Freyburg

So says a new article in the New York Times. THe reasons cited include fatigue with an endless and pointless conflict, media running out of things to say about the war, and a government that’s more secretive than any since the Nixon administration. But you’ve got to wonder what’s wrong with a country when it’s people give a war in which 4000+ of their own soldiers and an untold number of Iraqis have died a colossal “meh.” With this kind of attitude, it’s no wonder that rising powers like China and India will soon be eating our lunch.

After five years and countless Iraqi and American deaths, progress is finally being made to pacify a raging insurgency and bring battling Shia and Sunni factions closer together. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki, previously viewed as weak and ineffectual, has succeeded in pacifying Basra using Iraqi forces, and in the process marginalized Shia firebrand (and likely backed by Iran) Moqtada Al-Sadr. Al-Malaki had previously been tenuously allied with Sadr, and whether any of this actually lasts is another question. The Atlantic has all the details.

Current TV is hosting a really interesting documentary on Chongqing, one of the “megacities” springing up in China’s feverish push to become the dominant economic power of the 21st century. Definitely worth a watch.
[swf]http://current.com/e/88938803[/swf]

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek’s resident smart foreign policy guy. has a corker of an article about what the world will be like once developing economies like India, China and Russia all develop to the point where they equal or surpass the United States. This will be a turning point in history, Zakaria says, and he’s right. It’s inevitable that the US won’t be on the top forever, and Zakaria remains hopeful that the transition will be somewhat peaceful. It’s all excerpted from his new book, “The Post-American World,” due out in May.

The Huffington Post has an interesting article up about the generational gap between elderly realists of the old Republican school and young, possibly mad neocons who are currently advising the McCain campaign. As much of a crafty scumbag as Kissinger was and is, he likely doesn’t believe in the reverse domino theories and only supports the war on terror to further his own ends. Newsweek‘s Fareed Zakaria has some more thoughts on the matter.

Just to dampen the previous “OMGPARADIGMSHIFTBLURGH” of the previous post, here’s a “whoa, nelly, not so fast, Internet honchos” from the recent Web 2.0 conference.

Internet smart guy Clay Shirky recently gave a lecture about how big changes are masked by a calming influence until societies are ready to adapt. He points to gin as the dampening effect of the Industrial Revolution, with most Britain drunk and surly until they stopped seeing urbanism as a threat and started seeing it as an asset. Same with television, which narcotized a public faced with one-way communication and nuclear deterrence. Now we’re in a two-way age, with blogs and Wikipedia and Youtube, and we’re growing into a world where participation will be the norm, not the exception. Neat stuff.

“Nixonland,” a new book by Rick Perlstein, looks like an interesting tome about how Nixon was both a reflection of and answer to the state of America in the late Sixties. It also points out that Nixon did succeed in calming an incredibly tumultuous time in the US, when the country was tearing itself apart from within. Compare that to today, when we have an arguably worse president but a relatively stable social and political atmosphere.

Not that I ever trusted Billy anyway, especially amongst the womenfolk, but it’s interesting to see how the conquering hero of the Democrats has sunk a few pegs due to the (shock! horror!) tendency of the Clintons to play dirty in order to get re-elected.

Vanity Fair isn’t just George Clooney covers and Oscar parties, it’s also some pretty damn fine journalism, including this article detailing the legal wranglings and outright villainy of the Bush administration as they moved to change the old rules regarding interrogation, ignored the Geneva conventions and legalized torture.