The Late Morning Buzz
Alright, today it's more like early afternoon (President Bush's speech threw off our schedule). I'll keep this quick.
Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) got a lot of attention yesterday when he argued that the US should be:
"...responding quietly [to Iranian aggression], killing radical mullahs and iranian atomic scientists, supporting the simmering insurgencies within Iran, putting the mullahs' expat business interests out of business, etc."
Glenn Greenwald went to town.
He outlining the litany of international laws this would break, writing:
Reynolds thinks that the Bush administration, unilaterally, should send people to murder Iranian scientists and religious leaders -- just pick out whichever ones we don't like and slaughter them. No charges. No trial. No accountability. Just roving death squads deployed and commanded by our Leader, slaughtering whomever he wants dead.
Linking to Greenwald, Atrios quipped that Reynolds will still be treated as a "reasonable guy" and invited on Howard Kurtz's show, "especially since he doesn't use bad language." Matt Yglesias just wondered what world Reynolds thinks we live in: "Are there really dozens of Farsi-speaking ninjas working for the CIA?"
Also:
- Ezra Klein outlines a quick discussion that took place on how and why smart people manage to be global warming deniers (one argument: they hate Al Gore).
- Isaac Chotiner dissents with thoughts similar to those of Ben Adler on the "Giuliani/Lieberman" ticket idea proposed by TNR Editor-In-Chief Marty Peretz. Both wonder: what's so great about being for this hugely unpopular war?
- Finally, Garance Franke-Ruta follows-up on her "Clinton Rules" argument from yesterday by going back to her history as attacked by Matt Yglesias.
It's more than likely that the Bush bunch completely agrees with Reynolds. Shortly into his presidency, Bush ditched Kyoto, the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the germ warfare protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court and the land mine treaty. In other words, the rest of the world be damned.
As far as assasinations of foreigners (like Irani anybody) which would be in violation of American law, when has Bush ever paid any attention to American law. In other words, America be damned.
February 14, 2007 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
High Andrew:
Personally, I think the buzz and combined energies ought to be directed to the apprehension of the folks who came up with the Cooked Intel right at the beginning of this fatal farce ... But I really DO understand there's bigger fish to fry by bouncing around the ether through all those links...
That "Cooked Intel" is even up at the buzz tracker...
http://www.buzztracker.com/permalink/15520/25376481/Cooked-Intel-So-the-Stovepipe-Stops-Where
~OGD~
ps: Please take this with the humor it is intended to convey...
February 14, 2007 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like Reynolds has read a few too many books by Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum. Maybe he should try asking MI5 for a 00 license.
I like action/adventure books and movies as much as any guy but do realize that they are fiction -- at least 99.99999999% of the time.
February 14, 2007 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not convinced on Gore. Presumably he's demonized a little less than the Clintons, and surely he's disliked because he'd bring bad things to those benefitting most from global warming, not vice versa?
John
http://www.haberarts.com/
February 14, 2007 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're both a bit behind the times. Actually, Bush already does issue death sentences on foreigners who are assassinated without a trial or jury. The CIA assassination by Predator drone of Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harthi in the wilds of northern Yemen is one example. Some claim that he was a member of Al-Qaeda and therefore an enemy combatant, so this was justified - but note that his guilt in membership in Al-Qaeda was never verified, he was not killed on the battlefield, and we're not at war with Yemen.
And now for something entirely different: BushCo propaganda team can't find it rear with both hands.
The day before yesterday, a dramatic Pentagon briefing stated with absolute certainty that the highest levels of Iranian authorities were intentionally sending arms to Iraq in order to kill Americans.
Yesterday, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest level US military, authority disputed that claim.
Today, the highest level authority in the whole United States has this to say about it:
"I don't think we know"
(Bush backs away from claim on Iran
14 Feb 2007 18:59:18 - Reuters)
Golly. What next.
February 14, 2007 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if the Iranians read Instapundit.
February 15, 2007 7:00 AM | Reply | Permalink