The Ides of March

Japan 2011

Libyan Rebels

This week marks the fabled, and for Julius Caesar, the infamous Ides of March. Several  chaotic events seem to be converging as we approach the forewarned 15th day this week. The growing human catastrophe in Japan has now combined to range from the strongest earthquake in their history, coupled with tsunami that was caught in real time and broadcast live, to a stunned world and now the world waits and watches as the threat of nuclear meltdowns pass from a threat to a reality. The reaction from countries led by the United States has been swift with dozens of countries sending aid. How will this play out this week is left in the hands of fate, as the human toll mounts alongside the possibility of an even greater nuclear disaster.

Turning to Libya, Gaddafi's government forces have been pushing back hard against a faltering rebel force by taking the oil town of Brega in the wake of the Arab League  endorsing a no fly zone to protect the Libyan people from Gaddafi. Some think this will come too late as Gaddafi's ground forces have regrouped and are well supplied. My own observation is that several countries in the Arab League have shiny unused F-16's and are capable of doing some of the lifting in any no fly enforcement. Either way the world should have some kind of answer by the Ides of March whether Gaddafi's weathers this storm and in doing so becomes an even bigger problem for his neighbors and the world.

Karzai Crazy?

Finally, Afghanistan can't seem to catch a break. Afghan President Karzai, goes off on NATO forces during a speech to friends and relatives of the nine civilian victims of a mistaken air strike, by calling for them to cease all military operations in Afghanistan. His office later tried to recant the statement that was uttered repeatedly during the speech. Karzai behavior seems to channel both Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen for outrageous outbursts. Of course it is better to blame NATO in an effort to ring out even more concessions or perhaps dollars, than complain about the civilian deaths at the hands of the Taliban. Karzai might have another reason to vent which raises the old saying, "tho protests too much." when covering for his own corrupt family. For more on how Karzai is no friend of America, read Bing West's The Wrong War.

flying pigs

Well, that is enough for now. Let us hope and pray that the Ides of March passes and we awake on the 16th to find Japan has contained the reactors, Gaddafi was killed in an air strike, and Karzai retires to an un-named country with the billions he and his family stole from the people of Afghanistan and in turn their benefactors the American people. Of course we could just as likely see pigs grow wings and fly.