Middle East

This is a very fine article (quite long) by Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, about Saddam Hussein as tyrant. It is a detailed and personal accounting of what a tyrant does, what he must think about, and the ill effect he has on everyone around him. It should be required reading for anyone with such tendencies. Tyrants are not happy people. That this fellow is going to be taken out is certain, only details need to be worked out. And I'm guessing that it need not include sending in a couple of hundred thousand troops. His own people ought to be willing to do it, they just need a little help.

Michael Barone has the best short analysis on the Bush-Crown Prince meeting at the Ranch, why the Saudis are holding a losing hand and why Bush is holding the winning one. Events in the last few days are proving this true.

Jonah Goldberg has a wonderful piece on why Europeans have become anti-Israeli. After mentioning a couple of possibilities (both reasonable) he settles on one massive fact: they hate the U.S. and hate themselves. He explains why this is so (the title, "Guilt and Arrogance" gives it away). See what has happened to a continent that has "internalized the moral conclusions of the Left."

Stuart Taylor explains (in apparent agreement with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld) why indefinite detention is better than any other alternative for the Al Qaeda suspects.

Is Arafat finished? Is there a crack in the so-called Palestinian unity? It is probable that we are bearing some fruits from trees we have planted over the years and which the Bush administration has been watering. Things are starting to become clearer.

Here is the aerial map of Jenin that has been in the news. Note the area marked by the black square: that is the area in which the Israelis operated.

Note the large number of Arabic speaking applicants applying for positions in the FBI. Many of the applicants seem to be foreign-born or first-generation Arab-Americans.

These articles by Hanson and Miniter end up speaking to the same issue: why Western Civilization is good, what that has to do with the things America stands for, and why some on the left hate us for it. For those of you (perhaps) more intellectually inclined here is a very good piece, in the form of a book review, on the novelist Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things) and anti-American activist. She is off the wall.

NASA Photo

This is a great NASA shot of the earth at night in November 2000. Notice the contrast between light and dark. Look at Japan and South Korea and then spot North Korea. Hard to find North Korea, isn't it? It's a pretty dark place.