In a move that surprises absolutely no one, the U.S. Government has found a way to escalate one of its ongoing military conflicts right before the election. Funny how I’ve been reading about this since yesterday morning in the international press, but it’s not until today that the American media picks it up. From the NYT:
An explosion on Sunday killed nine construction workers and wounded 19 others near the border of Iraq and Syria, the police in Anbar Province said.
The BBC is a bit less, eh, accommodating to U.S. spin, shall we say:
US military helicopters have carried out a raid inside Syria along the Iraqi border, killing eight people including four children, Syrian officials say.
I’m on record as saying that it’s quite plausible that military action this close to an election could be the excuse Bush (or his minders, rather; Dubya is probably running around the White House with a huge case of Senioritis) needs to call off the election and declare martial law. Let’s hope I’m dead wrong, or that if I’m not, the public won’t stand for it (hoping for the former, because, frankly, the American public is like a brachiosaurus: it takes way too long for the impulse to reach the brain, and for the animal to then process and react).
To top things off, Jon Taplin has another take on the October surprise, this one by way of Al-Qaeda.