Taking the good with the bad

In Afghanistan, Afghan forces aided by American air power killed up to 20 Taliban in a round of attacks in the southern mountains. Similar success occurred in Iraq, with the media reporting a very large number of insurgents killed in urban Shiite areas. Various news outlets are reporting that army whistle-blowers are getting reprimanded in various ways, including losing their security clearance and being detained in a psychiatric ward for two weeks. In good news though, a deal has been tentatively reached between Iraq's Governing Council and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who offered to withdraw from the holy city of Najaf. Unfortunately, the man that the coalition hoped would be the leader of Iraq's new interim government has declined the position.

The occupying countries are apparently having difficulty coming to a consensus about how much control the Iraqi interim government should have. Meanwhile coalition diplomats are attempting to gather support for their UN Security Council resolution on Iraq's future. China has put a counterproposal on the table that would allow the Iraqi government to determine whether coalition troops will be able to stay and give them authority over military operations in the country after June 30th. Needless to say, the United States isn't thrilled about the idea of having its troops potentially under the command of another government. It's still unclear how the government situation will work out in the long run, with the AP wondering whether the Islamist city of Fallujah will be a model for Iraq's political future. Kos points to a Wall Street Journal article on how, despite the language of a political turnover, not much will change in Iraq come July 1st.

Amnesty International has issued its 2004 annual report in which it criticizes the 'war on terror' as being "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle," in addition to decrying the current human rights situation in Africa. On the other side of the political fence though of a similar tone, the International Institute for Strategic studies has published a report declaring that the occupation of Iraq has made the world less safe, mostly due to the increasing diffusion of global counterterrorism activities and swelling ranks of al-Qaeda caused by the occupation in Iraq. This might account for the recent announcement by John Ashcroft of the serious potential for a terrorist attack in the coming months -- though there was no information about the date, time or method of any attack. The story rightly points out that even though this sounds like a rather ominous warning it really contained no useful information. The terror attack level was not raised, which makes me (and probably many others) wonder how much of this is for political benefit, especially after suggestions that a summer terrorist attack on the United States is hoped by al-Qaeda to have the same effect as the Madrid bombings had on the Spanish, who according to this theory tossed their pro-Iraqi war government in reaction to the attack. However, this message works twofold, since reading between the lines lies the idea, "a vote in general for the Democrats is a vote for al-Qaeda and the forces of terror." This seems to forget that the conservative government in Spain was not defeated solely from a reaction to the Madrid terrorist attacks, but because they were presumably freaked out by the political ramifications of the al-Qaeda attack and deliberately lied to the populace by saying that ETA was responsible instead of al-Qaeda which, needless to say, pissed off a whole lot of people already upset by the attacks when the truth came out only a couple of days before the election.

In response to the Mayor of Begles' statement that he would conduct same sex marriages, French provincial authorities in Bordeaux have ordered him to abandon his plans to marry a gay couple next week. On the other side of the world, Conservative Prime Minister John Howard of Australia is going to amend federal law limiting the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

In brief:
- An article on the birth places of quasars.
- A trial SARS vaccine is showing positive results.
- Scientists are also coming close to a treatment for motor neuron disease.
- The Atlantic deals with the Day After Tomorrow's ideas concerning global warming/cooling.
- Apparently proteins and raindrops have more in common than you would think, assuming you've ever really thought about that.
- British scientists are looking to design quiet aircraft.
- Israel is laying claim to 4/5 of the water supply in the West Bank.
- As if Africa didn't have enough problems, now swarms of locusts are causing serious agricultural issues.
- General Musharraf of Pakistan had an attempt on his life foiled last December.
- The now hardline Iranian parliament has had its opening session.
- The CSM talking about Mr. Stability, aka Vladimir Putin.
- India's government has reached a consensus on its future agenda with the Communist parties.
- The New York Times has admitted that its pre-war coverage of Iraq was not as rigorous as it should have been, failing to adequately question the intelligence showing WMDs or the credibility of Iraqi defectors.
- If Bush is blowing so bad, why does it seem like John Kerry is spinning his wheels?
- Campaign stops are proving to be more advantageous to candidates than television commercials.
- A website of video interviews with distinguished global thinkers and leaders.
- A NYT article on blogging.
- A PDF report from the military's Strategic Studies Institute comparing Iraq and Vietnam.

And since we already talked about the recent Ashcroft announcement, I thought I'd include this, courtesy of The Atlantic.