Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Turkey outraged by Ocalan verdict. Turkey plans an appeal after a European court rules that jailed rebel Abdullah Ocalan did not get a fair trial. [BBC News | World | UK Edition] ...wait, are you telling me that a Kurd didn't get a fair trial in Turkey? Say it ain't so! I know, I know...Ocalan sits astride the line between freedom fighter and terrorist, at best. But I'm a lot more sympathetic to the Kurds than I am to the Turkish justice system...

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Stocks Open Slightly Lower. Stocks appeared weaker due to a steep drop in Britain's stock market and deepening concerns over a looming war with Iraq. By Reuters. [New York Times: Business] Stocks? Lower? I am SHOCKED, I say SHOCKED!
11:25:27 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

A coalation of the wavering: Britain wobbles on war [The Smirking Chimp] This has to be a hell of a sign for the Bushies - the Canadians are garnering more world respect on Iraq than the US. And it's looking more and more likely that the UK will drop out of The Coalition Of The Paid-off - maybe we're not paying them enough? Would that leave ANY military forces from anyone else involved in this? I'm not counting Kuwait, obviously - that's just a wing of the US Army anyway. The only supporters this would leave the US with are Spain, Italy, the Eastern Europeans, the occupied Arabs (i.e., Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, U.A.E...), Israel (hah!), and Japan, as best as I can tell. I don't see any of them sending troops into Iraq, for some reason. This has gone beyond bizarre - that's what I just have a hard time handling. It's one thing to disagree with the administration on foreign policy. It's one thing to think that the administration is making mistakes. But these people...they've done everything wrong. EVERYTHING. I can't find a single thing they've done *right* on foreign policy since they came into office. Let's see...they tried to pick a fight with China - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the Chinese government is a reprehensible dictatorship exploiting its people for the benefit of a small elite and all. But once an easier enemy showed up, China got re-evaluated and magically became an ally - notice how they're not threatening to veto the W Wants War resolution? The Bushies managed to stumble into quite literally the largest outpouring of goodwill the US has received since we, y'know, won World War II - and NONE OF IT IS LEFT. I mean, damn. They've successfully pissed off every other democracy on the planet (except for Japan, so far...) including the ones that you really have to WORK at to piss off, if you're the US - Canada, the UK (Tony Blair notwithstanding), Australia, Mexico...you know, our strongest allies? The public in those countries thinks Bush is a ninny. They're right, of course, but that's not the point. Sure, they're finally getting somewhere in the erstwhile War On Terror, but bin Laden slipped through their fingers, it took a year and a half to catch Mohammed, they've violated pretty much every treaty there IS for treatment of prisoners, etc...and don't even get me started on the Constitutional violations domestically. And Iraq...oy. With both Iraq and North Korea, it really feels like the Bushies are reading from a Choose Your Own Adventure book, looking ahead at the outcomes from their potential choices, and ALWAYS taking the worst one. I mean, neither luck nor incomptence alone can explain how poorly these guys have done. There was an excellent article at Salon yesterday about the difference between Bush I and Bush II on foreign policy...while I think Bush I was a lousy president, who did a good job of making the US economy go downhill, and I disagree with many of his objectives in foreign policy, it's hard to argue that he was bad at foreign policy. He and his team decided what they wanted, and went out and made it so, persuading the rest of the world that they wanted it, too. They got SYRIA to support the Gulf War, for chrissakes! In terms of behavior, Bush II is the polar opposite of Daddy...why should the entire world pay the price for W's insecurity vis a vis his more intelligent and successful father?

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...not meaning to be a whiner, but isn't a 21,000 fuel-air explosive bomb a weapon of mass destruction...?
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