Kurdistan
Hooray for the Kurds (of Iraq). They have established a sort of de facto independence. But where they go from here on is not at all obvious. They want Kirkuk: but the Iraqis (er...I meant other Iraqis) don't want them to have it. They (probably) want Turkish Kurdistan, but Turkey doesn't want them to have it. But they can't go back. Result stasis...until something happens. But something always does.
Genius Dead
Robert Altman is dead. And George Bush is still alive.
Altman on the film stars scared to fly after September 11: "They're so swell-headed they think they're actually targets, which they should be"
Bush defeat might make attack on Iran more, not less likely.
"Many in the White House and the Pentagon insist that getting tough with Iran is the only way to salvage Iraq. “It’s a classic case of ‘failure forward,’” a Pentagon consultant said. “They believe that by tipping over Iran they would recover their losses in Iraq—like doubling your bet. It would be an attempt to revive the concept of spreading democracy in the Middle East by creating one
new model state.”"
Sleeping With The Devil
"Saudi Arabia sits on 25 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Although the Saudi Kingdom has more than eighty active oil and gas fields, half of its proven reserves -- 12.5 percent of all the known oil in the world --
is contained in eight fields. ""The Serious Fraud Office is on the brink of obtaining information from Swiss banks which may implicate the Saudi royal family in secret arms-deal commissions of more than £100m, sources close to the attorney general's office confirmed yesterday.
The SFO has been inquiring for three years, in some secrecy, into allegations of systematic corruption in international deals arranged by Britain's biggest arms company, BAE Systems".
"Saudi Arabia sees Israel
as a likely ally".
