Update to yesterday's Iraq blog..
At a donor conference in Madrid, other nations/entities have now kicked in $17.5B for reconstruction, nearly matching the $20B we're putting in.

Japan upped their contribution to $5B, Saudi's putting in a billion, Kuwait $500M, and Europe is collectively throwing in over a billion with more to come.
- posted by Doug @ 8:26 AM    Comment

 
This is worrying..
AAS: NASA let launch go despite warnings
- posted by Doug @ 1:16 PM    Comment

 
Episcopals Episcopalians take note -- it could be worse
The Russians have a somewhat different way of handling the conflict over gay marriage.
- posted by Doug @ 10:13 AM    2 comments

 
Unilateral cowboys
USS Clueless notes an AP story listing current international troop deployments to Iraq. Note that 15,000 troops (more than 10% of the total 150,000 or so) come from outside the US & UK.

Here's a list of the countries which missed a good chance to "keep silent" and are behaving irresponsibly by supporting us:
Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, and Ukraine.

Note the number of former Soviet republics and satellite states in there -- they know what it means to be oppressed, and they know who is on the side of freedom in the world.

In addition, though they are constitutionally prohibited from foreign military adventures, Japan is kicking in a billion and a half for Iraqi reconstruction.

All in all, a very nice and appreciated list of backup singers for the US/UK cowboy duet.
- posted by Doug @ 10:02 AM    Comment

 
This is outrageous..
They're already starving her to death. Now they won't let her receive viaticum??!!
- posted by Doug @ 4:17 PM    Comment