More on Iran and its relationships

The post below on Iran was perhaps a tad long, so I’ve put together an amateurish graphic to explain the relationships among the players. Standard disclaimers apply – I don’t claim that this is complete, data is hard to find, and circumstances can change quickly. That said, here ’tis (as always, click on the graphic for a better view):

Note that the US is fighting the bottom-tier of the power ladder, which is a ridiculous situation for a superpower. The Russians and Chinese use Iran and Syria as proxies. Iran and Syria use terrorist groups as proxies. And the US fights the proxies of the proxies.

We can’t win this way, regardless of the number of troops we send to Iraq. Arguing about troop deployments is just a waste of time. We’ve got to attack this ladder at every rung, and develop our own proxy networks. Much of that work is likely to be dirty, just as it was in the Cold War, but that’s the world we’re in.

Today (11/16) in the sinistrosphere

Thought I’d stroll by Firedoglake and see what’s got the other side’s blood pressure up. Here’s a list of their current postings:

• Secrets and Lies : Part of Scooter Libby’s defense is that the Wilson/Plame affair was small potatoes compared to the major threats he was dealing with daily, so it was entirely reasonable for him to forget his conversations with reporters on this relatively minor topic. His defense team has requested classified materials to show how important those major threats were, and the judge recently upheld that request. The Firedoglake article summarized the judge’s findings, and concludes: “Scooter’s defense is really weak if he’s dependent on evidence from the government to make his defense work.“
• Nancy Pelosi Unanimously Elected Speaker: Well, duh. The Firedoglake take? “She is the first woman to ever achieve the post, and is the highest ranking woman ever to hold office. I have to say, my XX chromosomes are feeling awfully proud at the moment.“
• Who Gets The Last Laugh?: A post on the tension likely to exist between Cheney and Gates, based on a Pincus article and a post by Larry Johnson. Her conclusion: “…being able to watch the internal wrestling match within the Bush White House between the neocons and the reality brigades through the lens of this one proposed switch-out at the Pentagon? Worth the price of admission and then some. Who gets the last laugh? I’d say folks at the CIA are having a big chuckle at Dick Cheney’s expense these days.“

Why do people go to FDL? The analysis is weak and the funny is completely missing. It is written just well enough that poorly read libs can pat themselves on the back with their habitual smuggery, satisfied that the issues have been addressed and that their assumed superiority is intact.

Talk about an intellectual cocoon.

Murtha and all that ethics “crap”

Many have made much of Murtha’s mouthing off: “even though it’s total crap I’ll vote for it and pass it because that’s what Nancy wants,” referring, of course, to the Democrats’ lobbying reform bill. This is obviously not a promising values statement from the next House Majority Leader, particularly with the circulation of the Abscam video, and that point has been hit hard across the blogosphere.

Murtha offered a clarification of his words (a clarification apparently needed for the “shocked” Democrats who heard the statement as well) this evening on Hardball:

In his first interview since reportedly calling a Democratic bill on lobbying and ethics “total crap,” Rep. John Murtha told “Hardball” host Chris Matthews he meant it was “crap” to deal with ethics problems when there are more serious issues facing the nation such as the war in Iraq.

“It is total crap that we have to deal with an issue like this when we’ve got a war going on and we got all these other issues,” Murtha said.

But even accepting this statement, I’m troubled by the mutual backscratching that seems to be taken for granted as the modus operandus of the Democratic legislators. Murtha is basically saying that he’ll support legislation that he believes is nonsense in order to keep Pelosi’s support for his own candidacy. That’s ethical?

I think investigative reporters are going to have quite a bit of fun for the next couple of years.