December 5, 2004, Axis of Evil TM Roundup
First, a cheery piece during this week's visit to our friends at Beijing's People's Daily, as we learn that the wild and crazy maniacs of North Korea are getting a little balky again about the prospects of the six-party talks the President has been so big on. This is all a big kabuki, of course: what the DPRK says it wants is basically a bit stronger non-aggression pact than the armistice we've been operating under since the early 1950's. Why? Exactly: because George W. Bush showed Axis of Evil TM member Iraq that he takes "regime change" seriously, thereby encouraging the other two members of the A of E with the words "we better get a bomb".
Speaking of the Axis of Evil TM's other currently active member (Iran), we give you this cheerful scenario laid out by William Lind in (dog run member) Defense and the National Interest. What cheery scenario? Picture an American military that is not promptly drawn down after the Iraqi elections. Picture a joint Israeli/American air strike at Iranian nuclear development facilities. Picture an Iranian military poised to roll across Iraq and capture American positions (with the help of insurgent Shia-- or even Sunni-- allies) during a period of bad weather when American air power is of no use...
Well, I'd rather not picture it, but at least Mr. Lind is doing some thinking that we sure as hell hope is being duplicated in the Pentagon and National Security Agency before anybody thinks of a major new move against, say, Iran... just sayin'...
Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Nawar (I think) says "damn the torpedoes, January 30th Iraqi elections will go forward". Yes, he knows about all the violence, but supposes that things will be worse if a delay is in the offing... the delay might encourage yet further violence. (IMHO, its hard to see WHAT would encourage MORE violence than is already present in Iraq... just saying...) My American Street colleague Melanie, btw, gives us this nice summary of the Pentagon's assessment that we have lost the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. (Again... just sayin'... and thanks to Julia for the heads up).
This has been Axis of Evil TM roundup.