Charming item on a San Francisco lefty internet site this weekend:
Good News:CIA Officer Killed in Afghanistan Grenade Accident by :) Friday February 07, 2003 at 03:26 AM Ok, only two CIA agents dead, but its something. With so much bad news in the headlines its nice to read some good news like this every once and awhile. “WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – A CIA counterterrorism officer has been killed in a grenade accident during a live fire exercise in Afghanistan as he prepared for an intelligence operation, the spy agency said on Thursday.” “Boes was the second CIA fatality in Afghanistan since the United States launched a war”
Yep, this is how a few of them actually think.
FRIEDMAN ON THE NYT: Sorry, I mean the French, but sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between M. Chirac’s position and Ms. Collins’:
The French position is utterly incoherent. The inspections have not worked yet, says Mr. de Villepin, because Saddam has not fully cooperated, and, therefore, we should triple the number of inspectors. But the inspections have failed not because of a shortage of inspectors. They have failed because of a shortage of compliance on Saddam’s part, as the French know. The way you get that compliance out of a thug like Saddam is not by tripling the inspectors, but by tripling the threat that if he does not comply he will be faced with a U.N.-approved war.
Tell it, Tom. Meanwhile, more common sense has slipped through Howell’s editorial net:
So, however thin the evidence, experts on intelligence tend not to dismiss the possibility that as a last resort the Iraqi leader just might equip terrorists with chemical and biological weapons to be used against their common enemies: the United States, Israel and the West generally.
Mr. Schweitzer said: “Saddam Hussein can offer his substances to them, and they would not hesitate to accept it, even if they intended to use it in a way the Iraqis hadn’t told them to. This is the greatest danger.”
Eventually, the stronger arguments will have to prevail, won’t they?
SPOKE TOO SOON: Guardian readers have rallied to dismiss Colin Powell’s evidence. I hope my optimism didn’t provoke a counter-blast.
The Dish 