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Archive for November, 2003

Tuesday, November 25th, 2003

8.2 % GDP GROWTH IN A 10 TRILLION DOLLAR ECONOMY

Good news for America. Via Drudge.

Tuesday, November 25th, 2003

ISRAEL THREATENS TO DESTROY IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Via Milt’s File, which is becoming a daily read for me much like I enjoy Dr. Rosenberg’s radio program at WGN Extension720.

Evidently, Israel is pressing the IAEA to implement a genuinely tough inspections regime in Iran and not the window dressing version that prevailed under Hans Blix that allowed Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il to press forward with their respective nuclear bomb programs.

Tuesday, November 25th, 2003

BUSH ADMINISTRATION PUSHES SHEVARDNADZE OUT OF POWER IN GEORGIA

USA TODAY is reporting that Secretary of state Colin Powell was instrumental in convincing Georgian president and former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze to resign rather than use force to confront opposition protests. Shevardnadze had come to power after the democratic but increasingly paranoid regime of Zviad Gamsakhurdia was overthrown.

Apparently this was a an application of joint Russian-American pressure on Shevardnadze, a sign that the United states and Russia have moved closer on foreign policy questions as Putin has consolidated power in his own hands and is no longer vulnerable to internal criticism on his political right.

That mass bloodshed was avoided in Georgia is positive but the administration needs to follow up by putting out diplomatic pressure for democratic and anti-corruption reforms in the Caucasian republic lest Trans-Caucasia become the new bananna republics of Eurasia.

Addendum

Analytical article from CACI

Tuesday, November 25th, 2003

I WAS GOING TO POST ON ISLAMISM, THE EU AND LEE KUAN YEW

But Geitner Simmons beat me to the punch. Read him instead.

Tuesday, November 25th, 2003

NOT A VERY GOOD WEEK FOR IRAN’S MULLAHS

First they were forced to issue a most likely false denial on harboring the world’s most wanted master terrorist after Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah’s sometime operational chief Imad Mughniyah. Then the UN moved to condemn Iran’s human rights record. Lastly, the Europeans, whom the Khameini-Rafsanjani hardline clique need to appease in order to stall investigations that might lead to sanctions for Iran’s illegal nuclear programs, have moved one step closer to the Bush administration position in an IAEA compromise.


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