Wanted: Better War Planning by Better War Planners
Who reads passages like the following from this news report on the American decision to arm rebels in Syria, and feels comforted? “Arming the Syrian rebels is unlikely to tip the balance in their favor,” said Shadi Hamid , director of research at the Brookings Institution ’s Doha Center. “It might have made a difference a year ago, but, today, the Assad regime -- particularly after re-taking Qusair -- has the advantage.” Even some U.S. officials are worried that Obama’s reluctant decision…
More on the First Round of the Iranian Presidential Election
In this post , I pleaded with Iranian reformists not to boycott the Iranian presidential elections in response to regime efforts to curb moderate and reformist participation in the political process. As I mentioned, "[t] he regime would like nothing less than to see moderate and reformist voters disillusioned, dispirited, apathetic and un-engaged in the upcoming elections; after all, such a state of affairs makes it easier to elect hardliners without resorting to vote-rigging, and thus without…
Surprising--and Unsurprising--News from the First Round of Iran's Presidential Election
First, the surprising news: The leading moderate candidate for the presidency has emerged as the strongest of all of the candidates after the first round of voting : Early results from Iran's presidential election put the reformist-backed candidate, Hassan Rouhani, in the lead. With 2.9m ballots counted, the cleric had 1.46m votes, or 49.87%, well ahead of Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, with 488,000 votes, or 16.65%. If no candidate wins more than 50%, a run-off will be held next Friday. It…
Eventually, Andrew Sullivan Deserts His Idols
And it looks as though he has done so again . To be fair, I don't blame him .
There have been a number of developments regarding the civil war in Syria. For one thing, the Obama administration has come to the conclusion that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against Syrian rebels, and now believes that it must arm the rebels against the regime . It ought to go without saying that the use of chemical weapons is A Bad Thing, but everyone ought to understand that the arming of Syrian rebels may not represent the end of American involvement in Syria. Rather, it may only represent…
Here's the Thing about the “Least Truthful Answer”
It's still not truthful . Maybe James Clapper should have asked to go into executive session--though that would have tipped everyone off--instead of giving false testimony to Congress.
Behold . I am impressed.
. . . if “all successful applications of probability to describe nature can be traced to quantum origins,” as Albrecht and Phillips maintain, that means that even when we think we’re using classical probabilities, deep down, it’s really the quantum world calling the shots. We are opening the box on Schrödinger’s cat every time we flip a coin or check the weather, and countless other times during every day. -- Jennifer Ouelette .
If you were an Iranian living in Iran, you would seek some sanity in the midst of all of the lunacy your own government keeps inundating you with. Thankfully, Kambiz Hosseini is dedicated to spreading sanity : In the world of Iranian actor Kambiz Hosseini, almost everything about his country's presidential elections is side-splittingly funny. "Becoming the president of Iran is like making a James Bond movie," Hosseini said in a recent CBCRadio program. "The characters stay the same, but…
Behold, the Apocalypse Is Upon Us
I actually agree with Jeffrey Toobin on whether Edward Snowden is a hero . Therefore, we must be doomed. The asteroid will hit at any moment: Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, including my…
We Passed Health Care Reform . . .
And now, we are finding out what is in it : Democrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. But on Thursday, the Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent” relative to 2013. “We have warned of these increases,”…
Political Freedom--Or the Lack Thereof--in Iran
I really look forward to the day when I don't have to read stories like this one . But I fear that day won't arrive for a very long time: A senior Iranian diplomat linked to Iran's reformists, who has been detained at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison for three months, has been denied access to his attorney for the entire time, sources familiar with the case told Reuters on Monday. Bagher Asadi, who was previously a senior diplomat at Iran's U.N. mission in New York and most recently a…