Internal Monologue

Another possible not-good consequence of invading Iraq (in case you needed any more): possible confrontation with Turkey (via Taylor Marsh ). Seems Turkish Kurdish guerillas/terrorists/whatever are using Kurdish Iraq as a staging ground or route into Turkey. Turkey is getting angry and threatening to send troops into Iraq, which would no doubt piss off the Kurds that are there.

You know Neocons have come unhinged when blogs like Internal Monologue link favorably to conservative columnists like George F. Will: As for the "healthy" repercussions that the Weekly Standard is so eager to experience from yet another war: One envies that publication's powers of prophecy but wishes it had exercised them on the nation's behalf before all of the surprises -- all of them unpleasant -- that Iraq has inflicted. And regarding the "appeasement" that the Weekly Standard decries: Does the magazine really wish the administration had heeded its earlier (Dec. 20, 2004) editorial advocating war with yet another nation -- the bombing of Syria? Neoconservatives have much to learn, even from Buddy Bell, manager of the Kansas City Royals. After his team lost its 10th consecutive game in April, Bell said, "I never say it can't get worse." In their next game, the Royals extended their losing streak to 11 and in May lost 13 in a row. Andrew Su

Wanna play armchair strategist in the Middle East? C’mon, everyone’s doing it. Digby thinks Billmon is the go-to guy for “dark speculation”. I agree with that enough to put Billmon into my blogroll in the right-hand column, though I hasten to add that I’m far from an expert on these matters. It seems like alliances are shifting rapidly: the Sunnis in Iraq suddenly want Americans to stay, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni governments are telling Shiite Hezbollah that it was too provocative, everyone wonders whether the Sunni-Shiite conflict will supercede the Muslim-Israeli conflict or vice-versa, and everyone wonders how much the United States will treat Israel’s enemies as its own. (I hope we let Israel fight its own wars, barring some existential threat.) The question Billmon asks is: Where is Al Qaeda in all of this Middle Eastern turmoil? The bottom line is that like any fading rock group, Al Qaeda badly needs a hit to avoid being permanently supplanted in the public eye by its Shi

Ugh. I know this is small potatoes in the catalogue of Bush’s bad deeds, but it totally damages US prestige. If you can believe it, our president went up behind Angela Merkel at the G8 conference and tried to give her a surprise shoulder rub. Digby links to Taylor Marsh (and I link to both, trackback slut that I am), where you can find a whole series of pictures. Update: Majikthise comments on this episode: Every woman will recognize the guy who sidles up and starts "casually" giving you a backrub without even looking at you, because he wants to preserve deniability in case you freak out. Like any practiced groper, Bush stares right past Merkel as she recoils from his touch. The play fails, but he just moves on, eyes averted, like it's her problem. ("Oh my God, there's a hysterical woman displaying inappropriate behavior! I'll just pretend I don't notice her egregious gaffe.") What an inappropriate jerk. I am deeply ashamed that this man is p

I haven’t a clue why someone would train a chimp to play a Ms. Pac-Man knockoff , but someone seems to have done it (albeit not spectacularly well). I wonder if the chimp (one of the commenters says it’s a bonobo, but I can’t tell) finds it annoying that the trainer is giving all kinds of back seat advice. I also wonder how much better than random the chimp is doing. It seems to at least have some idea of how to play, but selective editing can do wonders.

More missile geekery from Maniak (my super-secret rocketry hardware expert): What was that thing that hit and severely damaged the Israeli ship ? The NYT explains: The Israelis also said that one of their ships had been damaged not by a Hezbollah drone, but by a sophisticated Iranian C-802 missile, which is radar-guided and which the Israelis said they had not known that Hezbollah possessed. They said the missiles, one of which sank a civilian ship, were launched with the aid of Lebanese military radar along the shore. Israel then destroyed most of the radar installations. Maniak elaborates: Australian and Israeli press among others are calling the missile that hit the Israeli ship INS Hanit a "C-802" (this was previously incorrectly referred to as an unmanned drone). The same kind of missile also is apparently what hit the Egyptian civilian ship that claimed to have been hit by the Israeli navy. This is a Chinese two-stage cruise missile design that China sold to Iran.

…Unless those we’ve helped “stand up” end up being death squad-ridden sectarian militias that go on ethnic cleansing rampages, in which case we might have to stick around to protect from genocide the very people who have been behind the insurgency that has been killing us with roadside bombs and RPGs for the last 3 years. Seems the Sunnis have had a bit of a change of heart , and now want us to stick around. It turns out that American occupation is sounding better to them than genocide at the hands of the Shiites. Of course this doesn’t prevent the Sunni-backed insurgency from, well, still trying to kill us: Even in Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, where insurgents are carrying out a vicious guerrilla war against foreign troops, a handful of leaders are asking American commanders to rein in Iraqi paramilitary units. Sheiks in Falluja often complain to American officers there of harassment, raids or indiscriminate shooting by Iraqi forces. Is this an opportunity to win a new partner in