It’s not quiet out there at all (ref to upthread exchange). Russia’s move is being saluted in several places –big trouble in Kashmir, some leader shot dead, FARC has set off a bomb in Colombia to hurt our ally Uribe (as if Pelosi hasn’t done enough), Chavez is shooting off his mouth, jihadis have blown up some people in Somalia (i think the Jordanian king was making a state visit tho i only heard part of the report), Achmadenijade visiting Turkey, Erdogan visiting Moscow, Centcom announcing identification of four different locations inside Iran where Iraqi shiites are being trained for re-entry into Iraq as assassination teams with specific targeting of government leaders and US troops, and the biggie, Musharraf being forced out in Pakistan, in favor of whom we apparently have no notion –though i’m afraid we can probably assume it won’t be anyone anti-jihad/Taliban/AQ/soviet. This is a first-class mess, all of a sudden.