The Dish

This is not a criticism of the judgment of Time magazine in its selection of "you" as the person of the year. Far be it from me to rain on your 15 seconds. And I, for one, welcome the unerring judgment of my newish corporate overlords. But if one person deserves the title of the person who most influenced world events in 2006, my vote goes to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He was killed on June 7, but he had already achieved the goal of his lifetime as a thug-for-God. The most critical event of 2006 was, in my view, the February bombing of the Samarra mosque. It was the spark that transformed Iraq from a fledgling democracy with a Sunni-Qaeda-Baathist insurgency into a vortex for untrammeled sectarian civil war. This was Zarqawi’s goal, and it seems to me in retrospect that he succeeded beyond measure. It may well be that the onset of a regional war between Shia and Sunni will not, in the end, advance the cause so beloved of Zarqawi. But for a monster like Zarqawi, what mattered was his enactment of what he saw as God’s will in his lifetime. Zarqawi’s God was as hostile to Shiites as to infidels, perhaps even more hostile to Shiites. And he died a martyr for such a God. His final success makes it all the more depressing that the Bush administration had a clear shot at killing him in 2003 and balked. The awful combination of Islamist evil and Republican incompetence struck again. Sadly, I see few signs of either part of that equation shifting.

My former TNR colleague and friend, Bob Wright, grilled me about faith and politics for bloggingheads.tv. Here’s the link to the diavlog. Among the topics as redacted by Bob: "Is Andrew really a Christian?" and "Andrew feels the presence of Jesus," and "Bob tries to Darwinize Andrew’s religion." Beliefnet is planning a similar blogalogue between me and Sam Harris this month. Stay tuned. Oh, and Mickey has a cow here.

Stephen Bainbridge provides a thoughtful and, to my mind, convincing Catholic defense of executing Saddam Hussein.

"[I]t seems to me that my generation was defined by the open road, and the accompanying hope that a promise lay at the end of it. The almost trance-like experience of driving down the soft tunnel of a dark highway at night was something I relished. At most, there would be the distant red lights of a car far ahead, and always the murmur of the glowing radio, the hiss of the tires and, at a certain speed on narrower roads, the fizzing past of telephone poles with their rhythmic whiplash.

Late at night, in most places I knew, there was almost no traffic and driving, a meditative activity, could cast a spell. Behind the wheel, gliding along, I was keenly aware of being an American in America, on a road that was also metaphorical, making my way through life, unhindered, developing ideas, making decisions, liberated by the flight through this darkness and silence. With less light pollution, the night sky was different, too ‚Äî starrier, more daunting, more beautiful,’ – Paul Theroux, New York Times.

A reprise from a link already provided by Clive. Worth another looksee: Samantha Bee tries to rescue Al Jazeera. She was too late for Air America.

Just a major shout-out to my fellow Brits, Clive, Danny and Alex, for their sterling work over the holidays. I stayed the course, as mandated by Aaron, to stay offline altogether for a week: blog-detox of a kind. I feel much fresher after a hectic fall – and I owe that to the capable hands of my three stand-ins. I’d like to thank Clive especially for such dogged work. Filling a blog each day is harder than it looks, and Clive faltered not. Keep reading him at his own blog here. You can read Danny Finkelstein in the Times of London here. Alex Massie blogs and writes for TNR.com, whose group-blog, The Plank, keeps improving. My thanks again to them – and to you for your support of the site while I’m getting some R & R.

[Alex]

Like Clive, I’m heading off to see the New Year in, so will sign off from here. It’s been a pleasure stepping – however gingerly – into Andrew’s boots this past fortnight and I’m just sorry I wasn’t, for reasons too tedious to relate, able to post more frequently. Nonetheless, it’s been a blast. Thank you for your tolerance and, in particular, to those readers who wrote in.

I trust you will enjoy your Hogmanay, see the New Year in with style, First Foot your friends and neighbours with gusto and, most importantly, thrive in 2007.

Thanks again to Andrew for entrusting his blog to us. May he be welcomed back by you all when he resumes duty.

[Alex]

John Edwards fired the first shot of his Presidential campaign this morning when he labelled the argument for increasing troop levels in Iraq the "McCain Doctrine". This is a smart move for Edwards and his party.

Smart for Edwards because he immediately strengthens his bona fides on the left; smart for his party because a Democratic bet that McCain’s hawkishness may prove too much for voters in 2008 seems – right now – a sensible investment. Roping McCain to an increasingly unpopular foreign policy position might pays off even if it hurts McCain’s chances of winning the GOP nomination since I’d imagine Democrats would rather run against, say, Mitt Romney than McCain or Rudy Giuliani.

(Similarly, part of the case against Hillary Clinton may be that many conservatives would like to run against her.)

[Clive]

I know it’s still daytime in the US, but it’s close to 11pm here, and I’m off to a low-key New Year’s Eve party. My thanks to Andrew, and all those readers who’ve put up with me for the past two weeks. I hope the content hasn’t lurched around too much. I know I haven’t pleased everyone, as you can tell from these two e-mails, my favourites of all the ones that have come in over the past two weeks.

This reader didn’t care for a passing reference to a weird game called cricket:

WTF is the Ashes in Australia and why would an American possibly give a f*** about the most homosexual physical activity short of male ballet and figure-skating?

And this lawyer in Maine just didn’t like me:

You are, I regret to say, a poor writer. I welcome the New Year with renewed gusto knowing I will have seen the last of your simplistic postings.

Brilliant. I’m going to print that one up and pin it in my study.

Happy New Year.