Hoping For The Best. But Expecting The Worst.
Anthony Zinni, President Bush’s former Middle East peace envoy said that he resigned from this posiition a month ago in part because he mentally weaseled out of the party line by believing that “[t]his is in fact the wrong war at the wrong time.” His assessment is shared by – if I am counting correctly [...]
read onDesperately Seeking Simplicity
Somehow, I hate to restate something as obvious as this – the world we are living in is an extremely complex system. A system far too complicated for any individual to understand. That’s why we tend to categorize and model the world in order to reduce complexity and gain a little insight into the “underlying [...]
read onStalinism.
Andrew Northrup is concerned with the distorted reality that mass media is constructing in our heads, specifcally by the notion that the western public is more and more appalled even by small numbers of wartime casualties, citing an article by Greg Easterbrook who seems to hold this opinion – “[a]s we weep for the Iraqi [...]
read onRubber Bands vs. Cannons
Earlier tonight, RTL television broadcast an in-depth 25 minutes interview with Richard Perle, the former chairman of the Pentagon’s defense policy board who stepped down at the end of last week due to alligations of possible conflicts of interest between public and private consulting engagements (see earlier post). I tuned in too late so I [...]
read onThe Small Print
When I first heard that Richard Perle were to step down as chairman of the Pentagon’s defence policy board I wondered whether it is an indication that the ongoing war – including reports about understaffed and underequipped US forces – had given the military in the Pentagon enough clout to force Perle, one of the [...]
read onAgainst the rules…
I’m out of town, so I’ll be brief tonight. Via “warblogging.com“, I found this “Corpwatch.com” document regarding a serious involvement in US military activities of a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil construction company previously managed by current US Vice President Dick Cheney. Most of the article is concerned with some sort of public-privqte-partnership in the [...]
read onPress Officer Lingo
Rereading my post from last night I can’t help but wonder – are press officers able to speak like normal people when they are not talking to journalists? Or would Ari Fleischer and his colleagues working for other governments go on a date and say stuff like “[t]he opening stages of the disarmament of the [...]
read onBack To Iraq. Some now, Some later.
It’s war – “[t]he opening stages of the disarmament of the iraqi regime have begun…” according to Ari Fleischer and as reported by Christopher Allbritton, a former AP and New York Daily News reporter, who is trying to blog-raise enough money to go to Nothern Iraq in three weeks or so and be a truly [...]
read onA gruesome In-Between Tuesday.
What a weird day. A day so in-between. Between the announcement of the verdict and its execution. Between the certainty of war and the doubts about its justification. Watching the media report about the imaginary ultimatum that Bush announced last night was even a bit surreal, especially given Ari Fleischer’s declaration that US forces might [...]
read onTongues Against Terror
A very European joke I had in mind since I first read about those Congressional “Freedom Fries”… should anyone be interested in a larger version, let me know. I thought it would be a good idea to post it before making fun of the US Supreme Commander would likely make me an enemy combattant and [...]
read onTwo Steps To The Left, And One To The Right.
Dancing is almost never easy for men. It’s not just that most male grown ups are too inhibited to just let themselves go. It also seems that male physical coordination seems to be far more adept in everything that involves less step-sequences more balls. Unfornuately for Gerhard Schroeder, this problem becomes especially apparent when it [...]
read onSandy P. Informs…
Reader Sandy P. left a comment with regard to the Freedom-Fries post just below that I think is well worth telling all of you, my gentle readers. It seems there is still hope for Franco-American cooperation in the food-department – From scrappleface: 2003-03-11 — Just a day after the head chef of the U.S. Congressional [...]
read onStupidity Inc., Press Release.
Spiegel Online [link in German] tells us that fried strips of potatoes, which usually have been referred to as “Fries”, or “French Fries”, will now officially be called “Freedom Fries” in the menus of House Of Representatives cafeterias. “French Toast” will now be called “Freedom Toast”. Why, exactly, does this American administration believe the world [...]
read onLarry King Live.
So I just watched a bit of CNN’s “Larry King Live“, for I was still up. Today’s topic was “Christians debate war” – a hot debate, obviously, for religious America. I only watched the last ten minutes. CNN probably invited a panel able to convey the opinions of most of the wide range of Christian [...]
read onMore Paris, Less Texas.
At least oficially, Spiegel online’s suspicion that Chirac might have had a voting moodswing seem unfounded [link in German]. Apparently, no one dared saying “veto” today, but the particular kind of silence that emanated from Quai d’Orsay [official declaration in French] this afternoon will likely be read correctly in Washington: No second resolution for the [...]
read onParis, Texas.
Could it be that there is something going on we don’t really know about? Spiegel online [link in German] is suspicious that Joschka Fischer’s surprise visit at the Quai d’Orsay today could be induced by a possible UNSC-voting-moodswing of Jaques Chirac. I don’t know. Not that I am actually convinced he would not change his [...]
read onWargames.
Well, it might not be a game for much longer. But for the time being, clicking “next” on the The Guardian’s interactive strategy map regarding a possible future US(-led?) war on Iraq, will not actually send troops to Baghdad. I don’t know where The Guardian found the information to put this map together, but it [...]
read onAmerican Exchange Students In Germany.
Yesterday, my sister published an article about American exchange students’ perception of the Iraq/media induced rift between the the Bush and Schroeder administrations in the local edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [it's not online, unfortunately]. I’m glad she found some American students to talk to. There are not too many of them. At the [...]
read onSome Things, They Never Change…
So someone sent The Observer an email that is rather embarrassing for the Bush administration and even more so for the US agency community. They will probably have to sit down and discuss the meaning of “secret” after this. And for the media effect, it does not even matter if it’s really true. I doubt [...]
read onJohn Brady Kiesling,
is – or rather, has been – an American career diplomat who has written an open letter to Colin Powell to inform him as well as the rest of the world [ via NYTimes, or Sueddeutsche Zeitung , link in German ] of his resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from [...]
read onFamous Words.
Not that I think the current international crisis is even slightly reminiscent of the danger posed by the Cuba Missile Crisis in 1962, the words JFK used in his speech to the American people are worth remembering in these days. “Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right-not peace at [...]
read onA New World Symphony
When I woke up today, SWR3 radio was broadcasting a piece about the non-event that Angela Merkel’s visit is for the US media despite the “royal treatment” – she has been given by the US government, according to the NYTimes – thanks to Amiland for pointing to the article. There’s much truth in what is [...]
read onAxis And Alliance… We’re Soooooooo Willing.
Politicians are such a crazy bunch sometimes. If you read Ari Fleischer’s [White House spokesman] statements regarding Germany at the White House Press Briefing [search for Germany] last Friday you could indeed think that Germany is now part of the “Alliance of the Willing”. I guess he just wants to confuse the German media ;-) [...]
read onNo War Today…
well, maybe later. The Economist’s cover is just too tempting to comment. Also, I am working on a longer piece that is summarizing my personal stance in the Iraq question. I’ll hopefully be done at some point later this weekend. For now, my gentle readers, I would like to recommend Gentry Lane’s thoughts on canine [...]
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