... War of the Worlds: London, 1898; Kabul, 2009

An unremarkable paragraph in a piece in my hometown paper recently caught my eye. It was headlined "White House Believes Karzai Will Be Re-elected," but in mid-report Helene Cooper and Mark Landler of the New York Times turned to Afghan War commander General Stanley McChrystal's "redeployment option." Here's the humdrum paragraph in question: "The redeployment option calls for moving troops from sparsely populated and lawless areas of the countryside to urban areas, including Kandahar and Kabul. Many rural areas 'would be better left to Predators,' said an administration official, referring to drone aircraft."

In other words, the United States may now be represented in the Afghan countryside, as it already is in the tribal areas on the Pakistani side of the border, mainly by Predators and their even more powerful cousins, Reapers, unmanned aerial vehicles with names straight out of a sci-fi film about implacable aliens. If you happen to be an Afghan villager in some underpopulated part of that country where the U.S. has set up small bases -- two of which were almost overrun recently -- they will be gone and "America" will instead be soaring overhead. We're talking about planes without human beings in them tirelessly scanning the ground with their cameras for up to 22 hours at a stretch. Launched from Afghanistan but flown by pilots thousands of miles away in the American West, they are armed with two to four Hellfire missiles or the equivalent in 500-pound bombs.

... much more ... link@sig ...

This is a most fascinating post by Tom. It is amazing how cowardly Americans have become.

... are Taoist sages. (no, really)

Point taken, but how would they "prove it" here in Florida? We don't get a receipt saying who we voted for. Well, that and these folks are known enviro-wackos as Rash Limberger would call them.

By the way, Florida has voters who care as much about our fragile environment as politics. We have more invasive species here (as an example) than you can possibly believe.

Don't forget Chris that Alan is Jewish himself. Even though he married outside the tribe, he sent his girls to a Jewish private school. I don't think he is anti-Semitic other than he once said in a private conversation that Israel had no right to steal land. (I wonder what he meant by that?)

Very well put post. I have trouble understanding people who did not get it the first time. You plainly wrote that the Dems voting for Bush were 5 times the total number of Green voters. What is not to understand?

By the way; I know of a few R's here in Orlando who also voted Green. Odd that, but it happened at least three times. (or they lied)

Well, Glenn may do as he pleases here and "fairness" is not particularly the objective. That is exactly what he wrote.

When you wrote to me about being a "denier" and other matters, I fired back a response that was done with a light touch, even though that is rare for me in this venue. Deleted. I just want you to know that any "lack of response" on my part is not necessarily because I am speechless. This is not a complaint; only information for you.

As to governments not deciding who can and can not get married; I do not think that is some utopian dream. In fact, it was fairly standard out west in the old days so why can it not ever return? What justification does the central government have in deciding who can and who can not get married anyway?