I aired that grim possibility a while back. Tony Blair now gives it his public backing:
"However, most crucial is this: Just as it is, in significant part, forces outside Iraq that are trying to create mayhem inside Iraq, so we have to have a strategy that pins them back, not only in Iraq but outside it, too. This is what I call a ‘whole Middle East strategy.’"
More details here.
In South Dakota, no less. Fascinating state analysis here. Money quote:
"As you move west, voters tend to be less evangelical and more libertarian," [Jon Schaff, who teaches at Northern State University in Aberdeen] said.
The election results seem to confirm his theory. Only 17 of the state’s 66 counties rejected the same-sex-marriage ban, but 11 of the 21 counties west of the Missouri River voted against it. And two of the East River counties that voted against the ban hug the east bank of the Missouri.
Schaff believes that the abortion ban and the same-sex-marriage ban went too far for libertarian-leaning voters. "They’re saying they simply want government to leave them alone." [Bob] Burns [who teaches political science at South Dakota State University in Brookings] agrees. He said an additional sentence in the same-sex-marriage amendment that banned "quasi-marital relationships" may have cost the measure votes.
Schaff also notes that the abortion ban had no exceptions for rape, incest or health of the pregnant woman. If Referred Law 6 had included those exceptions, he said, "It would have passed with 65 percent of the vote, easily."
The Christianists over-reached. Even in South Dakota.
Are they the best available answer to climate change right now? A RAND study suggests so.
Rocco Palmo has some excellent observations here. Money quote:
Instead of articulating the teaching that transcends secular ideology and avoids the perilous poles of rabid partisanship, we’ve allowed our message to be defined by a series of ‘No’s. Consequently, the Catholic contribution has been easily painted not so much as seeds for the life of the world but bullets in a cultural war.
A masters thesis in animation. And strangely moving.
English Christians and Muslims defend a religiously-themed secular holiday. How refreshingly grown-up.
Three years too late – but exquisitely timed to avoid any offense to the GOP – Glenn Reynolds finally backs more troops for Iraq. He was scorning those of us who were saying it two years ago. I have to say I’m more open to persuasion on this than I once was – because the situation has changed so dramatically. We had a window of opportunity to secure order before constructing a new polity. That was the chance to send in more troops. Instead, we allowed violence to determine the new order, and those who wielded that violence most effectively now call the shots in Baghdad and elsewhere. The danger of adding new troops now is that they might end up enforcing the policies of one sectarian militia versus another, i.e. getting entangled in an already well-advanced civil war in defense of one side. That we don’t want to do.
I fear we have lost that window for the indefinite future. It may indeed, in retrospect, have disappeared by the spring of 2004. I don’t favor a pull-out; but I am much less sure that more U.S. troops will help any more. I fear Rumsfeld’s legacy is to prove his own argument about a super-lite military – or, rather, never let it be tested. He really did prefer to lose a war than concede a point. Whether that was a conscious decision or just hubris or derangement is a matter for history to judge.
Some scenes that never made it to the movie are from the Da Ali Gi Show. On the campaign trail in Mississippi, Borat talks about being pro-life, anti-gay and sincere that Jews will go to hell. The Republican candidate agrees with him.
Aberdeen, Scotland, 10 am.
The Dish 