Dateline:above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 14 March 2005
Didn't get to the editing of Chapter 1 today. Had to prep first floor for painter later in week, plus get my home office in order, which I haven't done in months in terms of bookkeeping (just for taxes), but today's was filing and organizing all the other paperwork, plus gearing up my plans for a load of trips in April.
When I get to Indy, I am seriously going to consider a personal assistant.
I am delaying a bit. Warren's edit of Chapter 1 was more transparent than I expected: he just cut about 3k out of 22 and really worked the text, but there's not a lot of inserts that I have to answer. Part of it is just that I write better the second time around and he edits better, plus we're both so much more at ease with the material. Then again, I am probably imagining he did less last time, when in reality, he did roughly the same.
The guy who mocked up the Shrink the Gap logo is from Madison WI. He was pretty excited that I reposted it. If I wasn't so behind the curve today, I would have given his URL, but I am tired of catching up for the day.
Had some stories from NYT, but none big enough to move me, although I did notice that the Iranians once again blew off our economic carrots, which didn't surprise me. Hard-liners on security v. reformists on economics: we're rewarding the latter while asking the former to back off. It's just not connecting, this offer. Making the reformists happy on trade doesn't placate the hard-liners.
One story today did catch my eye in WSJ: "Afghan Warlords Slowly Come In From the Cold," by David S. Cloud (WSJ, 14 March, p. A1). Interesting tale of how US took the slow and quiet road with warlords compared to rapid dissolution of Iraqi army and Baathists, upshot being everything is falling into place in Afghanistan security-wise on the militias. They're slowly melting away and being replaced by regular army. Country still hurting, still full of opium, still got some Taliban, but overall security is good and the scene is relatively quiet, which is very different from Iraq.
No grand plans for Afghanistan, and a slower pace. "Salutary neglect," one officer put it, referring to lack of DC oversight. Just letting the country reconnect itself up to itself at a pace it can handle.
Interesting story.
