Roundup: The Bad

ìTaliban Fighters Increase Attacks: Troubling Toll on Civilians as Well as U.S. Soldiers,î by Eric Schmitt and David Rohde, NYT, `1 Aug, p. A1.

ìDespite U.S. Penalties, Burmese Junta Refuses to Budge,î by Jane Perlez, NYT, 1 Aug, p. A3.

ìIran Says It Will Not Give Up Uranium Enrichment Program: Tehran insists that its nuclear projects are peaceful,î by AP, NYT, 1 Aug, p. A4.

ìAmid Chinaís Boom, No Helping Hand for Young Qingming,î by Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley, NYT, 1 August, p. A1.

The bad is pretty bad. The Taliban are looking stronger every month, as the coalitionís total military presence there is looking insufficient, but with Iraq so hot thereís little desire much less capacity to shift resources there. Of course, where all this violence is emanating from are those regions bordering Pakistanóbasically a big area that encompasses both countries at that border and which neither government has really ever controlled.

Sad story on Burmaís military junta, which is doing just fine surviving U.S. sanctions that do nothing other than close a few of the clothing factories that once gave jobs to the poor thereómaking them all the more destitute. Of course, like most U.S. sanctions, weíre in this one largely on our own, so the impact isnít that great:

The generals, as the Burmese refer to their leaders, appear to have crafted a straightforward survival strategy. It is based, Burmese and outsiders say, on personal financial enrichment for themselves and political payoffs and cease-fire accords that guarantee peace with Buddhist leaders and otherwise restive ethnic groups.

A new class of rich people, mostly the sons and daughters of the military, as well as ethnic Chinese, is allowed to flourish. They are the ones who, in one of the worldís most heavily censored societies, sport cellphones tucked into their belts.

A class Gap state, nyet?

Meanwhile, Iran spouts their ever toughening line on keeping the nukes they plan on firing up as the source of their ultimate deterrence to a U.S. invasion they fear mightily after we took down leaderships on their left and right, signaling the growing reality that, by picking Iraq first, we may well have guaranteed ourselves a showdown with Tehran as they reached instinctively for the nukes option.

Last story is just a really sad one highlighting the plight of the rural poor in China: kid canít afford to go to school anymore so he steps in front of a trainóso disconnected is he from his future that he decides itís better to end it. Donít think I wonít be thinking about that when we head to the countryside to rescue the abandoned Zou Yong Ling (who is to be reborn as our Vonne Mei Ling).