SHORT TAKES ON PRESIDENTS' DAY

Several items of importance:

1. JUAN COLE'S POSTING ON SUFFERING OF GAZA'S CHILDREN. If you have not visited or read Juan Cole's Informed Comment, his post today on the plight of children wounded in the Israeli attack on Gaza is a must read. Here is the link.

Cole writes:

"Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ruled out allowing needed goods into Gaza, which Israel has virtually surrounded from land and sea, until Hamas releases captured Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Shalit. Olmert is thereby committing a war crime. You can't collectively punish the general Gaza population if you are the occupying authority. It is not allowed to torture that wailing child in the video above by keeping out painkillers, just because some adult somewhere from the same territory captured an Israeli soldier. But Olmert will get a pass on his war crimes. Apparently you only get punished for them if you are weak or lose; it isn't the crime but the power of the criminal that matters."

2. CRASH OF TWO NUCLEAR SUBMARINES IN ATLANTIC. The crash of a British nuclear submarine with a French nuclear submarine someplace in the Atlantic Ocean illustrates why no country should possess a nuclear submarine. There could have been release of hazardous nuclear material into the ocean. For all we know, there might have been, although both France and the U.K. deny any such nuclear leakage. Furthermore, both crews could have been killed. Neither Britain nor France needs a war weapon like a nuclear submarine. No country should possess a nuclear sub, not even the United States.

3. ANOTHER DRONE MISSILE STRIKE IN PAKISTAN. I don't understand how Barack Obama could allow the continuation of these missile strikes in Pakistan's western tribal areas. If the U.S. and Obama think that killing villagers or destroying someone's home is going to win the war against Taliban insurgents, they are mistaken. All these strikes do is to incite hatred for Americans and foment in the minds and hearts of all Pakistanis the urge to take revenge against the U.S.