Theo Lives!

Was it only in my head, or did triumphant theme music begin playing when I saw the Boston.com headline: WELCOME BACK, THEO. I feel reborn, rejuvenated, resurrected. The 2006 Red Sox season which I had all but written off is pregnant now with promise.

Theo lives. The return of the Theo. The once and future Theo. The resurrected Theo. Say it together, O, Red Sox Nation: In Theo We Trust!

Comment Disons-Nous "Nucular"?

The President spoke at a nuclear submarine base today and threatened to use nuclear weapons if provoked.

"The leaders of states who might resort to terrorist means against us, and those who might envision using arms of mass destruction, must understand that they would be exposed to a firm and adapted response on our part...

"Such a policy of defense is based on the certainty that, no matter what it arrives, our vital interests will be guaranteed. It is the role allotted to the nuclear determent, which falls directly in line with our strategy of prevention. It constitutes the ultimate expression of it... nuclear determent remains the fundamental guarantee of our safety...

"The credible threat of their use weighs permanently on belligerent leaders... It is essential to bring them back to reason, to make them become aware of the disproportionate cost which their acts would have, for themselves and their States. In addition, we always reserve ourselves the right to use an ultimatum to mark our determination to protect our vital interests."

The speech was, of course, couched in the language of opposing terror, and was a not-so-subtle hint to Iran, whose president sought today to expand his ties with Syria, whose president pledged his support of Iran's nuclear program.

Just imagine the vitriolic response to this unnecessary aggressiveness and irresponsible posturing in the European press... if it had been President Bush and not President Chirac who made the above speech. The French are not really anti-imperialists (witness their brutal retreats in Algeria and Vietnam, their invasion of the Suez, their military aid to Rwanda's genocidal regime, and their strong-arm tactics to control the EU as much as possible); it's just that France wants to be the #1 imperial power, and when any other nation's activities threaten their own, they will use whatever arguments or means happen to be expedient. And, unlike America, they do not have the fig leaf of "spreading democracy" to hide their worst excesses behind; the noblest motive of French foreign policy is "le francophonie". That's what motivated their support of the wrong side in Rwanda's civil war. Phonie sounds about right.

The full text of the speech is ici.

Read It

Typically, when I recommend a book, I do my readers the courtesy of reviewing and describing it. This book needs no such introduction; in part because it is a mere 60 pages in length, in part because it is a journal rather than a monograph.

If you do not otherwise have access to C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed, you can purchase it at Amazon.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Soxaholix takes a break from chronicling the post-post-season collapse of the Red Sox organization to deal with the "no respect Patriots" meme. You'd think a two-time defending Super Bowl champion that had just set a record for postseason wins and beaten the spread in virtually every playoff game could not possibly get under-respected... but Hart makes a compelling case that a good number of sportswriters still think the Patriots aren't that good.

America: beware. We will continue to win Super Bowls until you finally give us the respect we're due. And fear not, ye brave Patriots, history shall vindicate you mightily.

Well Hated, Exit Sharon

If Ariel Sharon ever wanted to leave the world universally loved, he obviously gave up long ago. But it is clear that until the end, he has done all he can to leave an indellible mark on his region. And while he may not actually die at this time, he has suffered a stroke that will propel him out of Israeli politics for the last time. Of course, he's been counted out before. In 1974, when he resigned from electoral politics just a year after founding the Likud Party; in 1983 after he was demoted following the Sabra and Chatila massacres; and in 1996 when the "new generation" of Likud leaders took over under Bibi Netanyahu. Like Arafat, he's hard to put away.

One indication of how controversial a figure was Sharon is which two "world leaders" (of questionable constituency) have hailed his death as something less than a tragedy: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pat Robertson. Not long ago, fundamentalist Zionist-Orthodox Jews were calling for his head as well.

Sharon's life was made for the silver screen. Whether they can convince Robert Duvall to put on 50 kilos for the part is a seperate issue. Here are some of the high (and low) -lights:

• Sharon joined the Jewish paramilitary at age 14 to fight British and Arabs.
• He created and led the first Israeli special forces unit, which killed enemy civilians on an alarming scale.
• His first wife died in 1962; his first son five years later while playing with guns. Then he married his wife's sister.
• He led the bloody operation at Mitla Pass during the Suez War in 1956 and fell from favor for excessively aggressive tactics.
• In 1973 he founded the Likud Party, Labour's first real competition.
• A month later, he became a war hero by disobeying orders and taking troops into Africa to hasten the end of the 1973 October War.
• In 1974 he quit politics in a huff, and spent three years trying to beg back in.
• In 1977, he formed his second political party, Shlomtzion, for the most militant of settlers, and then merged it with Likud.
• As Minister of Agriculture, Sharon doubled the number of settlements.
• As Minister of Defense, Sharon convinced his superiors to let him go a few kilometers into Lebanon. He ignored his mandate and conquered Beirut, where he allowed Lebanese Christians to massacre Palestinians in refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila.
• He was stripped of his portfolio, but not demoted from the cabinet, where he remained whenever Likud was in power, constantly trying to gain control of the party.
• Sharon sparked the al-Aqsa Intifada with a September, 2000, publicity stunt featuring a fully-armed excursion onto the Muslim side of temple mount. (Note: sparked, not caused; the causes were much deeper).
• I portrayed Sharon in a 2000 simulation, and was told by my professor that a collapse of Barak's government and subsequent election of Sharon was unrealistic.
• Barak's government fell a month later, and Sharon was elected.
• In 2004, Sharon and his second son underwent a damaging international fraud investigation.
• In 2005, Sharon expelled all settlers from the Gaza Strip.
• Less than two months ago, Sharon broke with Likud and formed his third political party, Kadima, as a new center in Israeli politics.

To me, the question that emerges from Sharon's life is whether he had a master plan all these years or was just flying by the seat of his pants. It's clear that he's not a man who considers compromise or following orders an important part of leadership. Whether Kadima takes off and whether future leaders continue the non-negotiated solution to "the Palestinian Question" will show whether Sharon had a real movement behind him, or merely an awed following. Honestly, I'd gotten to like the man; as dark as his heart may be, he was the first Middle Eastern leader in a while to understand the salient fact on which any solution to the conflict rests: Israel holds all the cards.

Gates Of Fire

I've always said they really should do a full-scale war movie based on the battle of Thermopylae. And maybe they will. George Clooney's producing company apparently owns the rights to the Steven Pressfield's 1998 historical fiction account "Gates of Fire". Of course, there's a 1960 film called "The 300 Spartans", but 1960 war films feel like documentaries, not wars.

If you don't know what happened at Thermopylae, you should. It was possibly the greatest battle in human history.

What Do You Call 72 Virgins in Lexington, Kentucky?

Gamma Gamma Chi.

It was a tasteless and corny joke, but someone had to make it. Just taking one for the team. Hat tip, of course, to Drudge.