaurs to emerge as the dominant animals on earth.

June 4, 2006 at 04:56 PM | Permalink

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