by Cheryl Rofer
Full inbox today. There’s that business in Georgia, and other things piling in as well.
North Korea is threatening to rebuild that cooling tower at Yongbyon if they aren’t taken off the “sponsors of terror” list. That was part of the deal. What happened?
Iraq’s government is now standing up. For removal of all US troops. What’s with that guy Maliki, anyway? Another suicide bombing. Will they get blamed for that, or us?
Pakistan. Where to start? Our woman in Peshawar has her car attacked. Bombing in Baluchistan. The government is collapsing. But they banned the Taliban as a political party. Or is that the reason for the Peshawar attack? Where did they say they’re hiding the nukes?
And Afghanistan. OMG. First the Taliban attacks the French. More about US airstrikes killing civilians. ABC News finds something good: a 6% drop in opium production. More than 90% of the global market, but hey! it’s going in the right direction. But Zalmay? What the hell does he think he’s doing?
More Seriously
The Bush administration has not been particularly skillful at handling crises when they come one at a time. We can hope that Secretaries Rice and Robert Gates will be able to juggle all the bad news that is coming in. You’ll notice I skipped over Russia, Georgia and all that, which has to come high on their priority lists.
What may be good news is that Vice President Cheney will be taking a trip out of the country. But that’s not for a week yet. Presumably he will be loath to start any new wars before he leaves. But who’s vetted his speeches?