Wednesday, December 06, 2006

on Robert Gates and James Kim

I think Juan Cole has it right, as usual. It's totally ironic, but the fact that Gates was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal may be a good thing, since it suggests that he might still have some contacts in Teheran, that would help US relations with that troubling country.

Meanwhile, I can't help thinking about poor James Kim, still lost in the wild canyons of south-east Oregon. Looking at the map, it's clear that his intuition about the direction to take to find help was totally wrong, and he headed off into an even-more-remote region.

If they don't find him today, I can't imagine his strength and clarity of thought lasting much longer. Very sad, and, after 9 days, I can easily see myself making the same decision he did, despite the traditional wisdom of 'stay put until they find you'.

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