Let the jokes with tinges of nervousness begin: Halliburton to Move Headquarters to Dubai.
When I first saw this headline, I thought it was a parody, some jape about the location of the nerve center of the military-industrial complex. But it's in the New York Times, not the Onion…
Guess what country this newspaper is talking about here:
France? The US? Israel? Newly democratic Iraq? Somewhere else?
Answer below.
Did you see this in your newspaper? I didn't notice it in mine.
FT: Somalia strike ‘missed al-Qaeda targets’
The controversial US air strike in southern Somalia missed all three top al-Qaeda members Washington alleges are hiding out in the country, a senior US official said on Thursday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said eight to 10 “al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists” were killed in Monday’s attack, but gave no details.
Imagine if it had been the Clinton administration: the media would be all over it.
Jim Moore’s free world politics and policy carries a local account of the coup in Thailand:
I know that “coup d’etat” sounds dramatic and makes Thailand appear a banana republic (or, as my political scientist friend calls Thailand, a banana monarchy), but in fact Bangkok is a very firt-world city, and this coup seemingly a very white-collar maneuver. Sure, it’s no surprise that a lot of the politicians are corrupt, and that there’s dissent in the ranks, but the issues have been playing out more on the stock exchange and Op-Ed page than the streets — that the military has taken control seems a bizarre response to the situation. It would be as if Enron middle-management had staged a coup.
The wild card, of course, is the king. The general who’s taken over doesn’t really want to retain power for himself and has declared his allegience to the king; even the tanks circling Government House are wearing yellow ribbons, the symbol of the monarchy.
But, the king isn’t a substitute for a prime minister, and he isn’t a replacement for Thaksin. A few months ago, when the dubiously-called elections were found to be dubiously-monitored and Thaksin the dubious winner, some of the opposition asked the king to intervene and appoint a prime minister. The king went on national television and scolded them: this is a democracy, he said, and a democracy holds elections. (To that point, Thaksin has been legitimately elected twice by an overwhelming majority.)
It seems to me with this coup that the general is now forcing the king’s hand, making him intervene and perhaps appoint someone else. Or, declare his support for Thaksin, which may be in the best interest of democracy but does not seem to be in keeping with the king’s personal taste.
It’s a curious kind of coup that a) declares allegience to someone else; b) puts that someone else in an impossible position; c) justifies itself by saying the country is too divided under the current leader, and a coup is therefore required to restore harmony; d) apologizes to the citizens for the inconvenience.
It’s all too easy to imagine how this Australian commercial for the Fascist Party, Fascism is Fun, could be adapted for the US market.
It’s a somewhat slow download, but I recommend perseverance.
Eric Muller points us to this revolting information about the Saudi bigotry-indoctrination program.
This isn’t an oversight: this is government policy from our great ally in the Middle East.
Jotwell Blenderlaw