Flit

TIME TO MOVE ON Well,

TIME TO MOVE ON

Well, Donald Rumsfeld made it official today: Bill Quick and friends won't get a war in their stockings for Christmas. To deny that at this point is right up there in the wishful thinking department with Homer Simpson chasing the roast pig down the hill yelling, "It's still good! It's still good!"

So, the question then becomes, what is really going on. I see three competing theories:

1) The Waiting Game: That Bush, et al are really raring to go, but are still waiting for something they see as essential for victory, that isn't there yet. A UN resolution that would bring the necessary Iraqi neighbours online would be the obvious choice here.

2) The Smokescreen: That Bush, et al are playing a deep game, talking war but working for a peaceful solution behind a smokescreen of bluster, as Stephen Chapman proposes today.

3) The Pressure Cooker: This blog's theory, last put forward Nov. 19, that this is a different kind of deep game, involving continually increasing the pressure on the Iraqi leadership bit by bit, until Iraq (like previous foes Mexico, Spain, South Carolina, Germany (twice), Japan, and Vietnam) either does something so outrageous and violent that the necessary world support will be a given, or alternately, that an overthrow from within puts a more pliable strongman in charge.

It's fair to say the evidence to date supports all three hypotheses. Which one you believe in seems to really depend on which approach you would believe is soundest. Because I see 1) as high-risk, and likely damaging in the long run, and 2) as craven, I'm still holding out hope for option 3. The only trouble is, Mr. Hussein refuses to play along by doing something stupid... for once. The question then becomes, how much more "ratcheting up" room is left before you have to go to war just to save face? And when does that room run out? February, at the earliest?

DUCK! Seen in a rotating-gif

DUCK!

Seen in a rotating-gif advertisement on Bill Quick's site: "Gunbroker.com: promoting the legal exchange of firearms between adult users."

THAT'S US, THE ROGUE MILITARY

THAT'S US, THE ROGUE MILITARY

Tom Walkom hits yet another new low in the Star today, claiming the Canadian military and intelligence service have gone rogue and no longer work for Canada:

"Already it is unclear whom exactly our generals and spooks work for.
"In one case, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service spirited a Canadian citizen, Mohamed Mansour Jabarah, across the border so that the U.S. could jail him indefinitely without the bother of laying charges. Apparently, CSIS did this without the knowledge of the government to whom it allegedly reports. Certainly, Foreign Minister Bill Graham was taken by surprise.
"So, too, in Afghanistan. Officially, the Canadian government's position is that combatants captured by Canadian troops there will be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. In reality, Canadian troops routinely defy their own government and hand over Afghan captives to the U.S., which refuses to abide by the Geneva accords."

Well, I've been questioning Walkom's patriotism and love of country for nearly a year now (and he's never yet failed to rise to occasion after occasion to display his own deep-seated hatred of what his nation stands for) so I suppose it's only fair he gets to question mine.