Current Situation

Christopher Hitchens: Johnnie Walker Blackened. Normally, I think Hitchens is an ass, but I can't argue with this: "Given a choice between protecting American civilians and protecting the client regimes that sponsor and coddle those who murder them, the Bush Administration has taken the second option every time. This seems to me impeachable in the profoundest sense of the term."

New York Times: Afghan City, Free of Taliban, Returns to Rule of the Thieves. And: Gul Agha Gets His Province Back. Karzai might be the recognized head of the government in Kabul, but the situation on the ground is a different matter. All around Afghanistan, local warlords are seizing power, and engaging in the same practices of corruption and abuse of power that made Afghanistan such a fertile ground for the Taliban 5 years ago. Some might decry nation-building missions as doomed to failure. Perhaps. But if something isn't done to change the current situation, it is Afghanistan that will be doomed (again).

Dexter Filkins: The Legacy of the Taliban Is a Sad and Broken Land. No doubt. I hope the new regime will do better (it almost has to, really), but unfortunately, failure won't surprise me. It's not just the legacy of the Taliban that is at issue, but the legacy of the Soviet invasion, the civil war afterwards, and everything else in this country's tragic history. It's easy to point fingers at the Taliban, but they were only the latest incarnation of Afghanistan in crisis.

Colbert King: Saudi Arabia's Apartheid. "McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other U.S. firms, for instance, maintain strictly segregated eating zones in their restaurants. The men's sections are typically lavish, comfortable and up to Western standards, whereas the women's or families' sections are often run-down, neglected and, in the case of Starbucks, have no seats. Worse, these firms will bar entrance to Western women who show up without their husbands."

ABCNews: Tape Missing Subtleties. Apparently, the translation of the bin Laden video released by the US government is missing some bits, like those where Saudi Arabia is acknowledged for the help it provides to bin Laden's movement. Funny, though, I don't hear anyone in the Administration suggesting that we make Saudi Arabia the war on terrorism's next stop.

Thomas Frank: Totally Extreme Taliban. I'm not sure I buy the conclusion, but the premise is dead-on: the right is firing up the culture-war rhetoric and blaming "liberalism" for the John Walker thing. Reminds me of that time, back in the day, when Newt Gingrich held liberal Democrats responsible for the woman who killed her kids by driving them into that lake. It's sad that we haven't made more progress in the last decade or so.

Newsbytes: Suspect Claims Al Qaeda Hacked Microsoft. Probably not true, but it would explain a lot.

Washington Post: Anthrax Vaccine Plan Sows Confusion. "'First it was Cipro; then it was the other pill. Now it's this,' said Willard Tucker, an employee at the Brentwood postal facility. 'Why do we have to be guinea pigs for them? They don't even know what's going on.'"

Fred Hiatt is on the mark: security is an important value, but it is not the only important value. This applies not only to the issue he points to — the increasing ugliness of Washington, DC — but to a lot of other ugliness as well.

Washington Post: National ID Card Gaining Support. I don't know what's more frightening: the fact that a greater number of citizens seem anxious to trade the reality of liberty for the promise of safety, or that people like Alan Dershowitz, who we look to to protect our civil liberties, are now endorsing Big Brother.