Small Points
June 8th, 2006Al-Zarqawi, the lead Insurgent in Iraq, was killed this morning. Bush believes it a large blow to the Insurgency: I do, too. That is all to say on the matter for now. (Edit: 11:04 AM. Take a look at this. It is fascinating, although I’m not sure whether or not to believe its authenticity.) (Edit the Second, 1:17: A pal of mine noticed that I’d called Zarqawi “an insurgent” rather than a terrorist. I retract, and would urge you all to call him by his name: a terrorist.)
Dick Meyer, in CBSNews, has written an article about how a “Unity08″ ticket may be the ticket. I’m not going to get into this fairy tale about whether or not someday a Republican and Democrat will get together and run: they won’t. But I take exception to the fact that a newssite is running what could be called an opinion piecem, pretending it to be objective (”A Third Way in 08?” is the bogus headline), when the article is so blatantly an advertisement that Meyer should’ve been charged to run it rather than paid for it. But that’s the state of American news.
Joseph Lieberman is facing a rough primary in Connecticut, and I’d like to take this time to endorse him for re-election. Lieberman is a strong Liberal and a smart man, and I’ll be greatly disappointed if the Democratic Party cannibalizes him for disagreeing with the Left over Iraq. If we are to be a Big Tent Party, and I argue that we should be, we can’t do things like this, and I hope that Lieberman sends his challenger, Mr. Moneybags, back to Greenwich.
Last week, a terrorist plot was foiled by Canadian Authorities. Today, we are urged to learn lessons from it, and the lesson pushed by the Tribune is for a domestic spy agency. As I’ve previously suggested, it would be problematic for our Constitution and unnecessary for our policies to have such an agency within our borders.
We’ve got a new Secretary of the Interior. His job will be to help sell off public lands. That is all.
June 9th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
The most plausible explanation for the Zarqawi elimination — and one that I have heard only from one source (a man from www.stratfor.com, speaking on the Dennis Prager program) — was that the near simultaneous death of Zarqawi and the filling of the disputed Iraqi security post may have been no coincidence, but rather was part of a deal that enabled a Sunni to be named as head of Defense. If that is the case, then the Sunni participation in the terrrorism may — after possibly a decent interval to obscure any such connection — be effectively over. Time will tell, or, at least, it will give a better indication.