Links and Minifeatures 08 29 Tuesday (late)

Carnival of Liberty with a Jeopardy theme

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They must be very close to nuclear weapons: Iran president rejects nuke suspension



Reuters had the same story, plus Ahmadinejad challenges Bush to TV debate, and Iran says no one can stop its atomic work.



Via neo-neocon

Ahmadinejad Says UN Action on Iran Stance `Unlikely'



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Meanwhile, back at the proxy war, In war's dust, a new Arab 'lion' emerges



Is there anyone who doubts that by pressuring Israel to stop short of resolution one more time, europe has further enabled this nonsense?



Dr Sanity, just in case you had those doubts.



The Thomas Sowell article she references.



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Bodies with torture marks found in Iraq



In a way, that this is headline news is evidence that Iraq is not yet in civil war. Sectarian and tribalist strife, yes. Civil war, no. Iraq is one of the more heavily ethnically fragmented nations in the region, and its various groups have major grievances against each other. Having had conversations on the subject with a couple of Iraqi co-workers in the past, who claimed Iraq was a modern unified nation while saying, "The Assyrians do this. The Kurds do that," has done nothing but reinforce the impression I got from the dry reading in places like the CIA factbook.



I would have been amazed had there been no ethnic and sectarian violence between the factions in this country. When the Sunni have used brutally repressive tactics for the last forty years to control the other ethnic and religious groups, and that weight is suddenly lifted, what does history tell you is going to happen? Consider what would have happened to the jews of europe had all of the libels to which they were subjected been true. What happened there was bad enough. But for the Sunnis, that stuff happened.



Iraq the Model on "options other than Democracy".



I'm with him. If the goal isn't democracy, it's not worth the work. Furthermore, there isn't another 2 to 4 years of the coalition in Iraq under the current conditions. The people who get bored when things go past half an hour and the people who quit when they find that task they were told was going to be long and difficult indeed turns out to have obstacles are making things progressively difficult, politically. A timetable is stupid; nonetheless one is in the process of being imposed politically. Which is a damned shame, because Iraq is far from the last task in the war on terrorism, or the war on radical islam, whichever you prefer to call it. I'll support the current efforts to the bitter end, but with all the people who have access to big microphones opposing the administration, the war effort has a de facto deadline due to absence of will.



Mind you, I won't be alone:

Indepundit notes that there are others who back the administration and will continue to do so.



Dean's World takes on Professor Chomsky.



Big Lizards on the NY Slimes slipping up and reporting that the Iraqi Army won big (as they usually do).



Victor Davis Hanson on the need to think ahead in the war on terror.



LGF on forced conversions, such as Centanni and Wiig.



Steven den Beste on disproportionate response.



One more observation before I quit this subject: Has anyone else noticed the parallels of the current situation within Islam to the political situation with Christianity in Europe (and North America) from roughly the beginning of the Renaissance to the Enlightenment? That breaking of the political stranglehold of the church? Is there anyone here who would have sided with the repressive wings of Christianity then? If not, then why would you side with the repressive wing of Islam? Christianity contains, at its heart, far gentler teachings and a far more tolerant worldview, and I say this as a decided non-christian. I think I would have genuinely liked Jesus, although not enough to become a follower. If someone gave me the opportunity to go back and strangle Mohammed in his crib, I'd probably have to take them up on it if they wouldn't allow a less bloodthirsty alternative. I say this despite the fact that it would probably have caused another bloodthirsty religion which started about fifteen years after Islam to erupt from the Arabian peninsula.



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Obregon goes Al Gore one better: Mexico candidate rejects court decision

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador likened the decision to a coup, saying the judges represented the interests of Mexico's ruling elite.



"We will never again allow an illegal and illegitimate government to be installed in our country," he told thousands of supporters camped out Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo.

Sound familiar?



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Voters Everywhere Agree Political System "Badly Broken"



I believe that there is one move that will make more difference to that than anything else: Stop gerrymandering. Force political districts to be drawn based upon nothing else than equal population and shortest possible borders between districts. Yes, there would still be safe left wing districts and safe right wing districts. But there would be a lot fewer of them. Here in California, only 1 of the 120 seats in the state legislature has changed parties in the last two elections. As I remember, none of our 53 seats in the US House of representatives changed party affiliation last election. Our governor tried to change this (unwisely, in a special election) and got overridden by party activists on both sides.



But when there are fewer safe seats, everybody who isn't sitting in them has to appeal to the political center, not just the echo chamber on one side or the other.



The whole thing is enough to make this RINO want to re-run this picture for the benefit of the extremists on both sides.



Anchoress has her own thoughts on the matter.



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Q and O catches Associated Press putting words in Donald Rumsfeld's mouth. Needless to say, it's not to make Rumsfeld or the administration of which he is a part look better.



While we're on the subject, neo-neocon notes that the media is entirely likely to fail to question even obvious fallacies put out by people it wants to believe.



Michelle Malkin has more.



Mary Katherine Ham on "Why we don't believe you"



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HT to Mudville

for this Salt Lake Tribune story about a mother who complained of protesters and political opportunists endangering her son, whose son was killed by "insurgents" emboldened by their domestic politics. The world is watching. Just because you don't care what happens there doesn't mean they don't care what happens here.



My heart goes out to anyone in such a circumstance, whether they support the war or not. But it becomes far worse in such circumstances.



Hugh Hewitt has a letter on the same category.





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via Tim Blair,

Orson Scott Card and the Church of Global Warming.



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Armies of Liberation has noted that the Yemeni regime has arrested seventeen prominent opposition candidates.



While you're there, read about election violations



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via Argghhh!, What WWII Army are you? I come out Poland at 94, followed by Finland at 88. Britain 81, US 63. I can live with that. Japan was my bottom correlation at 31.



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Argghhh! has a good article on the likelihood of what happened in the ComAir crash in Kentucky. Let me add one more factor: Routine. You just think it's all same old-same old, and let your mind wander, and your number comes up. It's the deadliest factor there is.



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via Instapundit, A defense of welfare reform. kausfiles comment is too good to ignore.