Morning News

I was hoping to post something, if not more uplifting, at least not so depressing as all of yesterday's posting. I'll be at a seminar most of the day, so won't be blogging much until this evening, if I get back to it then.

Alas, what I have for you is this...

At least 12 policemen have been killed and four injured in a suicide bomb attack near a hospital in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police say.

Another 13 people died in a car bomb attack on a police station in Baquba, north-east of Baghdad.

Separately, one US soldier was killed and two others wounded in a roadside bomb attack in northern Baghdad.

[...]

There have also been several incidences of hostage-taking in recent days, with four Egyptian engineers abducted in Baghdad on Sunday.

Two days earlier, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was seized in the capital.
  Turkish Weekly article

AP Photos 2/5/05

Once its internal security forces are trained to handle violent insurgents, Iraq will require more time to build a military force strong enough to meet any threats from Iran or other neighbors, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says
  ABC News article

It's nice to look ahead some times. Unfortunately, the time for that was a couple years ago, as the first part of that statement is a goalpost nowhere in sight.

[Rumsfeld] ruled out the possibility of reviving the military draft. "We don't need one. We have the ability to attract and retain the people we need in the military."

With an emphasis on "retain".

Plus, we're about to go into the death squad business. That should attract the people we need.

[He also said] that in twice offering to resign at the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal last year, he still could be an effective Pentagon chief but wanted Bush to make that call. "I told him I really thought he ought to carefully consider it. But he made a conscious decision, and life goes on, and here we are."

How can you not think that these people are all sniffing glue?

Oh well...life goes on - some of it anyway, and here we are.



But here's some good news...

Don't fret about your dollars. All that has to happen for them to be worth something is that Alan Greenspan say so.

The dollar hit a three-month high against the euro as dealers digested comments from Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan that the United States' current account deficit should stabilise, and the conclusion of the Group of Seven (G7) finance meet in London, analysts said.

[...]

Market pressures "appear poised to stabilise and over the longer run possibly to decrease the US current account deficit and its attendant financing requirements," Fed Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said at a conference in London Friday.

[...]

Greenspan's speech "sent the dollar roaring back after it had earlier tumbled on the back of a softer-than-expected US jobs report", analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said.
  article

Okay, maybe you should worry that that's the critereon for dollar value.

Never mind the realities on the ground. China, whose international economists have recently dropped not-so-subtle hints that the country is concerned about the lousy performance of the dollar, owns our debt. Russia just cut loose from the dollar and is leaning toward the euro. Six international central banks recently already went euro. We have a huge trade deficit and national debt. We continue to spend more than we make as a nation. Bush is burning the safety nets in our social spending and pouring money into perpetual war. And oil-producing countries periodically threaten to switch from dollars to euros.

But go ahead, get happy and buy some more debt. Yuk it up. Things are looking good.

You also might want to enroll in some Chinese language classes.