Hey everybody. Ian Byrne here. We on the Ops/Ed page have recently been given the option of blogging on Unfit for Print at our leisure. I’ve decided to start blogging to dethrone “Twin Cities lag on transit spending.” It’s time for its two and a half month heyday to end.
I hope this little adventure into the blogosphere will create a nice dialog about topics not otherwise covered by the Minnesota Daily, or too short to address in my column. Minnesota Daily online community, I’m counting on you to help me out. Feel free to suggest topics you’d like me to address either on here or through email ([email protected]). My goal is to make this interesting, and by interesting I mean I’m going to write about things that will only inspire the most insidious vitriol in the comments box. I kid, I kid.
So here’s what’s going to happen. Every post I’m going to muse about one thing, or maybe a few things, that are on my mind. If you find something interesting, agree, or vehemently disagree, please share your thoughts (in a reasonable and respectful way).
So, here’s what I got for the inaugural post…
— The past few days news has been coming out of Libya suggesting the rebel forces opposing Gaddafi might request foreign military intervention (NYT, WashPo). Andrew Exum, blogging as Abu Muqawama, of the Center for a New American Security has an excellent post from a few days ago regarding the U.S. response. It goes without saying that the U.S. must tread carefully in this situation. As far as a U.S. intervention goes, with the Middle East I feel it’s a damned if we do, damned if we don’t kind of deal. For now, I think the U.S. should steer clear. Do you think the U.S. should intervene with an international coalition?
— As a follow up to my Monday column regarding recent nuclear nonproliferation news, Syria announced it will allow International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, inspectors to visit a site on April 1 that the agency was previously denied access to (Fox News, everyone is welcome to this blog!). Nuclear nonproliferation issues are an interest of mine. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being not important, where would you rank the proliferation of nuclear materials and technology in terms of priority of issues facing the U.S.?
— The Gophers just lost to Northwestern. Is there anyone that deserves blame for this collapse, or does it just amount to bad luck with Nolen breaking his foot and not having someone to take his place? For now, I’m in the “bad luck” camp.
That’s all I got for now. Until next time.
Ian