Foreign Affairs

So the Casamance is no longer a dangerous place. The Senegalese government has signed a peace deal with the rebels. This is very good news for that region, and for all of Senegal. And as MeFi points out the folly with some of the governmental relief efforts: Our country is more humanitarian than YOURS is! No it’s not. Yes it is. See? We donated more aid than you did. Well, we doubled our donation. So there. But yours are loans,…

My thoughts go out to the tsunami/earthquake-striken people of SE Asia. My grandmother knows at least a dozen people in that region. When I left Berkeley this morning (in Santa Monica now), we got a call from one friend in northern Thailand, who said that all was well, but that they did feel it. If you’re able and you feel so inclined, you can donate money through the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Then head over to Kiev to be an

French scientists have announced a beginning to an HIV vaccine. Here’s a really cool Mac program that allows you to watch French-language TV via Internet. And another one. And there’s a little bruhaha brewing with National Geographic labelling the Persian Gulf as “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)”, despite the fact that both in Arabic and Farsi it’s called the “Fars Gulf” (Fars being the province where the Farsi language originated, which when transferred into Greek eventually became Pers, hence Persia and…

In his first state visit to Canada since his presidency, George W. Bush is refusing to speak to the House of Commons. Reportedly worried about being heckled by backbenchers in the House of Commons, Mr. Bush decided not to address Parliament. He will instead make the main speech of his visit in Halifax, a side trip intended to thank the city for taking in stranded passengers on Sept. 11, 2001. White House press secretary Scott McClellan shrugged off suggestions that…

One congressman — the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress — mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall. ”I…

While the most vocal objections to the resolution’s emphasis on sanctions had come from Algeria, China and Pakistan, there exist major differences over what course of action to take even within the European Union. France’s foreign minister, Michel Barnier, said Tuesday that the African Union should be permitted to solve the problem without outside involvement, while Germany has favored tough action from the international community and British Prime Minister Tony Blair went so far last week as suggesting sending troops.…

Ed: The problem is, neither of these decisions are going to really make any difference one bit. NYT, July 9 2004: Report Says Key Assertions Leading to War Were Wrong WASHINGTON, July 9 Ñ The Central Intelligence Agency greatly overestimated the danger presented by deadly unconventional weapons in Iraq because of runaway assumptions that were never sufficiently challenged, the Senate Intelligence Committee said today. In a long-awaited report that goes to the heart of President Bush’s rationale for going to…

Wow, two in a row. The Gray Zone. The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. RumsfeldÕs decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of Žlite combat units, and hurt AmericaÕs…

Now while all this nonsense about questioning the leadership somehow “endangers” the troops, (a charge I’ve yet to see proven or even explained) is one thing, but this takes it to a whole new level. As in last Friday’s questioning of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, most of the Senators on the committee roundly condemned the prisoner abuse. But one committee member, Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican from Oklahoma, lashed out at the outrage itself. “I’m probably not the only…