Early, Again

An oldie (from last week) you may have missed:

Do you know why I'm no longer liberal? Because I wanted to stop my sentences one word short of the word "but." You know, as a liberal, I found myself using the word "but" more frequently than a proctologist filling out his day planner." -- Dennis Miller

S’true, ya know. Via Right Wing News.

Speaking of right-wing funny guys…C-SPAN2 has a three hour conversation with P.J. O’Rourke scheduled for 1200 hrs (ET) today. I’ll be there.

Jules Crittenden says we’re at a Crossroads…

Option One: Pull out. Achieve short-term gratification for those who believe our absence from Iraq will solve our problems. Watch Iraq descend into further violence. Watch a nuclear-armed Iran come to dominate Iraq and the world's richest oil fields.

[…]

More likely, a dispirited people, our army broken by defeat, we'll just wait to see who emerges as the new world power. It will be a while before there is one, and much longer before there is one we would care to live under. I predict a dark age, in which brutal second-rate powers such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea do what they choose to whom they choose without restraint. An age of modern warlords, with no over-arching, feared power to keep them in check. We can watch the sick man that is Europe slowly succumb. We can watch small free nations try to fend for themselves. We can await the inevitable nuclear crisis.

Does that sound at all medieval or apocalyptic? It is. Don't think we can't go back to that.

Does it sound overly melodramatic and alarmist? If so, you're a fool with no understanding of history. I have bad news for you. The fight against evil in this world is business as usual. It never ends.

There’s more, of course. And you can probably guess what Option Two is.

This morning’s lead item on memeorandum: Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran (from The Times UK).

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Israel, of course, denies The Times’ report.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied the report and said, "The focus of the Israeli activity today is to give full support to diplomatic actions and the expeditious and full implementation of Security Council resolution 1737. If diplomacy succeeds, the problem can be solved peaceably."

I’d worry if I were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Words have consequences, chickens come home to roost. The Israelis tend to take threats seriously and have a track record of neutralizing mortal threats effectively. Remember Osirak? The real question though, is this: Would the Israelis really use nuclear weapons, even low-yield bunker-busting tactical nukes? I, for one, don’t think so. Genies, bottles, and all that…

In today’s NYT, an extensive article on Hussein’s execution… The U.S. Powers That Be in Iraq worked very hard to delay the execution until all the legal boxes had been checked, but in the end the Americans deferred to the Iraqis. It was the Iraqis’ call.

An Iraqi who attended the hanging said the government saw the Americans as wasting time with their demands for a delay until after the four-day Id al-Adha holiday, and for whatever time beyond that required to obtain the legal authorizations they considered necessary. For the Americans to claim the moral high ground afterward by disavowing the hanging, the Iraqi said, was disingenuous.

“They cannot wash their hands, this is a joint responsibility,” he said. “They had the physical custody, and we had the legal custody. At one point, I asked, ‘Is it our call or is it your call?’ They said, ‘It’s your call.’ I said, ‘If it’s our call, we’ve made the decision.’ ” Legal niceties could not save Mr. Hussein, he said, concluding, “The man has to go.”

It’s interesting reading, but I’d take it with a grain of salt. Once again, I feel compelled to state I have no issue with the execution itself, but I do have issues with the lynch-mob atmosphere of the hanging.

Today’s Pic: A couple of Taos’ 38 art galleries (with web sites — doubtless there are more). And I’ve probably been in more than half of them, usually as a bag man, otherwise known as a “drag-ee.” Not that I don’t enjoy galleries, because I do. I just don’t like shopping.

May, 2004.