Molly Ivins: What’s that sound that we’re not hearing?

New York Times: Conduct of War Is Redefined by Success of Special Forces

Mickey Kaus: What Black Hawk Down Leaves Out

Well, the numbers are in on aid pledges for Afghanistan. The US pledged $300 million for the current fiscal year and “more later”. That’s pathetic. We pledged less than 20% of what the UN says Afghanistan needs this year (I’m sure the Afghan government will claim it needs more), and provided no hard numbers on how we plan to follow up. What happens in the years to come when Afghanistan slips back into obscurity? Can we expect the government to dole out serious money to the Afghans in between building new ships in Pascagoula on behalf of Trent Lott and providing tax breaks for corporations that dump campaign contributions on Congress? If Hamid Karzai were really smart, he’d spend a good sized chunk of his aid money on buying off US Congressmen. No matter how corrupt Afghan’s government is, they’ll still get as much help as possible from our government — just ask Ken Lay.

Update: a reader pointed out that at least some of the money we pledged is coming out of the money that we had already allocated for refugee aid to Afghanistan, so it’s not even like we’re coming through with as much as you might have originally thought. The New York Times has the details:

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blockquote> Bush administration officials said that the $296 million that Secretary Powell announced today would come from a reallocation of funds already appropriated and so could be delivered quickly. About $111 million is left from $320 million in aid that was not needed for Afghan refugees.

The proportion of the American contribution is somewhat below the typical pattern of the United States’ contributions

The BBC has a report on conditions at the temporary jail at Guantanamo Bay where al-Qaeda prisoners are being held. According to the BBC, the prisoners have no complaints. Given that we haven’t yet cut off any appendages, flogged them with whips, pushed down stone walls onto them, I can see why they’re not complaining.

Paul Krugman: Me and Enron

Here’s a new open source business model: Mandrake Linux Users Club. What it really is is a subscription service for users of Mandrake Linux. I think it’s pretty smart. Everybody knows that you can buy a CD with Mandrake on it for less than 5 bucks at cheapbytes.com, and that selling distro CDs is not the most optimal way of bringing in revenue. Rather than trying to make money like that indirectly, they’re giving you the opportunity to just give them money to keep doing what they’re doing. By allowing you to subscribe, they’re making sure that they have a steady stream of somewhat guaranteed revenue (rather than relying on regular old donations). I hope it works.

So this week we find out how much money countries are going to kick in to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan. The UN says $15 billion over 10 years is needed, the Afghans are going to give their estimate tomorrow morning. I certainly hope that the US bellies up to the bar on this one and gives generously. The Afghans have suffered plenty over the past 20 or 25 years in service to America’s geopolitical agenda, and we ought to remember that when we make out our check.

I wonder what this is about? (If the destination of that link changes, it points to a Reuters advisory asking people to remove a certain picture. I found it using this search.)

A reader sent along a link to this photo, which seems like the replacement for the photo that was removed.

Excuse me, sir, but you’re not going to be able to carry that Congressional Medal of Honor onto the plane.