See the Guardian, Max Hastings, Brown and Obama may fail in Afghanistan, but they cannot give up: Western involvement in the region is hugely problematic, but the rise of al-Qaida in Pakistan has made it worth the risk,

     It is an embarrassment to discover that you are fighting the wrong war. President Obama’s strategy review of Afghanistan, unveiled on Friday, makes almost explicit what American and British soldiers and diplomats have understood for many months: that al-Qaida is now rooted in Pakistan, whose tottering polity represents a far graver threat to international order than anything happening next door.
     Washington is appalled by the danger posed by a “greater Pashtunistan”, straddling Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan, dominated by Islamic militants who might eventually become capable of giving al-Qaida access to nuclear weapons. Western alarm about such a contingency seems entirely justified, especially now the Islamabad government has conceded control of the Swat valley to the Taliban, with the imposition of sharia law. …
     It may seem perverse to acknowledge a likelihood of failure, and still argue in favour of perseverance. Yet the consequences of allied defeat in Afghanistan, and of an enhanced threat to Pakistan, appear quite as grave as US and British policymakers suggest. Obama seems right to try one more heave, and Britain’s prime minister will be right to support him in making it.

     Wise words. If Obama and Gordo can’t try at least one more swing of the ol’ fist, they will look a little on the weak side. . .

     On at least one monitor, I am seeing the “OBAMAISM” logo on the top page *twice*, i.e., that big leader bar is there in double vision. Anyone else have this problem??

     See England’s mighty Sun, Obama to target Osama,

     OSAMA Bin Laden faces a new blitz on his hideouts, US President Barack Obama will vow today.
     Al-Qaeda’s boss — feared to be skulking in Afghanistan or areas of Pakistan — will no longer find safe havens there, aides declared last night.
     The pledge comes ahead of 4,000 military experts being sent to train Afghan forces. The US will also boost by 60 per cent its £1.4billion-a-month military spending in Afghanistan.
     Meanwhile US warships last night headed for North Korea as tyrant Kim Jong-il prepared to test a missile which could reach America. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of “consequences” if the rogue state went ahead. …

     That Sun sure lovin teh rhymez.

     Elvis Crespo Accused Of…

     Bleccccchh.

     –Maybe “Elvis Creepo” will be his new name. One can hope.

     See the Daily Mail, Putin’s poster girl: Pin-up politician who hates the West… but loves Thatcher,

     At only 24 she is already tipped to become a minister, and perhaps achieve her goal of ruling Russia. Happy to exploit her glamorous looks, Maria Sergeyeva has emerged seemingly from nowhere to become a leading propagandist for her hero, Vladimir Putin, her country’s ‘Iron Man’ Prime Minister. …
     She is a leading light of the Young Guards, a youthful and growing band of zealots dedicated to resisting any efforts to stop Putin’s inexorable Russian revolution. …
     …the Young Guards….have become more influential by harnessing the power of the internet to spread their message.
     They recently raised their profile by highlighting the ‘immigration crisis’ and helping police to identify illegal immigrants. With more than 100,000 members, many see membership as essential to their career development.
     Although Sergeyeva claims that she holds no official position in the Young Guards, she is suddenly ubiquitous in Russian society - writing newspaper articles, attending political rallies (which, unlike so many others, don’t get banned) and pontificating via the internet. One recent speech that was made available online had 140,000 hits, crashing the political website hosting it.
     Her nationalist rhetoric is blunt, if not outright incendiary. At a time when racist attacks in her country are at unprecedented levels, she recently told immigrants to leave.
     ‘They grab our work,’ she said. ‘Immigrants should work in places where Russians don’t want to, or they should go back home.’ …
     According to her internet postings, one of her current assignments is to promote training sessions for loyalist bloggers-under the acronym KGB. Kursy Gosudarstvennykh Bloggerov stands for Courses For State Bloggers, and its purpose appears to be to teach loyal cyber-warriors how to hack into opposition blogs and find the addresses and telephone numbers of those behind them - all apparently sponsored by the Russian taxpayer.
     In return, the loyal bloggers are given a membership card, Putin’s book on ideology, a CD of Medvedev’s video blog and their own badges and uniforms. …
     Sergeyeva, the great-granddaughter of a Stalinist NKVD secret service officer who died in the siege of Leningrad, has come a long way since being expelled ‘for laziness’ from an elite Moscow academy. …

     This sounds like a bad parody, but truth is stranger than fic… Is there a word “blogrom”? Like pogrom with a blog? Well, there is now.

