Likelihood of Success

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Archive for the ‘Orient’ Category

Well, it takes a village, after all

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 26, 2007

Improper colonial deference to Baroness Clinton and the Marquess of Levin:

Iraq’s beleaguered prime minister on Sunday lashed out at Democrats who have called for his ouster, saying Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Carl Levin need to “come to their senses.”Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were the most strident.

“There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses,” al-Maliki said at a news conference.

Good for him. That certainly adds an interesting dynamic, wouldn’t you say? Ironic, quite, yes. Good show.

UPDATE:  “It takes a village… idiot.”

Posted in Orient, Politics and Poker | Leave a Comment »

Osama deader than ever

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 22, 2007

“Taliban chief says Bin Laden alive.”

I don’t think so. People trying to prove they’re alive don’t usually have other people do it for them. Then again, most people don’t have that issue. Well, not live people.

Posted in Orient | 1 Comment »

The friends John keeps

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 21, 2007

John Burgess, who does the Crossroads Arabia blog, tries to keep it civil with commentors who have some trouble seeing the difference between terrorism and warfare.

He has a lot of patience. But how long will the rest of the world?

Posted in O Mores!, Orient | 1 Comment »

Strauss Bazaar Meah Shearim

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 21, 2007


Strauss Bazaar Meah Shearim

Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman.

From my trip last winter. It’s raining hard in New York, today, and New York is no Jerusalem. And, a little bit, I miss Jerusalem.

Posted in Orient | 1 Comment »

South Korea: Hey, that’s MY ox!!

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 20, 2007

Stars and Stripes reports the bare bones of a story: A couple of GI’s stationed in South Korea were “convicted” (sounds like a criminal case) of trademark “violations,” unspecified, and fined.

Who knew South Korea was so particular about trademark law? Maybe it was one of their own trademarks. That’s different.

Posted in Orient | Leave a Comment »

No sanctuary

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 17, 2007

AP:  “US troops fight militants in Iraq mosque.”

It’s true what they say:  General Petraeus seems committed in fighting to win.

Posted in Orient, Stragety | 1 Comment »

Star turn

Posted by Ron Coleman on August 14, 2007

Der Spiegel reports on the thing everyone in Europe — and on the coasts of this continent — wants to ignore:  Success in Iraq.

Now, look.  What’s the purpose of having a blog if I’m going to just link to the same things Instapundit does?  Well, a few thoughts:

  1. He doesn’t have a comments section (can you just imagine?!) .  So there’s nowhere else to riff on these things.
  2. Glenn gets tons of great links from all over.  More than he can even use.  But the ones he does use, well, they’re not used up.
  3. Maybe some people actually do read this blog and don’t read Instapundit.                               Well, it’s not completely impossible!
  4. I have friends here who like to discuss these things, and whether or not they read Instapundit, some of them — like Ara Rubyan — have had a lot to say about the conclusive failure of the Iraq policy and the impossibility of it ever getting anything but worse.  And I’d like to hear from them.

Is that good enough?

Posted in Orient, Stragety | 5 Comments »

If only they will let it sink in

Posted by Ron Coleman on July 30, 2007

TigerHawk:

It has begun to dawn on even lefties with a couple of brain cells to rub together that we ain’t fighting Iraq here. That war is over. We won. Saddam ain’t the winner if we leave.

Now that is a little odd, since the Smartest President ever already said “there is no victory here.”

Oh, yeah, right.  We went through that.

Posted in Orient, Stragety | Leave a Comment »

Petra rocks!

Posted by Ron Coleman on July 27, 2007

Pretty impressive, and stone-cold, too.

Posted in Orient | Leave a Comment »

Arab League on the road

Posted by Ron Coleman on July 25, 2007

The Arab League is visiting Israel with its unworkable plan. But am I stupid for thinking this is a positive development?

And is it possible that Muslim extremism is at least one of the motivating factors, entirely contrary to what one would think?

I’d like to know John Burgess‘s view.

Posted in Orient | 3 Comments »