Monday, September 29, 2003

First external referer I don't expect this link to last, but just for the record, the post that mentioned Gleick was picked up on DayPop (whatever that is exactly--clearly some sort of Cream Rises thing). 11:18:54 PM    comment []  trackback []

Like Father, Like Son From George H.W. Bush's memoir, A World Transformed "Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq... there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." Thanks to Jonathan Schell in the Nation, 10/6/03 10:49:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

Quicksilver Went to see Neal Stephenson at Cody's on Thursday. My birthday present was his new book. Another 900-pager (v.2 due in March, then v.3 next September!). Didn't stay for autographs because the line was long. That makes 2 books in the last 6 months with Isaac Newton as main characters (the other one is James Gleick's biography). Curious. One of those zeitgeisten. Also, an experiment: the title of this entry takes you to Neal Stephenson's wiki. 10:19:27 AM    comment []  trackback []