Very interesting outlook.

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(NT) A rare example of porcine aviators...

by Edward ODaniel May 5, 2004 2:32AM PDT

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(nt) Rare? In SE? ;)

by MarciaB May 5, 2004 2:47AM PDT

.

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If you had read it you might have agreed with some of his ideas. -nt

by Dan McC May 6, 2004 12:22AM PDT

.

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Um....Dan....

by Josh K May 6, 2004 12:53AM PDT

I think Ed was saying that he did read it and that he is in rare agreement with you about it. "Porcine aviators" is a play on "when pigs fly!" and it's been a running joke around here to use that expression or variants of it when such planetary alignments occur.

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I picked up on Ed's pig comment

by Dan McC May 6, 2004 1:15AM PDT

But knowing Ed's posting style and without any explanatory support there were just too many ways his comment could have been meant.

Thanks,

Dan

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Excuses, excuses. Just thank Josh for explaining it to you.

by Edward ODaniel May 6, 2004 8:01AM PDT

Your response was your normal knee jerk presented without reading or understanding what you read.

Now you try to out perform Gregory Hines.

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Sheesh.........

by David Evans May 7, 2004 12:46AM PDT

Your gratuitous "knowing Ed's posting style" comment is insulting as well as sanctimonious. It's a wonder a whole bunch of people didn't fire off a slew of MOD ALERTS for that one. KNOW WHAT I MEAN DAN? I thought you might.

Ed was agreeing with you, yet you were unable to see that in your constant search for something to be morally outraged at. If you're looking for outrage you'll have to look elsewhere. Good grief........

DE

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Re:Very interesting outlook.

by John Robie May 5, 2004 3:34AM PDT

It is by Thomas P.M. Barnett, U.S. Naval War College. The first sentence is:

"LET ME TELL YOU why military engagement with Saddam Hussein?s regime in Baghdad is not only necessary and inevitable, but good."

I'll give a look at that site later on today.

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(NT) Good read

by C1ay May 5, 2004 12:00PM PDT

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Fascinating stuff, Dan

by Paul C May 5, 2004 11:57PM PDT

My only real quibble is that I think he underestimates the problem possibly posed by China until his footnotes ("And then there's AIDS). China was unable to be forthcoming about SARS; all reports indicate that AIDS is an increasing threat, especially in the west and south of the country, but the PRC's sclerotic leadership seems compelled to sweep that under the rug. I fear that real change will not occur until and unless the bootheel of Communism is taken off the necks of the Chinese people - and that could entail real problems (in a nuclear armed nation, at that).

But the author nails the essential problem of the Mideast - a freedom deficit:

The Middle East is the perfect place to start. Diplomacy cannot work in a region where the biggest sources of insecurity lie not between states but within them. What is most wrong about the Middle East is the lack of personal freedom and how that translates into dead-end lives for most of the population?especially for the young. Some states like Qatar and Jordan are ripe for perestroika-like leaps into better political futures, thanks to younger leaders who see the inevitability of such change. Iran is likewise waiting for the right Gorbachev to come along?if he has not already.

What stands in the path of this change? Fear. Fear of tradition unraveling. Fear of the mullah?s disapproval. Fear of being labeled a ?bad? or ?traitorous? Muslim state. Fear of becoming a target of radical groups and terrorist networks. But most of all, fear of being attacked from all sides for being different?the fear of becoming Israel.

This, of course, is why there are so many in the region that truly fear that Iraq might become a democratic state - and why so many are trying to stop it from becoming just that.

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