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Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post provides on overview of the Iranian nuclear crisis touched on yesterday by Gerard Baker of the London Times.
It goes without saying that if and when a decision is made in Jerusalem or Washington to carry out an attack against Iran’s nuclear installations the public will only learn of the decision in retrospect. All the same, over the last few weeks, it has been impossible to miss the fact that the Iranian nuclear program has become the subject of intense and ever increasing international scrutiny. This naturally gives rise to the impression that something is afoot.
Take for example the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency Muhammad elBaradei’s recent remarks on the subject. Speaking to ,Le Monde on Monday, elBaradei asserted that it will take Iran between three to eight years to acquire a nuclear arsenal. Consequently, he argued, there is no reason to consider conducting a military strike against Teheran’s program. There is still plenty of time for diplomacy, or sanctions or even incentives for the ayatollahs, he said.
ElBaradei’s statement is only interesting when it is compared to a statement he made in December 2005 to the Independent. Back then Baradei’s view was that Iran was just “a few months” away from producing atomic bombs. But then too he saw no reason to attack. As he put it when he warned that Iran was on the precipice of nuclear weapons, using force would just “open Pandora’s box.” “There would be efforts to isolate Iran; Iran would retaliate, and at the end of the day, you have to go back to the negotiation table to find the solution,” elBaradei warned.
Given that the IAEA’s Egyptian chief has been unstinting in his view that no obstacle should be placed in Iran’s path to nuclear bombs, what makes his statements from 2005 and today interesting is what they tell us about his changing perception of the West’s intentions. At the end of 2005, he was fairly certain that the West – led by the US – lacked the will to attack Iran. By making the statement he made at the time, he sought to demoralize the West and so convince it that there was nothing to be done to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Now, when faced with a real possibility that the US or Israel or a combination of states are ready and willing to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, elBaradei seeks to undermine them by questioning the salience of the threat. …
Couple of good posts from VDH’s blog.
Rosett Report. Kofi’s knighthood kreates Klaudia komments.
Yes, in the giddy afterlife of his departure from the UN Executive Suite, Kofi Annan has now received an honorary knighthood. In a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace, he was made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. We are at least spared the prospect of referring to him as “Sir Kofi.†Unlike Annan’s former deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, who is now both “Sir†and “Lord,†it seems that Annan, not being British, is not entitled to be a “Sir.â€
But honestly, who can keep up? Regardless of performance, UN high officials — past and present — seem to move these days through an endless shower of prizes and awards, Nobels and knighthoods, accolades and directorships (Annan has also just joined the board of Ted Turner’s UN Foundation). …
John Fund covers the battle over the fairness doctrine.
It wasn’t that hard for Indiana’s Rep. Mike Pence to build media and congressional support for his Free Flow of Information Act, which would protect the confidentiality of contacts between reporters and sources. It passed the House this month by an overwhelming vote of 398-21. His next battle will be a lot harder–to permanently ban the Fairness Doctrine, the regulation many liberals are now actively trying to revive in an effort to silence their critics.
Until the FCC scrapped the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, it required broadcasters to provide equal time to all sides of “controversial” issues. In practice, this led to what Bill Monroe, a former host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” called “timid, don’t-rock-the-boat coverage.” On radio, Newsweek’s Howard Fineman notes, it “effectively kept partisan shows off the airwaves,” so that in 1980 there were a mere 75 talk radio stations. Today there are 1,800. …
Alvaro Vargas Llosa in Tech Central on free markets contribution to alleviating poverty.
… The fact that 20 percent of the world’s population is extremely poor should not make us forget that millions of lives have improved dramatically in the last three decades. Illiteracy has dropped from 44 percent to 18 percent, and only three countries out of a total of 102 included in the U.N.’s Human Development Index have seen their socioeconomic conditions deteriorate. China’s economy used to represent one-26th of the average economy of the countries that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; today it represents one-sixth.
These are not arcane facts. They are widely available and easy to understand. Publications such as Indur Goklany’s “The Improving State of the World,” David Dollar and Aart Kraay’s report on the global economy, and Francois Bourguignon and Christian Morrisson’s “Inequality Among World Citizens” — to mention but three among many recent studies — provide overwhelming evidence that the world is better off thanks to the increased flow of capital, goods, services and ideas. …
Rod Dreher, Louisiana ex-pat, exalts on Jindal win.
Alas for me, I didn’t get to cast a vote for Bobby Jindal, the winner of last weekend’s Louisiana governor’s race. It’s been 15 years since I left the Bayou.
The last time I voted in a gubernatorial contest there, it felt less like a civic duty than an occasion of sin. I pulled the lever for Democrat Edwin W. Edwards — instead of my fellow Republican, David Duke — following the instruction of the bumper sticker on my car: “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important.” …
List Universe has the top 30 failed predictions in technology. One “expert” showed up twice. “The experts don’t know jack” – Pckrhd
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.†— Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.†— Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883.
John Tierney shows how NY’s trans fat ban is a cascade.
… The American Council on Science and Health, a private advocacy group, encountered similar fears, as Elizabeth Whelan, the president of ACSH, told me:
It is extremely obvious to us that the biggest recent cascade of all is trans fat mania. What a gift that was for the food industry. They know that the majority of people who see “no trans fats†on a label think it means reduced in calories–or in some way is just healthier. We at ACSH interviewed 10 top lipid specialists about trans fats and “artery clogging†effects—and all of them agreed with the ACSH position (that the trans fat mania is based on hype). But none of them wanted to be quoted. Amazing.
How many deaths from heart disease will be prevented by the restaurant ban on trans fat? Our best guess is zero. …