Is up. Early. I guess that happens when I actually submit it a day ahead.
It’s nothing new to regular readers–it’s a reprise of my “wounded media” post last week, but if you haven’t been reading me much lately, go check it out–it got good reviews in its original form.
SARS is a coronavirus.
What does it mean? It’s not as contagious as many feared–if you avoid being coughed or spit on, or wash up after that occurs, you can avoid it–it’s not transmitted through the air. And now that they’ve nailed it, they have a good chance of developing a vaccine.
[Update on Thursday morning]
Many viruses like this are species crossovers, usually from domesticated animals. But now there’s a report that the early victims had been handling wild game. That’s inconsistent with the story above, though. I guess they still don’t quite have it nailed down, or else this latest story is a false lead.
SARS is a coronavirus.
What does it mean? It’s not as contagious as many feared–if you avoid being coughed or spit on, or wash up after that occurs, you can avoid it–it’s not transmitted through the air. And now that they’ve nailed it, they have a good chance of developing a vaccine.
[Update on Thursday morning]
Many viruses like this are species crossovers, usually from domesticated animals. But now there’s a report that the early victims had been handling wild game. That’s inconsistent with the story above, though. I guess they still don’t quite have it nailed down, or else this latest story is a false lead.
SARS is a coronavirus.
What does it mean? It’s not as contagious as many feared–if you avoid being coughed or spit on, or wash up after that occurs, you can avoid it–it’s not transmitted through the air. And now that they’ve nailed it, they have a good chance of developing a vaccine.
[Update on Thursday morning]
Many viruses like this are species crossovers, usually from domesticated animals. But now there’s a report that the early victims had been handling wild game. That’s inconsistent with the story above, though. I guess they still don’t quite have it nailed down, or else this latest story is a false lead.
With all respect to Kathy Kinsley, Private First Class Lynch seems to be quite the warrior princess. She apparently received her gunshot wounds while ventilating several Iraqis, shooting until she ran out of ammunition. I’m guessing she only had a thirty-round clip on her M-16.
Note to Islamofascists–our women can beat your men, and they don’t have to strap dynamite to their bellies to do it.
It’s amazing that they let her live. Perhaps it was to torture her to get others to talk. There’s no punishment too harsh for these creatures, though I suspect that most of them received an undeservedly merciful death in the rescue operation.
She’ll get a Purple Heart, but I think she should be up for at least a Bronze Star as well. She deserves the free college education that West Virginia is offering her, but I hope she gets better offers, and set her sights higher than an education degree.
It strikes me that an effective tactic against the Fedayeen who are taking up residence in sacred sites and hospitals is to simply cut them off. We don’t want to lay siege to the city of Baghdad as a whole, because that would be too hard on the civilian population, but there’s no reason that we can’t lay siege to a mosque.
If we can’t get the regime to capitulate quickly, I think the strategy should, and will be the same as in Basra. Go through and disinfect neighborhoods, relying on locals to finger the enemy, and gradually expand liberated areas. If we find enemy holed up and shooting at us, just keep our distance, and starve them out. Eventually they’ll run out of food, water, ammunition, or all of the above, unless they have an extensive tunnelling system with which to resupply from other hideouts. I doubt if they do, but even then, they still have finite supplies. We can maintain the high moral ground as long as we don’t fire back, even in the face of hostile press, at least with the American people.
We may risk whatever hostages they have inside, just as the Palestinians held hostages in the takeover of the Church of the Nativity last year, but at least it’s not the entire civilian population of Baghdad.
In short, I think that the current rules of engagement that restrict us from firing on sacred sites can work, at least over the long run. As long as the monsters are holed up, they have no control over the country or the populace. We can start to rebuild the country, even as we gradually starve out the vermin that have infested it for so long, just as we rebuilt Japan while continuing to find holdouts on Pacific islands for months and years, though I don’t think it will take that long.
Read this piece from the Scotsman for an explanation of why Basra hasn’t revolted yet, and what life is like in a brutal totalitarian state.
Read this piece from the Scotsman for an explanation of why Basra hasn’t revolted yet, and what life is like in a brutal totalitarian state.
Read this piece from the Scotsman for an explanation of why Basra hasn’t revolted yet, and what life is like in a brutal totalitarian state.
Anyone who’s ever butchered chickens will tell tales of how the body will continue to run around the yard, comically (if you’re not a PETA member or a chicken) flapping its wings, after its head has been removed. The body doesn’t die immediately. Similarly, after a snake is beheaded, the body will continue to thrash around for a while.
I think that’s what we’re seeing in Iraq. In other words, the hit on the first night probably was successful, but it’s just taking a while for the regime to quit thrashing.
There’s no evidence that the military is coordinated in any way–most of the action, particularly in the south, seems to be a freelance rearguard thing to keep hope alive as long as possible that somehow the regime will survive. It’s also designed to keep the Ba’athists, cut off from their headquarters in Baghdad and Tikrit, alive as long as possible, because they know they won’t survive the end of the regime. Even if the Americans let them live, there will be lynchings.
This regime is dead, but hasn’t figured it out yet.