Daily Roundup

Hypocrisy has a Human Price on the Streets of Baghdad. Puts a human face on the price of early withdrawal.

I often say that the prime reason I cannot vote Democrat is their divorce from reality in matters of foreign policy. I understand their want to throw money and increased government at any domestic problem. Most of that doesn't imperil democracy so much as harm the economy. We can easily remedy such errors. Missteps of foreign policy are much much harder to correct. Diplomacy is not an end, it is a means to an end. Conferences are all well and good but they usually result in nothing. Negotiations only work if they are backed by something. Something like the Fifth Fleet or economic sanctions.
It's good cop/bad cop routine. One that only works if your opponent thinks the bad cop is in charge. Showing that the Kucinich wing of the party has truly taken control of the party they're attempting to add a cabinet level post called Department of Peace and Nonviolence. Rightwing Nuthouse has a review along with suggestions for additional posts here. I wish this were a leftover April Fool's joke but it isn't. Gates of Vienna looks at the bill more closely.


Wrechard points to an article entitled The Case for Doing Nothing. The central thrust of the argument is that the US ought not intervene in the internal politics of Iran as that may somehow help the nascent opposition groups there. By inserting ourselves we would put off more people than we would engender. Doing nothing is certainly an easy way to take care of foreign policy. Have Condi Rice stay home and file or something. Make an occasional call on the Brits or Canadians. Watch as Africa falls further into anarchy and tribalism. Had we done this post WWII, most of Europe would have fallen to the Soviet empire. Doing nothing now in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan would ensure their ruination at the hands of each other. Taking our dollars from Egypt would lead to a swift collapse and the installation of a very unfriendly government. Taking our check from Israel would not hamper them but rather allow them to operate with impugnity. They would need a free hand to beat back the wave upon wave of hostilities that would be cresting towards them. The US as an ally is a double edged sword. We lost much faith when we let the Shia be slaughtered in Iraq under Bush '41 and his perfidious Scowcroftians.


I have previously argued against setting timetables for troop withdrawal from Iraq. In short, creating them insures that the terrorists will only bide their time until we leave before they begin their campaign of death and destruction. Proving my point is none other than Shia Theocrat Moqtata al-Sadr.



Legislators working for Mr. Sadr said that he was pulling his ministers from the 38-member cabinet because the government had refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.



That is, he wants one. Badly. He knows his grip on power is slipping. Every week that passes and he isn't controlling an army that rules by fear he is losing. If the government goes forward without him and people put their support behind a secular government, he has no hope of being theocrat in chief.


Slate has a piece on America's love/hate relationship with Ranch houses. As someone with several dozen kids, I'm firmly in the "love" category for reasons too numerous to list.

I've written before about the sleeping minority in France who support Le Pen and his nationalist ideas. He garnered a shocking 20% of the popular vote in the last election cycle. Hitchens called me prior to his trip to France and I reminded him of Le Pen's influence and the coming elections. That conversation produced this piece.

Money quote:



"I don't think it is sufficiently appreciated that France has now become the most conservative major country in Europe, where different defenses of the status quo are at war only with different forms of nostalgia and even outright reaction."




Hube is putting coffin nails in "An Old Wives Tale". While we're on the subject, here's the burial of another one: Women work more than men.

Watch as Jon Stewart eviscerates Nancy Grace.

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