May 26, 2003

GOTTA SAY, I'M LIKING THIS BREMER GUY SO FAR

Good profile in the Post today on Iraq's new head man.

Posted by BruceR at 01:52 PM

ON THE SPANISH PEACEKEEPING DISASTER

Spain may have just lost more peacekeepers in one accident than Canada's lost in 50 years. It's a horrible tragedy, made even more so by Spain's apparent reliance on ex-Soviet civilian chartered air for its Afghan troop deployments. If it had been a Spanish plane, it would have been exhaustively investigated, and evaluated, but there would have been some possibility of final closure... now, no matter the outcome, the Spanish are forever going to wonder if their troops coming home from Afghanistan died because their government, very much like Canada's, has cut funding corners by eliminating its armed forces' capability for self-deployment and recovery. For a country like Canada, sending over 1,000 troops of its own to the same place in a couple months, likely on the same kind of aircraft, this will be cautionary.

Posted by BruceR at 12:18 PM

YEAH, SO WHAT?

People aren't honestly "shocked, shocked" about the NYT using stringers to help the credited reporters are they? Good God, I'd have thought it's a known fact that nearly every Times story out of Canada since they closed their office here involves some unnamed local "researcher," with a misleading byline and the "Canadian correspondent" du jour, who rarely crosses the border. I've been approached myself to be a member of the local colonial help. It's never been a scandal when it involves the foreign desks... why is it so different when it's Appalachia?

Posted by BruceR at 12:08 PM