Watcher's Council results, 6/22/07

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels


This week, my fellow Council members honored this writer's humble efforts by choosing Gaza Becomes Hamastan Part 2: Clarity and an Opportunity as this week's winning council post. Given the uniformly high quality of the field this week, it was most unexpected.

This was the second part of a twofer, something I rarely do. In Part 1 , I offered a detailed account on exactly how Gaza became Hamastan, the strategy Hamas used to win and exactly what it cost us in seized weaponry and intel. In this piece, Part 2, I attempted to explained the implications of this as a reflection of the contradictions inherent in our Middle East policy, and more importantly, the opportunity we have to make a change and what I feel is a complete turnaround in the way the US deals with the Arab world.

Sadly, at the time of this writing it appears that the Bush Adminstration has decided to continue the failed policy of throwing more money and arms at our preferred terrorists in Fatah. In this article I tried to show why this is folly and will, in my opinion, eventually lead to Hamastan in the West Bank as well, and further deterioration of America's position in the Arab world if it continues.


In second place was Cheat Seeking Missiles: Muslim and Christian? In One Body? Laer's extremely well written examination of an African-American Espicopalian priest who considers herself both Muslim and Christian after she reverted to Islam while still maintaining her salary and position as an Epicopal priest. ( ff notes: `reversion' is the term Muslims use instead of `conversion', since in Islamic doctrine, we are all of us born Muslims who simply haven't submitted to Islam yet.)

As Laer points out,the theological contradictions are simply not reconcilable. An excellent read...congrats Laer!

For non-Council, the winner was, once again, Michael Yon : Be Not Afraid Michael Yon is a treasure, and our best war correspondant in recent memory. Here he writes on the eve of the US offensive in Iraq ( which is reportedly kickin' bootay, if I read between the lines from various sources correctly) and comes up with one of the best, most truthful things I've seen written on the war.


In second place for non-Council was BackTalk:Beware: Misleading Income Statistics Are Coming Your Way in which BackTalk postulates that the economy may well be a major campaign issue in 2008 and thus subject to disinformation by Democrats seeking the prize. He then shows exactly why this is absolute tripe.


Hearty Kudos to all the winners!