The latest installment of updates on the wackiness of Iran and the wider Muslim World.  I have also decided to change the title of this series and just make it a monthly installment, it will be an aggregation of what I consider the most relevant news pieces with my analysis and criticisms attached.
George Kerchner and the Lessons of Afghanistan: This is not strictly about Iran and their idiocy but a good point is made about the lack of strategic focus of US and Western War Planning over the past decade.
Obama Needs to Stay the Course in Afghanistan:  This article contains perhaps the most asinine sentence I have read regarding the deaths of our soldiers in a long time, perhaps even since studying the Vietnam War in High school.  It is: “A faster pullout would be an insult to the U.S. troops who died fighting terrorism.” So I am to believe that staying and seeing more soldiers killed is less of an insult to those who have already made the ultimate sacrifice fighting the futile war in Afghanistan, than leaving and letting the Afghans get back to killing each other instead of more Westerners. Is this guy serious?  I also wonder if he has ever served in the military.
Islamists in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia not democratic: The title of this insightful peace says it all.  It nails it that the various Islamist movements appearing in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring are democratic to the extent that it lets them take power.  I fully expect to see Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, etc experience another round of One man, One vote, One time.  I also expect to see folks in the west wringing their hands about and talking about what a tragedy it is while continuing to shovel money at them as the US recently did with aid to Egypt.
TV report shows air force gearing up for Iran attack, says moment of truth is near:  I still think that an attack, if it happens, is several months off and reports like this are just saber rattling.  It looks like the Israelis are not quite prepared to throw the gauntlet down and i agree with the analysis that says they are waiting to fond out the results of election sin the US before doing anything because it is certain that Obama will not have their back if they get into a hooting war with Iran or any of their other neighbors.  I think that best case for Israel right now in the event of a war is that the US sits on the sidelines but I would guess that Obama would b knee-deep in try to preserve the peace that he has done so much to destabilize over the past three of waffling Middle East policy.
North Korea’s failure that provokes:  In all the talk about the Middle East let us not forget that North Korea is still out there and doing crazy stuff as well.  The worst part is that they are nuclear capable and in the middle of a succession.  I don’t anticipate North Korea’s new leader to do anything stupid while he consolidates power but you never know.  North Korea is an inherently unstable regime as far as the rest of the world is concerned.  I also do’t think that many people either inside or outside the regime really understand the dynamics of how they think.
Europe now sees its financial crisis never really went away:  We also should not forget the slow motion death of the Euro we have been watching for the past three years.  It seems that the rich north is running out resources to prop up their profligate southern neighbors.  I look for at a minimum Spain and Greece to exit the Euro this year and I actually have no clue what that means for the Euro as a whole except that that it is not a good thing.  The continuing Euro crisis bears watching as well as it has the potential to have far-reaching consequences.