- Here are some Simple Tricks for More Usable Forms on websites. Guess I should probably work on implementing some of them. [holy schmoly]
- Deja Vu is re-creating web history, with an emulator that will show you how your favorite website would have looked in Mosaic. And you know what? Dave’s Picks degrades just the way I hoped it would. [flutterby]
- The Twins Geek has an Interview with Terry Ryan (Part I). The first day’s post just touches some background information, but the rest of it looks promising. And it’s cool that he could get the interview with Ryan in the first place.
- Hmm. Here’s the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace saying (back in 2002) that Iraq
almost certainly does have large numbers of chemical weapons and some biological weapons or agents.
The report’s by Joseph Cirincione who wrote the latest Carnegie report blasting intelligence agencies fora massive intelligence failure.
[instapundit] - Ex-Arms Monitor Urges an Inquiry on Iraqi Threat, and now it appears that President Bush is going to get heat for listening to the U.N. too much (or rather for the fact that he gave credence to intelligence from the U.N. inspectors).
Saddam Hussein developed and used weapons of mass destruction. He used them against the Iranians and the Kurds. U.N. inspectors found enormous quantities of banned chemical and biological weapons in Iraq in the 90’s. We know that Saddam Hussein had once a very active nuclear program. He realized and had ambitions to develop and use weapons of mass destruction.
- In the PM statement on Hutton report, Tony Blair’s fighting back against charges that he lied about WMDs:
I’d like to see as clear a statement come out of the White House. [instapundit]The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD is itself the real lie. And I simply ask that those that made it and those who have repeated it over all these months, now withdraw it, fully, openly and clearly.
I’ve had a few readers comment that they aren’t thrilled by me talking about Bush and WMDs. Well, that’s understandable. Few people are going to change their opinions about the situation. But there are too many evenings in the bar when I hear the refrain of Bush Lied!
and I think that people need to look at some of the facts behind that. It’s pretty clear that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons at some point, and it’s also pretty clear that one of the reasons given for attacking Iraq was because of the fear of those weapons. I don’t think a reasonable person could argue either of those facts, and yet some seemingly reasonable people still do.
I think that the weapons of mass destruction (a horrible name) weren’t the primary reason for attacking Iraq, they were a convenient (and UN-provided) excuse. I don’t think the excuse was needed, but it’s a lot easier (politically and diplomatically) to say We attacked Saddam Hussein to remove his capability to use WMDs
than it is to say what I think was the real reason: We attacked Saddam Hussein to drag the Middle East kicking and screaming into the 21st century
since that latter wouldn’t go over very well.
We’re still seeing how things will play out, but if there ends up being some real change in the Middle East, I think that will be a good thing. I don’t expect to change a lot of people overnight, but I also don’t think the vast majority of people there need changing. Just the ones who want to use weapons of terror against the U.S. They need to have it explained to them that that sort of behavior just won’t be tolerated. I think overthrowing the Taliban and Baath Party explains that fairly effectively. What remains is sorting out the unteachable. That’s probably going to prove pretty difficult, as years of experience in Israel has shown.
If you want a slightly different way of presenting almost the same views, Mitch Berg’s The Big Mean World Awareness Test might be fun for you.