Let the Appeasement Begin!
And Other Politics as Usual

Iran has reportedly deployed a missile capable of striking Israel and southeastern Europe. Considering that Iran has already scoffed at Kerry's proposal to appease--er, negotiate--a settlement to the Iran nuke crisis by supplying the Mullahs with nuclear fuel, maybe the Europeans should be concerned. (I guess the mullahs expected more for their money). In any event, France is probably already planning surrender. (But maybe Israel is not not quite ready yet).

In other news, check out this item from the AP wire. Note the first two paragraphs describing the situation in Afghanistan as spiraling out of control.

The killing in Afghanistan spirals onward, undermining US contentions of success in pacifying the country with less than a week to go before a historic experiment with democracy: direct presidential elections. The deaths of three Afghan soldiers and two militants over the weekend, barely noted in news reports, brought to at least 957 the number of people reported killed in political violence this year, according to an Associated Press review. The toll includes about 30 American soldiers.

How many fatalities was that? 957, you say. Bear in mind that the city of New York had more homicides than that annually in the 1990's. But that's not really the point. Given the initial figure we have to wait until the end of the article for this:

Based on AP reports, nearly half of those killed in just over nine months have been militants.

So let's see. Most of the fatalities were guys we're trying to kill anyway. What's worse is that this line didn't make it into the Boston Globe version of the story. But c'mon, everybody knows Afghanistan's a quagmire! I read in the Globe! Tell that to the millions of Afghanis that are registered to vote on Saturday and the 40% of them who are women.

Oh, and then there's that other quagmire. Iraqi and US forces have secured Samarra and apparently captured several non-Iraqi insurgents. Of particular note is that the Iraqi troops performed very well. Fallujah can't be far behind.

And finally, Base10 is not the only one offended by stupid celebrity political comments. See here and here.

Base10 is certainly in a quagmire. He must chose between post-season baseball and the vice-presidential debate. Well, we'll see.
- posted by Base10 @ 2:17 PM