Was there any news today?

Hmm...no interesting news this week...here's a post by self-described "conservative" Andrew Sullivan describing Bush's tolerance of massive government spending increases. Sullivan says that this proves Bush is "more liberal" than Clinton...as if spending increases are the essential hallmark of liberalism. Ridiculous.

OK, well, if there's no news, I guess that's all I have for today...

Oh wait! Now I remember. The whole world exploded in violent conflagration this week! I knew I was forgetting something.

First, South Korea finally showed a tiny sliver of backbone - a vertebra, so to speak - in cutting off aid to North Korea until missile tests are halted (this after an unsuccessful attempt to blame Japan for the situation came off as ludicrous and cowardly). North Korea, of course, responded to South Korea's newfound vertebra by - surprise - walking off in a huff and threatening war.

Noahpinion's take: Time to call North Korea's bluff. What are they gonna do? They'd lose to South Korea in a war even if the U.S. weren't involved; with the U.S. in the picture, they'd be clobbered. A war would mean a painful and humiliating death for Kim Jong-il and all his top cronies. And the utter failure of the recent missile tests shows that they may have one or two rudimentary nukes, but they can't send them anywhere. So it's time to steadily squeeze the North, threats or not. And as for China - North Korea's main lifeline - it's time to let them know that, if the North Korean nuclear situation isn't resolved soon, a nuclear Japan is the inevitable result.

In Mumbai, horrific train bombings killed a couple hundred people and wounded hundreds more. Since Pakistani-trained militants are the prime suspect, this terrorist attack has understandably caused the Indo-Pakistani peace talks to break down.

This is, of course, a horrible event. Unfortunately, Pakistan is such a failed state that Musharraf may not be able to stop the elements of his own government - the ISI - that are sponsoring the terrorists (and also al-Qaeda, I might add). But India may have few options other than to pressure Musharraf. What's the alternative? I don't even want to contemplate the horror that would accompany a full-scale Indian invasion of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, but if we see a few more incidents like this, it could happen.

And then we have Israel's simultaneous wars in Lebanon and Gaza. The Gaza operation seems a little overblown - it's not worth it to kill dozens of Palestinians, impoverish thousands more, and get Israeli soldiers killed, in an obviously futile attempt to save one captured Israeli soldier. The real purpose of that operation is to quell the Palestinian rocket attacks, undermine support for Hamas, and provide a preview of what Israeli-Palestinian relations are going to look like once Israel withdraws from the West Bank.

But in comparison, the Lebanon strikes look positively stupid. Retaliating against Lebanon's infrastructure and major cities isn't going to do anything but make Hezbollah laugh. Most Lebanese people including the government, hate Hezbollah and wish they would pack up and leave. but Lebanon's government and people are so weak that they have no hope of driving Hezbollah out of their own country. That's why Hezbollah, and their masters in Syria and Iran, are probably cackling with glee to see Israel attacking Lebanon's main infrastructure. Hezbollah's position in Lebanon will be strengthened, not weakened, as a result of this operation. Hezbollah's attack on Israel was an act of war, but Syria would be a better target for reprisal. In fact, Israel might have considered allying with Lebanon's government to drive out Hezbollah. Well, too late for that now.

One thing that a lot of people in the media are noticing is: Where's Bush in all this? We've heard very littl in the way of leadership from W on any of these crises. Has Iraq taught Bush such a forceful lesson that he's afraid to take any action without hiding behind multilateralism and endless delay? All the Republican rhetoric about Bush - that he's a strong and decisive leader, that he stays the course, that he is unwavering in fighting for democracy - has been proven to be a bunch of hot air. The one final truth that some of us are starting to realize about Bush, sadly, is the first thing we ever heard about him - he's just plain incompetent.

So while Bush fiddles, small parts of the world burn.

BUT...hidden behind all the front-page crises are some pieces of really good news. The UN apppears to be finally inching toward stronger positions on Iran and (possibly) North Korea. And most importantly, Russia and the U.S., putting aside their differences over Russia's slide into authoritarianism, have signed a pact to aggressively secure nuclear material and stop would-be nuclear terrorists. The pact actually includes China, Europe, Japan, and other nations, and is the most far-reaching nuclear security effort of the post-Cold War age. Absolutely amazing, and a very heartening development. We may yet avoid the nightmare of nuclear terrorism. Knock on wood.

And, finally, the best news headline of the day:
"Canadians assault Taliban stronghold"
Sounds crazy, I know, but it's no lie. That'll teach those Taliban to make fun of hockey!