Saturday, January 27, 2007
[1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, born in Austria]
[1832 - Lewis Carroll, mathematician, writer, born at Daresbury in Cheshire, England]
[1872 - Judge Learned Hand, famous jurist, born in Albany, New York]
[1885 - Jerome Kern, composer, born in New York City]
[1900 - Admiral Hyman Rickover, Father of the Nuclear Navy, born in Poland]
[1912 - Lawrence Durrell, writer, born in Darjeeling, India]
[1945 - Soviets liberate Auschwitz]
[1973 - Paris Peace Accords signed ending US participation in Vietnam War]
Careful What You Wish For
Our President told us that the $9 billion a month in cost to taxpayers, and the monthly loss of lives in Iraq are worth it because we are bringing democracy to the Middle East, which will increase the peace and stability of the region. Indeed the last round of elections in the region proved the opposite. In Iraq itself, selection of the national assembly was highly polarized along religious and ethnic lines, with a slate controlled by Shiite Muslim clerics garnering the most votes, followed by the Kurdish and Sunni factions. Whether these disparate Iraqi elements can put aside traditional hatreds to form a working government of unity looks increasingly doubtful.
Elections in Iran saw a nominally reformist government replaced by hard-line Islamic fundamentalists, who have called for the destruction of Israel and restarted that country's nuclear material enrichment program. Next the democratic electoral process in the Palestinian Territories resulted in a stunning victory for Hamas, which the US considers a terrorist organization responsible for the suicide killings of over a thousand Israelis. What these results portend for stability and peace in the region is anyone's guess, but it sure doesn't look good so far.
William's Whimsical Words:
Another example of the law of unintended consequences in action.
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