Rolling Stone has a great article up about how Bush, along with the Republican Party’s tendency to exploit and create polarity between Americans, has essentially ruined the party and flushed away a legacy that began with Reagan. It’s Rolling Stone, so it isn’t exactly the most unbiased source, but it’s a fascinating read.
Turns out all the hooey about “OMG HACKZ0RZ!” has at least a grain of truth to it. According to the New York Times, weeks before the “haha the Olympics are on and noone will notice” mini-war Russia just sprang on Georgia, the breakaway republic’s servers were being pelted by Cossack nerds aiming to humiliate them and take down their internet infrastructure. Besides the psychological benefits, cyberwar is also exceedingly cheap, costing much less than a tank full of soldiers to implement and maintain. Whether these cyberattacks are the work of the Russian government, intelligence agencies or criminal organizations (or all three) is unclear, but in a larger sense these incidents point to the way wars might be waged in future conflicts. Of course, the people with the most to lose aren’t the Third World powers but Western and Asian countries, where more infrastructure and economic muscle is tied into net connectivity. JUst like terrorism, cyberwarfare is essentially asymmetrical.
One of the worst things about Youtube is the sheer volume of “tribute” videos and other such poorly edited codswallop that gets in the way of searching for a clip of, say, Doctor Who. But amongst the junk there are a few gems, including this mashup of the interminable flight sequences from “Time Flight” with James Bond and the Death Star (amongst other wackiness):
Then there’s this bit of remixery which makes a complete hash of the Five Doctors in brilliant fashion:
Part 1:
and Part 2:
Just lovely.
Peter Bergen, who wrote the excellent Holy War, Inc., has penned a mammoth investigative report for the Independent that points to the possible decline of Al Queda as a force in the Middle East. Interestingly, it’s not American military pressure but Muslim religious leaders who are turning the tide away from extremism. Al Queda’s predilection for slaughtering plenty of innocent Muslims along with whoever else they have on their hit list isn’t going down too well, and opinion i turning against jihadism. It’s interesting that after pulling off the most spectacular terrorist attack in history and subsequently evading the American military for the better part of a decade, the one thing Bin Laden and Co. didn’t account for is human decency.
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.
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.
The always excellent Frontline has pulled out the stops for the fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq with a huge documentary entitled “Bush’s War,” detailing the build-up from 9/11 onwards, the initial invasion and the continued bloodshed in Iraq today. It’s long, but worth the watch. Unfortunately, PBS hasn’t quite gotten the glory that is embedding video just yet, so you’ll have to head to their page to check it out.
A truly wondrous expose of the conspiracy behind the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope. Death Star Truthers, UNITE!!
Guinea-Bisseau is one of the poorest places on earth, but the arrival of the cocaine trade a few years ago has transformed it into a narco-state for the Colombian drug elite. A truly weird tale of greed and economics.