The Savage Wars of Peace
Welcome to the brotherhood of nations, South Sudan: Independencelink! May the new Republic of South Sudan live up to the lofty ideals of its motto: "Justice, Liberty, Prosperity."



The government of the Sudan, both the old, unified nation & the new northern rump state, is an abomination. Khartoum is a systematic violator of human rights, international law, & human decency. The armies & militias of Omar al-Bashir have raped, murdered, & pillaged their way across southern Sudan (the new South Sudan), the eastern Darfur region, & the new rump state of the north. al-Bashir is exactly the sort of monster the United States should be in the business of slaying. (The short version of my favored foreign/national security policy of the U.S.: A.K.B., the arsehole-killing business.) As if Khartoum's crimes against its own people weren't enough, it was also an early & enthusiastic supporter of al-Qaeda. It is not enough for the Western liberal democracies to wish South Sudan well; we must be prepared, at the first hint of trouble, to use every diplomatic, economic, & military tool at our disposal to let Juba escape from the bloodstained shadow of Khartoum.

In the words of Professor Farnsworth, "Good news, everyone!" Newly-minted Secretary of Defense Panetta boasts that the strategic defeat of al-Qaeda is within reach: SecDefLink. I hope sincerely that he's right, yet I cannot help but be reminded of former Vice President Cheney's repeated claims in '05 & '06 that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "death throes." Someone should go out & let al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (A.Q.A.P.) & al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (A.Q.I.M.) know that they are kaputt; to this point they, like al-Shabaab in Somalia & al-Qaeda-inspired "lone wolves" around the world, seem not to have received the memo.

The Queue
I'm all the way down to № 45 in the Carte Blanche queue. I began as № 68 three & a half weeks ago, & was № 52 early this week! At this rate, I'll be knee deep in the 21st century literary reboot of James Bond before you could sing the jaw-dropping, side-splitting lyrics to "Thunderball," by the incomparable Tom Jones (Wayback Machine).

"His days of asking are all gone…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
John Linnell, "The Songs of the 50 States" from State Songs (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: We dare not lose sight of the centrality of federalism to our Great Republic. Those powers not expressly granted to the federal government are explicitly reserved to the several states or to the people themselves. The American government is not & should not be Washington; it is also Lansing & Albany & Juneau & Montpelier & forty-six others, & thousands of county & municipal governments. Our nation is the United States of America, not the Unified State of America.