     Re our previous lauding of portions of Bush’s 2nd inaugural speech, see Mike Barone in DetNews, Liberals morally disarm on human rights,

     On the last day of her trip to East Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke briefly of the place of human rights in American policy toward China. “Our pressing on those issues” — issues she didn’t identify any more fully — “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis.” …
     …for anyone with knowledge of American foreign policy during the last four decades, Clinton’s remarks were jarring. It is one thing not to press a tyranny very hard on human rights; it is another thing to come out and say you’re not going to raise the issue at all. It is a kind of unilateral moral disarmament. One arrow in the quiver of American foreign policy has been our pressing — sometimes sotto voce (as in the Helsinki Accords), sometimes in opera buffa (”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”) — tyrannical regimes to honor human rights. Hillary Clinton has put that arrow over her knee, broken it in two and thrown it away. …
     All of which brings to mind the report of a conservative blogger who watched George W. Bush’s 2005 inaugural speech with a group of liberals. Every time Bush called for spreading freedom and democracy around the world, the crowd guffawed and groaned and jeered. For them, evidently, Bush was a figure of fun, and his calls for democracy and human rights laughable. The same people who decried his supposed authoritarian rule at home had nothing but contempt for his call for freedom and democracy abroad. …
     It’s quite a turnaround. It was liberals who complained that the United States sided with too many tyrannies in the Cold War and who (in the person of Henry Jackson) insisted on holding up Soviet trade deals to aid those persecuted by the Soviet Union. It was Jimmy Carter who made human rights a plank in his campaign and made it his policy as president, even when it undermined U.S. allies.
     Not even when the cause of human rights was taken up by Ronald Reagan, in the Philippines as well as against the Soviets, did liberals declare that we should be indifferent to the cause of expanding democracy and freedom in the world. But now they seem to have done so in the desire to repudiate root and branch every policy espoused by George W. Bush.
     Perhaps someone should suggest that a stony indifference to the freedom of others is not a very liberal — not a very generous, not a very attractive — thing.

     Not that Barone should invade Burma with Stallone to defend human rights, but he still has a point for once.

     See Reuters UK, President of Sudan, UPDATE 1-China seeks suspension of case against Bashir,

     China urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to suspend the the [sic] International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant pursuing Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over suspected war crimes in Darfur. …
     The warrant is the first issued against a sitting head of state by the Hague-based court, which stopped short of including a count of genocide over a conflict that U.N. officials say has killed as many as 300,000 people since 2003.
     It indicted Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture. The three-judge panel said it had insufficient grounds for genocide. …
     Chinese companies are major investors in Sudan’s oil, and the country has also sent peacekeepers to Darfur. …

     “Insufficient grounds”? Hm.
     Well, seven counts are better than none… And let’s hope Obama helps end genocide and other superproblems worldwide!!

     Speaking of famous African Americans in music: see AP via Ann Arbor News/MLive.com, Snoop Dogg appears at Nation of Islam convention,

     Rapper Snoop Dogg made an appearance Sunday at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours Day convention, praising Minister Louis Farrakhan and suggesting that he is a member of the movement. …
     When asked by the AP if he planned to convert and become a member of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, Snoop said he has already joined in the movement.
     “I’m already in the Nation, that’s why I’m here,” he said. “I’m an advocate for peace. I’ve been in the peace movement ever since I’ve been making music. My whole thing is not about really trying to push my thing on you. It’s just about the way I live, and I live how I’m supposed to live as far as doing what’s right and representing what’s right. That’s why I was here today.”
     The rapper did not elaborate on when he’d joined the Nation. Messages left for Nation of Islam officials were not immediately returned Sunday. Attempts to reach the rapper’s publicist were unsuccessful. …

     A man of God. –Does this mean Snoop won’t be making porno movies any more?

     “Calvin Broadus, you’re no Barack Obama!!”