IPS' macro view of the past week

i like ips (inter press service)... you can count on them to give what appears, on the surface at least, a fairly unvarnished view of events and they very often toss in tantalizing bits and pieces of news not found elsewhere... (their slogan...? "the story underneath...") here's their take on the galloping events of the past week's news as seen from, oh, roughly, 30,000 feet...

It's always difficult to play defence and offence at the same time, but when the geo-political ground is shifting beneath one's feet and damaging leaks are spurting out of the White House and Downing Street plumbing like Fourth of July fireworks, it's more difficult than usual.

At least, that's the sense one gets after watching the frantic manoeuvrings this week of far-right and neo-conservative personalities who found themselves trying, on the one hand, to persuade their compatriots to prepare to take on new enemies in what they call ”World War IV,” while, on the other, mounting rear-guard actions against faint-hearted allies who want out of Iraq and Democrats who are calling for the head of President George W. Bush's ”brain,” Karl Rove.

While, by week's end, most of them, at least judging by their editorials, columns and Fox News television appearances, were focused on defending Rove from charges that he may have compromised national security by ”outing” a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer as the immediate priority, they were all over the map -- almost literally -- for most of the past seven days, dispensing a never-ending stream of geo-strategic advice for all and sundry.

[...]

The leak of a classified memo from the British defence minister to Prime Minister Tony Blair detailing ”emerging U.S. plans” to reduce by half the number of soldiers -- as well as reports that the Pentagon intended to substantially withdraw its forces from Afghanistan within two years -- drew very worried responses from Weekly Standard editor William Kristol who has long assailed Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for refusing to deploy enough troops to the two countries.

[...]

Worried as well about a steady stream of public opinion polls increasing pluralities of U.S. citizens who believe that Bush and his backers lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, Kristol also gave over half of this week's Weekly Standard to an article titled ”The Mother of All Connections,” in which the author, Stephen Hayes, presents what he calls ”new evidence” of an operational tie between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

ohfercryinoutloud, bill, give it a friggin' rest... there ain't no goddam connection so stop wasting valuable column inches, ok...?

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