Ian Welsh points out in this insightful, must-read post that Europe reacted just as Osama bin Laden knew they would to his peace offer. Welsh writes that OBL was speaking to the Muslim world, not Europe, when he made his offer:As everyone has probably heard by now,...
200 Iraqi Mutineers Detained
Marines in Fallujah are reported to be holding 200 Iraqis in detention for refusing to take part in the assault on Fallujah. These Iraqis are described as members of the 36th Battalion of the ICDC. The 36th Battalion is an interesting unit, supposedly made up of...
A Head Rolled
No, not Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz or Bremer. But, hey, it's a start. In keeping with the Bush administration policy of never admitting they are ever wrong about anything, they haven't actually announced the fall from grace of one Khidir Hamza, the Iraqi who so obligingly...
Property question for libertarians
Who Owns the Gaza Settlements? I was reading this article about what will happen to the houses, farms, and shops the Gaza settlers will leave behind when they are evacuated by the Israeli state and I realized I couldn't quite sort out what the libertarian answer was...
The Real Choice
Though not about the Balkans per se, this has universal application. Here is the brilliant Butler Shaffer at LRC, on a historical choice before all of us (prompted by the 9/11 Commission three-ring circus): "As the bloody and repressive history of the 20th century...
Najaf-Waco Comparison
An interesting comparison of Najaf to Waco by Dr. Jean Rosenfeld via David Neiwert. I have printed the entire letter here because my old eyes sometimes have difficulty reading against dark backgrounds and I suspect I am not the only one with this disability. David...
Double Standards
I was reading today in the news about a fugitive Chinese bank official accused of embezzling $485 million from his bank having been turned over by the US to Chinese officials. This brought to mind a somewhat similar criminal case, that of Ahmad Chalabi who, not only...
Blinking Red
"White House saw chain of reports on bin Laden – 'The system was blinking red,' CIA chief told panel" [by Dana Priest, Washington Post]:In January 2001, two surveillance photographs from the Kuala Lumpur meeting were shown to an informant who was helping both the CIA...
Life Imitating Art
I just heard the old Kenny Rogers cornball "Coward of the County" on the radio, and the message sounded so familiar: peaceful fella mindin' his own bidness, painfully meek, suffering outrage after outrage until finally an unspeakable assault spurs him onto...
Back to Iraq
How to boost troop morale, Rumsfeld style: "Because we're in the midst of a major troop rotation, we have a planned increase in the number of U.S. troops," Rumsfeld said at a hastily arranged Pentagon press conference. The first casualties of what Rumsfeld called...
