Europe's Crisis Widens from the Wall Street Journal
"Italy, Spain See Bonds Sink, Portugal Faces Rating Cut as Faith in Rescue Ebbs."
NOT GOOD!
China: As Clueless as Everyone Else on North Korea (Bill Powell) from Time Magazine
"With North and South Korea inching closer to a resumption of one of the 20th century's bloodiest wars, the China's diplomatic response seemed tin-eared at best — and clueless at worst."
North Korea 'Highly Likely to Attack South Korea Again' from the Telegraph [of the UK]
"North Korea is “highly likely” to attack South Korea again as its ailing leader Kim Jong-il seeks to bolster the standing of his regime ahead of a planned handover of power, South Korea’s intelligence chief has warned."
Again -- NOT GOOD!
North Korea is China's Growing Monster (Frank Ching) from the China Post [of Hong Kong in English]
"Wittingly or not, China is nurturing a monster in North Korea."
WikiLeaks Doesn't Tell All Concerning Obama's Successful Iran Policy (Doyle MacManus) from the Los Angeles Times
"Confidential documents show that the U.S. is telling the truth about its objectives with Iran; what they don't reveal is that Obama's policy of engagement and sanctions is showing signs of success."
US Diplomats Aren't Stupid After All (Joshua Kucera) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"How WikiLeaks restored one journalist's faith in the State Department."
Wikileaks Shows the Skills of US Diplomats (Fareed Zakaria) from Times Magazine
"A remarkably broad consensus has formed that WikiLeaks' latest data dump is a diplomatic disaster for the U.S. While there are debates over how the Obama Administration should respond, everyone agrees that the revelations have weakened America. But have they? I don't deny for a moment that many of the "wikicables" are intensely embarrassing, but the sum total of the output I have read is actually quite reassuring about the way Washington — or at least the State Department — works."
Wikileaks Accidentally Helps US (Leslie Gelb) from the Daily Beast
"Julian Assange clearly intended the State Dept. cable leaks to smear the U.S. as evil and selfish. Leslie H. Gelb on how he inadvertently proved the opposite."
Y'know, once I began delving into these cables, this was exactly my impression.
Wikileaks: Interpol Issues Wanted Notice for Julian Assange from the Guardian [of the UK]
"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange facing growing legal problems around world."
I've concluded that this guy is an arrogant SOB who is pretty clueless about the damage he has done to hundreds of eminently worthy individuals and initiatives around the world. Personal relationships are gold in diplomatic circles and the ones who are really going to get it in the teeth professionally are the US's professional diplomatic corps. These are folks who routinely slave for decades in remote parts of the world, building up relationships, developing expertise, sacrificing in substantial professional and personal ways, and, at times even having their lives endangered. Dozens of these folks, perhaps more, will be recalled, their utility profoundly degraded thanks to wikileaks, their careers ruined, and, for each one, there were sets of initiatives that will be pushed back to square one.
Swedish Court Confirms Arrest Warrant for Wikileaks Founder from the New York Times
"Sweden's highest court refused on Thursday to grant permission for Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing organization, to appeal a court order seeking his arrest to face questioning over alleged sex crimes, his lawyer and said."
Assange has a huge target on his ass right now. He'd better be careful where he flees to. He has pissed off A LOT of people in very high places ALL OVER THE WORLD. I suspect, one way or another, he will get nailed for some offense and locked up.
The Cables' Credibility Question (Matthew Duss) from the American Prospect
"What do the WikiLeaks cables tell us about the Middle East in the wake of the Bush Doctrine?"
The Wounded Home Front (Robert Kaplan) from the American Interest
"The Soviets knew that a dead body causes no tactical inconvenience. It only removes the one dead person from the field. But a wounded person requires the assistance of people all the way down the line who could otherwise be fighting. Likewise with the home front in a war. The dead leave an awful vacancy in the lives of loved ones, but those who are seriously wounded or psychologically traumatized can disrupt families and society more."
A surprisingly good look at the HUGE human costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- here from a notable war hawk.
The Pentagon, Pursuing Justice from the New York Times
"The long-awaited report on “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the secretary of defense have made it clear that the law should be repealed immediately."
Field of Dreams: Why Obama Won't Face a Primary Challenger (Ed Kilgore) from the New Republic
"For a substantive primary challenge to occur, a coherent bloc of Democratic voters—whether liberal or moderate—would have to sour on Obama and coalesce behind another candidate in such a way that threatens the president's hold over his base. There's just no sign of that happening."
CT-Sen: Dodd Bids Farewell to Senate from Politico
"In his final speech on the Senate floor, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd urged his colleagues to work together in a bipartisan fashion and not change the filibuster rules that have guided their chamber. “The time of my departure has come,” said Dodd, who is Catholic, quoting Saint Paul. “I’ve fought a good fight…I kept the faith.” "
A very good Senator who served CT and the US well. I wonder what's next for Mr. Dodd?
CHEETAH NUGGET!!
SIX Hungry Cheetah Cubs Learn to Hunt with Mum from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Adorable images show how the female cat has her hands full with a rarely high number of offspring - but she's certainly rising to the challenge."
The photos are REALLY GOOD!
WORLD WAR II NUGGET!!
Art's Survivors of Hitler's War from the New York Times
"Sculptures once reviled by the Nazis as “degenerate” art, including one by Edwin Scharff, were recently unearthed and are on view at the Neues Museum in Berlin."
WORLD WAR I NUGGET!!
Last Shot at Preserving Battleship Texas Under Way from the Houston Chronicle
"Once touted as the most powerful weapon on the planet, the nearly century-old battlewagon has endured some 60 years as an historic relic moored in the brackish Houston Ship Channel, corrosion from water outside and inside munching at its steel and patchwork repairs. "Our boat's been sitting in the water and rusting away, so we get it out of the water," says Andy Smith, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's manager of the battleship site east of Houston. That's the goal as work finally is beginning to permanently remove the Texas from water …."
Good luck! What an enormous project!! Getting one of the original "Dreadnought" class battleships out of the water!!
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