Avatar photoTaiwan Election Close; Chen Wounded in Shooting

Saturday/’s presidential election in Taiwan will be close. The last crop of opinion polls (which were prohibited during the ten days prior to the election) showed incumbent Chen Shui-bian had closed to a statistical tie with the KMT candidate, Lien Chan. The race is now a statistical tie, with the election likely to be decided …

Avatar photoDoes Rumsfeld Still Want to Withdraw From Kosovo?

NATO is sending additional troops to quell the violence in Kosovo, which the OSCE believes was organized. In August, Rumsfeld suggested we reduce U.S. forces in Bosnia and Kosovo. It reminds me of when Governor Bush campaigned on withdrawing all U.S. peacekeepers from the Balkans, before “getting mugged by reality” to borrow a phrase from …

Avatar photoRumsfeld on the imminent threat from Iraq

MoveOn.org has a new ad out that works Rumsfeld over his claim that neither he nor the President described Iraq as an imminent threat. Tom Friedman confronts Rumsfeld with two quotes from the SECDEF using “imminent” and “immediate,” leaving SECDEF stammering. It seems odd to me that Rumsfeld is now trying to pretend he never …

Avatar photoNuclear Disarmament

Ireland, Sweden and Canada, among other states addressing the CD, expressed concern about the “tendency for some Members of the [Non Proliferation] Treaty to stress its non-proliferation aspects to the neglect of the disarmament provisions of the NPT” in the words of the Irish Representative. Two thoughts on the tendency of some members: 1. The …