Bryan Strawser

Business 2.0 points out the return of the middle man is here. Major kudos go to CDW. CDW is definitely one of my favorite companies.  [The Scobleizer Weblog]

Top General Sees Plan to Shock Iraq Into Surrendering. Military officials have said the plan calls for unleashing 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles in the first 48 hours of the campaign. By Eric Schmitt and Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Police Dept. Indictments Rattle San Francisco. The case of three off-duty police officers accused of beating two men in November has escalated into a nasty war among some of the city’s most powerful politicians. By Dean E. Murphy. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Just to recap Bush’s press conference last night.  Here is the outline:

9/11 awoke the US to the threat of terrorism.  We now know we are vulnerable to attack.  We will now proactively eliminate threats to the security of the US.  Saddam’s leadership of Iraq is a threat because:

1. Ability:  He has chemical and biological weapons.
   
2. Intent:  He has ties to terrorist groups (he has previously called on terrorists to attack the US).
   
3. State of mind:  He has demonstrated a willingness to use these weapons.
   
4. Motive:  He has a hatred of the US.

The US is in favor of a diplomatic disarming of Iraq (to eliminate his ability to act on his threats).  However, the process has not worked and should end:

1. The US supported the process of arms inspections but it has not accomplished its goal in 12 years of effort.
   
2. Iraq still has chemical and biological weapons that they have not declared in this latest round of inspections (prima facie evidence of noncompliance).
   
3. Any additional attempts to follow this course of action would not result in disarmament.

The UN, as an organization that promotes collective security, is not working.  Here’s why:

1. The UN sponsored inspections of Iraq have not worked over 12 years.
   
2. The unanimous acceptance of UN resolution 1441 last September stated that this was the last chance for Iraq to disarm. 
   
3. Given that Saddam’s Iraq continues to flout the inspections and the UN’s will, the UN seems unable to bring closure on this issue.

Here is what the US will do:

1. Provide the UN with one last chance to pass a resolution that clearly authorizes military action in the event of Iraqi noncompliance.
   
2. Regardless of whether the UN passes the resolution or not, the US will invade Iraq to disarm the country out of national security interests.
   
3. The US will change the regime in Iraq and help establish a democratic infrastructure.

[John Robb’s Radio Weblog]

Laptops for hot zones.

Courtesy of a very alert reader: a link to one of those special laptops that are designed to collect data from the site of a biological or chemical attack. The CoBRA Hardpak combines a rugged Itronix GoBook Max laptop with a software program known as the Chemical Biological Response Aide, and can even be decontaminated using a dishwasher. What you do to decontaminate the dishwasher is an entirely different matter.
Read

[Gizmodo]

Army’s Apple Shines in the Desert. Macs aren’t normally associated with the military. In fact, in the buildup for the conflict in Iraq, only one Mac exists in the entire theater of operations, according to an Army major. It does have its uses, though. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

Cicero. “The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret – that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him.” [Motivational Quotes of the Day]