the Mediterranean itself is a key seam between Europe and Africa/Middle East. In my mind, then, several states that line this historic sea are classic Seam States, such as Morocco, Spain, Greece and Turkey.

I see (I think). So Pakistan is a Seam State in that it hedges between Southwest Asia/Central Asia (like Afghanistan) and, geopolitically speaking, straddles the worlds of western democritization and the Middle Eastern world of Islam.

Maybe I'm wrong (can it be!). However, I wonder how useful the term is if it's that malleable. A distinction without a difference, in other words. Still, I salute you for searching out a meaning.

Modes of attack vary from group to group (and I'm no expert) but generally because of the clandestine nature of the groups, they lack the organization and resources to stage more than one attack at a time. This was ten seperate attacks, many of them concurrent.

Are you suggesting some sort of cross-organizational coordination? If so, I haven't read that but, boy, would that be a change in tactics!

Got it.

Thanks.

I await Ondelette's take on this.

"In this fight for our survival, collateral damage has to be accepted. Terrorists cannot function without local logistics, intelligence and moral support. This crucial help needs to be denied to them without letting the human rights activists bully the security mechanism. Strict and fool-proof legislative and judicial measures need to be taken.

This is an interesting (well, horrific) contrast with this:

In this fight, what is lacking is national will. Four points that need immediate implementation are vigilance, accountability of the law enforcement agencies, an effective legal regime, and a check on sources of terrorist funding."

dear bickerers: even though no doubt you are posting interesting things here and there, mostly you're messing up Glenn's column for the readers and, likely, for him. Please shut up until it's not about you anymore!

I used to be one of these.

Well we could just watch the letters thread in awed silence and wait until he responds to .... nothing. Or maybe he will walk on water for you.

I tried that myself, but I drowned-ed. That's what I get for behaving like a five year old (going on twenty).

Can you imagine this verbose Glen Greenburg fellow being told he had to shut up shut up until further notice, because alla da time he was just running at the mouth with libral rubbish?

So why are you here, mysterious fellow from far away (galaxy-wise, that is, to be 'scientific' about it)? There must be plenty of people (or should I say "folks") to criticize on Orion 3.

I think everyone between the ages of 20 and 25 thinks he can walk on water. When I was eight I thought I could dig to China.

I agree with the first part (in that I failed). As for the second, well, I had some really good schwezan!

Here's Bill Kristol (via Think Progress) advocating for pardons on behalf of those who committed war crimes:

One last thing: Bush should consider pardoning–and should at least be vociferously praising–everyone who served in good faith in the war on terror, but whose deeds may now be susceptible to demagogic or politically inspired prosecution by some seeking to score political points. The lawyers can work out if such general or specific preemptive pardons are possible; it may be that the best Bush can or should do is to warn publicly against any such harassment or prosecution. But the idea is this: The CIA agents who waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the NSA officials who listened in on phone calls from Pakistan, should not have to worry about legal bills or public defamation. In fact, Bush might want to give some of these public servants the Medal of Freedom at the same time he bestows the honor on Generals Petraeus and Odierno. They deserve it.

No comment from me. Just wanted to pass it along.

sysprog, I dig that subject heading:

Newsweek - - to combat terrorism, India turns towards - - terrorists

Oh, our "major" media!

Fingers-on-lips producing ptbptbptb!! sounds.

Damn it, those pirates aren't following the rule of law!

I think you have this backward:

"The legal regime is in existence, sustainable, and there’s no problem with that," said Rüdiger Wolfrum, professor and director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and a leading jurist here. "There is a certain political hesitation to forcefully engage in anti-pirate acts."

Rule of law--damn it!--doesn't equal political determination which, after all, is one of our problems (and I'm thinking here of--need I say it?--torture, wiretapping, etc., etc., etc.).

By the by, you read the NYTimes?! You traitor, you. Conceal this from GoodCelery! if you see him at the market.

Ah, not tonight, my friend. I'm sober, somber and serious. Isn't that a happy trifecta? I seek illumination and enlightenment wherever I can find it, sober or not, and (let me tell you) it's one hard, long and lengthy search. I've traveled the path of Buddha (that is, if he trod Easy Street, just south of Broadway) but just got lost and had to take a cab home. Damn that Grand Design!

And if they were to have acted like Americans, with all evidence pointing to a terrorist group based in Pakistan, India would now be planning an invasion of Finland.

And when combined with sysprog's "Gad, sir the New York Times is right. The world will be unsafe while Germany's military power is restrained,"

we're left with a recipe for either one giant nut-filled pastry or a planet bereft of reason. Or maybe, transcendentally, these are one and the same. I really don't know, sometimes.