Stardate 20030121.1829

(Captain's log): One thing I've never been able to abide is pretentiousness. I have no use for anyone who thinks or acts as if they are more important than they really are. Sometimes people do this because they're arrogant; sometimes it's a matter of tactics. Regardless of which it is, I have nothing but contempt for it.

However, sometimes pretentiousness approaches the point of delusion, where a person truly seems to think they're more important than they are.

Sometimes there's a conclusion you want your opponent to make which you can't really defend. A sneaky way to do it is just assume it, and talk about the next part as if the first one had already been agreed to. That's what the government of France has been doing with the idea of whether there's a requirement for a second UNSC resolution before we attack Iraq. There isn't, for two reasons.

First, Res 1441 already authorizes us to attack. Second, we don't ultimately give a flying fuck whether the UN approves of what we do or not, and if we decide to attack Iraq without a second resolution we'll do so with a totally clear conscience.

But if France and its allies would have any hope of influencing events, they need us to grant that there must be a second UNSC resolution. So much of their rhetoric simply assumes it's true. But it's no longer clear that they're saying this as a tactical maneuver; it's approaching the point where I'm finding myself questioning their sanity.

France, Germany, Russia and China have made it clear they will not be rushed by Washington's timetable for war against Iraq, despite threats by the White House to move against Saddam Hussein without their approval.

Which seems to imply that they know that Bush's claim that we'll will move without approval is an empty threat. They know that it really can't happen without their say-so, and they're not going to give in to Bush's blackmail. They're calling his bluff.

And that's preposterous. They can take all the time they want, but in the mean time we've got a war to fight, and we're going to be getting to it in about a week and a half no matter what the UNSC does. Indeed, given the kind of rhetoric we're hearing I seriously doubt we'll even bother asking. The idea that we would actually consider ourselves legally bound to wait, and would not move without their blessing, is ludicrous, and indeed seems delusional.

But no more delusional than a clown named Ken Nichols, who has decided that he and a small group of like-minded people are going to single-handedly prevent us from fighting by going to Iraq and camping on top of military targets there.

Is it something in the water over there? Nichols is an American but he's organizing his protest in Europe.And his strategy is a simple one:

"The potential for white Western body parts flying around with the Iraqi ones should make them think again about this imperialist oil war."

Since obviously the US doesn't care about butchering people with brown skin but obviously it will shrink from killing anyone with white skin, then their mere presence will cause the US to decide that it can't proceed. I mean, we don't mind slaughtering a million wogs but we damned well can't kill any whites, now, can we?

The a priori idea that the US is so deeply racist is itself preposterous, as is the idea that our military command will pay the slightest attention to this kind of thing when deciding on bombing targets.

But what's even stranger is their timetable. They don't seem to be in any hurry. The first group of 50 volunteers will be leaving from London by car this coming Saturday (the 25th) for a leisurely drive across Europe and the Balkans, hence into Turkey and Asia Minor, and finally to drive to the Iraqi border where, quite naturally, the Turkish government guards will happily let them cross into Iraq without any hindrance whatever.

How long does it take to drive from London to Baghdad? Depending on the roads, I figure they've got between 6,000 and 7,000 kilometers to cover, which is a distance equivalent to driving from NYC to Las Vegas and back. They ain't doing that in six days, which is all they've got (IMHO).

What will they do if, while they're crossing Austria, they hear that the bombing has already started? And in that case, do they really think that the Turkish border guards are going to let them enter a combat zone just because they ask nicely and because they're such moral people?

Oh, and then they have to cross through the Kurdish area of northern Iraq. Since these people are going there to try to prevent Saddam from being removed from power, and given that the Kurds are such big fans of Saddam, I have to wonder whether they might not simply vanish somewhere along the way. (For that matter; it might happen simply because they're rich and will have so much cool stuff worth stealing. There's a lot of banditry in that area.) And there's also the fact that any "convoy" in Iraq will be open game for air strike once hostilities begin; they might well become targets before they even reach Baghdad.

And even if they do arrive there and do manage somehow to camp on military targets, and are lucky enough to have chosen ones we don't feel are worth the cost of a JDAM, then once they get home any Americans amongs