World

No need for comment, is there? Mr. Bush has often said that will be for historians decide, but he said during his sessions with Mr. Draper that they would have to consult administration documents to get to the bottom of some important questions. Mr. Bush acknowledged one major failing of the early occupation of Iraq when he said of disbanding the Saddam Hussein-era military, “The policy was to keep the army intact; didn’t happen.” But when Mr. Draper pointed out that Mr. Bush’s former Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, had gone ahead and forced the army’s dissolution and then asked Mr. Bush how he reacted to that, Mr. Bush

Karl Rove is a remarkable man. On his last day in the White House, National Review Online publishes a piece in which Rove claims that history will judge Bush favourably if Iraq proves a success: History’s concern is with final outcomes, not the missteps or advances of the moment. History will render a favorable verdict if the outcome in the Middle East is similar to what America saw after World War II. OK. You’d expect that. It must, then, be Rove’s brilliance that allows him to perceive that Bush will also be vindicated even if history judges the Iraq War to have been a disaster with appropriately disastrous consequences: If

Iain McWhirter at The Guardian reminds one why Edinburgh is perhaps the world’s best city every August: Now, here’s a cultural success story of truly epic proportions. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe alone has sold 1.7m tickets this year – that’s more than twice the number sold by the Manchester Commonwealth Games. It does this every year. And the official Edinburgh International Festival hasn’t even finished yet, so its figures are still to come. The Edinburgh Book Festival has attracted 200,000 to its Charlotte Square tent city, which means that the Edinburgh culture-fest’s final score will be well over 2 million… This is an astonishing achievement and gives the lie to

Martin Samuel is in good form today. He doesn’t much like MLS and, really, it’s not difficult to agree with him. The LA Galaxy’s recent 5-4 defeat at the New York Red Bulls was entertaining in the way that games featuring large quantities of comedy defending often are, but was notable not so much for the goals scored as for the real intensity and pace at which the game was played. Those vital qualities are normally lacking in MLS, giving most games (or at least those I’ve been to in DC) all the excitement of a pre-season training session. Anyway, though perhaps a little vainglorious, I did like this part

Why is Greece aflame? Mr Eugenides explains it all.

This is just fantastic. [Hat-tip: Ross]

I’m rather looking forward to reading Yasmina Reza’s account of her year on the campaign trail with Nicolas Sarkozy, Dawn, Evening or Night. It looks as though it could be the political book of the year. If Elaine Sciolino’s article is at all accurate, Sarko comes across as a man who, above all, is alive (a welcome change after the stagnant corruption of the Chirac years. There’s wit too: Even before his victory, Sarkozy is drunk with bravado. Emerging from lunch in London with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Sarkozy announces to his aides: “Tony and I have just made a decision. We’re going to conquer Europe.” In a

Y’all read her anyway (you do, don’t you?), but just in case you’re still searching for her here you could perhaps use a gentle reminder that the wondrous Megan McArdle is the latest member of The Atlantic’s all-star blogging line-up and her new blog is up and running today. Shorter Megan: things not so great in the financial world, but not as bad as the Yankees’ pitching. Longer Megan: worth your reading in its entireity. So go read!

Via Tyler Cowen, your fun fact for the day: Where do most tigers live? In the United States it turns out.  There are 4,000 tigers residing in captivity in Texas alone, where private ownership of tigers is legal.  The number of tigers left in the wild is perhaps no more than 5,100-7,500. [Emphasis added]

Via Kevin Drum, I see that, in one of his regular plangent calls for a better press corps, Brad DeLong has highlighted an extraordinary suggestion from one of his readers. Namely that: I repeat my previous suggestion for the “baseball test.” A reporter should not be assigned to cover subject X unless he has as good an understanding of X as a baseball writer is expected to have of baseball. I assume that Professor DeLong’s reader does not intend reducing the quality of political coverage in this country but it seems unavoidable that this is indeed what he is proposing. I mean, has this chap ever read Bill Plaschke? Or

Channel 4 is not everyone’s favourite TV station, but the way it is being treated by the West Midlands Police and the CPS is disgraceful and represents an existential threat to freedom of expression in this country. Just to recap, last week West Midlands Police and the CPS issued an extraordinary joint statement criticising the editing of Channel 4’s Undercover Mosque documentary and stating that they had investigated Channel 4 for stirring up racial hatred grounds but concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. The CPS charged that the programme had “completely distorted what the speakers were saying” while West Midlands Police went even further, referring the programme to Ofcom.

Every political party has its share of clowns; still, it will be worth keeping an eye out for Idaho Republican Bill Sali. Here’s what the Congressman had to say recently, objecting to, well, non Judeo-Christian faiths being heard in Washington: “We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes — and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers,” asserts Sali. Sali says America was built on Christian principles that were derived from scripture. He also says the only way the United States has been allowed to