(no subject)

Airport security was a lot easier to go through than I thought, but then again, I was at the airport at 4:30AM. Tomorrow will be interesting -- Boston Logan airport on a Friday evening.

The plane up was nearly empty -- maybe 40-50 passengers on a 250 seat plane. It was early, but I've taken this flight before and have seen it more than half full. I got there a couple hours early, but waited about an hour at the gate. No real serious security issues -- they warned everybody ahead of time that they would confiscate everything sharp, including your normal disposable razors. I checked my luggage and had no problems; I pretty much breezed through.

(no subject)

So the Afghan council of 600 clerics blinked slightly. I didn't expect this -- I thought the council would be more political than religious when, perhaps, it was a little of both. "Asking" bin Laden to leave may just be a stalling tactic...or it may be the best Afghan solution rather than give him to another Islamic country or completely refuse to give him up, both of which would be unacceptable to the US. This solution must make the US cautious, and was likely calculated that way. If the Afghan leader Mullah Omar accepts the council decision (and he probably will, since his power can be weakened drastically by the council), a quick attack by the US may seem premature to the rest of the world if the invitation to leave isn't given time to set in.

The best solution for the Islamic mid-East? Afghanistan should give bin Laden to the Palestinians, to relegitimatize a very weakened Arafat. Probably won’t happen. Where to go is the question. There is probably only one real country that would accept bin Laden at this point: Iraq. This also comes at a time when Iraq is moving up on the suspect list for possible collusion in the terrorist act. Tactically, this may be a better situation; Iraq is a much easier target than Afghanistan. Is this, however, a case of looking somewhere else because the light is better, or is the evidence sound?