25 September 2001

Limbaugh

I noticed the following from a longer piece on Rush Limbaugh's website for 24 September:

The decision to open the bases to American and allied forces followed an hour-long phone conversation from Camp David between President Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Time magazine reports, "American officials said that Mr. Putin agreed to put pressure on the central Asian republics where Moscow has continuing influence." It wasn't known what, if any, quid pro quo the Russian leader or the central Asian states had secured.

The upshot of this is that, using bases in the two republics, which lie on Afghanistan's northern border, gives easy access for special forces heading into territory controlled by the anti-Taliban "Northern Alliance." This is another achievement you're going to start hearing about if you haven't already. One of the things that is widely assumed is that the Taliban runs Afghanistan, but while the Taliban is a major player, they have opposition inside Afghanistan.

So we're ready to go in, and if you think we're twiddling our thumbs, look at the big picture. For example, these alliances - inside and outside Afghanistan - serve a key purpose. They relieve pressure on the president of Pakistan, who faces an Islamic backlash for his decision to cooperate with Washington. Deploying large forces on Pakistani soil would intensify the turbulence and could lead to General Pervez Musharraf's downfall.

Given what I've written here and here, I wonder if Limbaugh is one of many who find enlightenment right here on these humble pages? :)

Actually, I'm joking. Because of the business he's in, Limbaugh is often bombastic, obnoxious, and sarcastic -- not to mention humorous (so long as you're not a hyperserious, hardcore liberal). He doesn't claim for himself the depth of George Will or Walter Williams or any other libertarian/conservative intellectual. But because of his style, he sometimes is mistaken as ill-informed or dumb. That's unfortunate, because on the rare occasions I listen to his program these days, I can tell he's done a lot of preparatory reading of opinion journals and newspapers/news websites. And he often makes some decent connections -- like the one above.

Of course, they would be better and more frequent if he did visit us here on occasion. :)

That's a joke too! Lighten up, people!

[Posted @ 03:07 PM CST]