Here's a bit of naivete from the Guardian, on how America should push for Russia's help in stablizing the Middle East. As Russia moves ever closer to outright dictatorship (or nationalistic fascism), we're supposed to "engage" them in solving all of the problems that we've created. Really, it's all just a bunch of assertions made while wearing some serious rose-colored glasses, and it's not all that meaningful for anyone who doesn't believe that appeasement is a solution.
 
Here's an interesting quote, though:
 
The Anglo-American axis must also swallow its pride and enlist the active support of Europeans, especially France, which was not the only major country to try, rightly, to pull the US back from its folly in Iraq but is also the only continental European state with a network of useful relations in the Middle East.
 

Here's a great story on an effort by Chevron to exploit what some consider the largest untapped oil reserves in the world, deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico. The technology is advanced and incredibly expensive, but soon Chevron will have accomplished the deepest drilling in open water.
 
Obviously, this is important from a national security perspective. If the oil field, dubbed "Jack," is indeed as large as believed (between 3 and 15 billion barrels), then it will significantly reduce the US's reliance on foreign oil. For those who want the US to reduce its involvement in the Middle East, this should be welcome news. 
 

A friend sent me a link to this story in The Raw Story which is about a Daily Show episode titled "'America to the Rescue' in the Middle East." Now, in true Daily Show fashion, the format determines the content, which is to say, it's like a bunch of comedic soundbites wrapped into what's meant to be important political commentary.
 
In essense, the episode tries to draw a line from today's Iraq back through Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan--with the basic assumption being that America has been the root cause of everything that's happened in the Middle East. This timeline assumes that world events progress in a perfectly linear fashion, that all of the actors are perfectly predictable, and that each event happens in a vacuum, untouched by other events.
 
Of course, none of these assumptions are valid.
 

Just for the record, Ayn Rand supported Israel. As Yaron Brook said in a story in the International Jerusalem Post:
 
“We view what happens in Israel as an indicator of what will happen in the rest of the world. To the extent America abandons Israel, it abandons itself Israel is a beacon of civilization in a barbaric, backward area,” Brook said on a recent trip here to visit family with his wife, also an Israeli expatriate, and their two children.

Once again, a very dubious source, but imagine if this post is true. The money quote:
 
Iran's President and the king of Saudi Arabia stressed on boosting unity and brotherhood among Muslims in a phone conversation.
 
If this conversation actually took place, and has any real meaning, then we just promised $20 billion to an Arab that hopes to be allied with Iran.
 
Somehow I doubt it really means anything (and the $20 billion to Saudi Arabia can't really be made any worse), but it's just creepy.

Iranian President Imajihadi (or whatever his name is) spells out American foreign policy in this story in The International News (sorry, link is to a print-ready page). It's remarkable how precisely he defines it, given how obvious it is. I say, the fact that he brings it up at all means it bugs him, but I doubt that it bugs him all that much, since he's insane.
 
I link to the story, but really, it's not worth the time.

Okay, let me get this straight: of the 60 to 80 terrorists streaming into Iraq, perhaps as many as 50% are from Saudi Arabia, who continues to do, really, very little about it. And yet, we're going to sell them arms, as a foil against Iran, who probably provides most of the rest of the terrorists.
 
And one wonders why we can't make any traction is stamping out terrorism and Islamic extremism.

Read this. It provides a glimpse into the mind of Iranian President Imajihadi (or whatever his name is), which supports each and every claim that Iran's goal is nothing short of the destruction of the West. These are his own words, written in a manifesto presented to his government in 2005, thus explaining just about everything he's said and done since then.
 
Anyone who wants to appease this guy is a fool.

Turkey has a lot to do with what happens in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. And so, this Parliamentary vote will likely be vital to determining a number of important issues.
 
How Turkey responds to the Kurds, whether or not Turkey becomes an Islamic state, and other important facets of Turkey's future are at stake. This deserves close watching.

This story requires so much suspension of disbelieve that it could be a Stephen King novel:
 
1. Bush has announced another in a long line of failed, worthless, counterproductive conferences between Israel (the only legitimate player), the Palestinian Authority (who's proven it corrupt nature), and "their Arab neighbors" (who don't want to solve the issue, because it gives them something to hold against Israel and the West).
 
2. He's also promised $190 million in "aid" to the Fatah government, who are essentially elected terrorists.
 
3. One of the goals of the conference will be to "review progress in building democratic institutions." I would expect this session to last, oh, about five minutes.