Far too long: The World is Moving

It has been far too long without a post from either of us. Graduate school is a giant vacuum into which my life is disappearing. I'm learning many things I would love to share...but just don't seem to have the time. Hopefully I will be able to adjust more successfully soon. As for news on the rational front, it has been an exciting month. Pakistan has Musharraf under siege, Afghanistan's narco trafficing problems remain as intractable as ever, and Iraq seems to be moving towards some semblance of internal stability (--though one without any real progress on the long term political front) just as the outside world---namely Turkey---threatens to impose new difficulties. Iran keeps plugging away while the world huffs and puffs.

Two things that have caught my eye recently:
Though it's actually from last year, Stratfor's George Friedman made some interesting comments in his analysis of the Pentagon's report on China. Of the Pentagon's perception of the Chinese threat, he writes that: "It is interesting to note that all of this renders the U.S.-jihadist dynamic moot. If the Pentagon believes what it has written, then the question of Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest is now passé. Al Qaeda has failed to topple any Muslim regimes, and there is no threat of the caliphate being reborn. The only interesting question in the region is whether Iran will move into an alignment with Russia, China or both."
Brent Scrowcroft would disagree, but that is a discussion for another day.

Secondly, another Michael Yon shout out. This is a fantastic and uplifting picture he took recently in Iraq. He encourages the reproduction of the following picture and caption (go to the website for details).

Thanks and Praise: I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John’s Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome.