Daily Archives: July 6, 2003


The Coalition of the Misled

As this US Independence day weekend comes to a close the leaders of the coalition of the willing continue their transformation into the Misinformers:
From Australia:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard defended himself against accusations on Monday that he had claimed Iraq was developing nuclear weapons to justify going to war, despite being told by Washington the allegation was dubious.

From Britain>:

he Foreign Affairs Select Committee is set to deliver its verdict on whether Downing Street exaggerated the case for war in Iraq.
The MPs’ report is likely to censure Downing Street’s director of communications Alastair Campbell.
He was responsible for the second so-called “dodgy dossier” published in January 2003, which included 12-year-old material from the Internet.
However, the committee is expected to clear Mr Campbell of wrongdoing in relation to the first dossier, published in September 2002.

From the United States:

An envoy sent by the CIA to Africa to investigate allegations about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program contends the Bush administration manipulated his findings, possibly to strengthen the rationale for war.

On the other hand some senators are excited about pending wmd announcements while others are skeptical:

Senators just returned from Iraq differed on whether U.S. officials there had turned up solid evidence of weapons of mass destruction programs.

It will be interesting to see if this is more then another color change in the alert system. Whatever is presented will have to be dramatically stronger then if it had been found and presented prior to or shortly after the fall of Baghdad. Where was the imminent threat?


The Monkey on My Back

I disconnected yesterday. No, I wasn’t in the mountains hiking I was at home, the power was on, the network connection was working (the kids were online). I did not boot up my system at all.

By early afternoon the withdrawal systems were palpable: what happened at Henley; what happened in the Prologue; was anybody reading Modulator (but why, there was no fresh content), was there new email, what were you talking about in the blogosphere? For hours every time I paused from other activities I’d feel the grasping tendrils of the net pulling at me.

I did, though, finish the new Harry Potter, mow the lawn, do some rearranging in my office and by dinner time I did not feel the reach of the net near as strongly. Later in the evening we watched a 1969 cinamatic essay on freedom in the United States: Easy Rider. At the end it was not clear that much has changed.

No withdrawal pangs this morning: a leisure read of today’s papers (lots of bloggable stuff, but for another time), household chores, this post, workout, and later maybe we’ll go see the new Matrix before it exits the theaters.