[S]ka [socialdemokratiska] partiet återerövra jobben som sin viktigaste fråga? Eller tänker man fortsätta i de hjulspår som ledde fram till det sämsta valresultatet sedan demokratins genombrott?

[U]nder duellen med Reinfeldt fanns inte en tillstymmelse av självkritik. Persson var i stället helt inriktad på att forma sitt eftermäle och öste beröm över den svenska ekonomin.

Alliansen kommer till ett dukat bord. Arbetslösheten faller. Tillväxten är rekordhög. De offentliga finanserna i urstarkt skick. Ungefär så lät det från riksdagens talarstol.

Det verkar inte ha sjunkit in hos Sveriges förre statsminister, att väljarna för mindre än en månad sedan underkände just den verklighetsbilden.

[P]olitik är ett jobb, valen ett medel bland andra att ta sig framåt och uppåt.

Mot den bakgrunden är det knappast förvånande att de nya statsråden Maria Borelius och Cecilia Stegö Chilò hukar bakom skenheliga personliga förklaringar i stället för att försvara sina svarta betalningar och obetalda TV-licenser som medvetna politiska handlingar.

Civil olydnad är ingen skam om man är beredd att ta konsekvenserna, ej heller att ändra åsikt om vilka metoder som ska användas i kampen för att hushållstjänster ska bli avdragsgilla och mot att en faktisk skatt förklätts till TV-licens.

Det är bättre att politiker tar strid för sina politiska åsikter än att de kryper bakom personliga tillkortakommanden.

Three recent books about the "fiasco" in Iraq - "Cobra II" by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, "State of Denial" by Bob Woodward and just plain "Fiasco" by Tom Ricks - have attracted a lot of attention, and sales. All three well-written exposes repeat the now well-known argument that our government's incompetence and arrogance have nearly ensured America's failure in birthing democracy in Iraq.

It's worth noting, though, that many of the authors' critical portraits rely on private conversations and anonymous sources. The most damning informants in these books are never identified and so can't be questioned.

[T]hese past couple of weeks, current and former officials have been protesting that they were unfairly characterized in Woodward's book - and have argued that conditions in Iraq are not as bad as alleged by anonymous sources.

And while there have been on-the-record critics of all three books, none of the unnamed accusers cited in them has come forward.

These virtual histories all allege a "state of denial" and lack of accountability on the part of government officials. Perhaps - but how odd then that the authors of "Cobra II," "Fiasco" and "State of Denial" have used the very secrecy and subterfuge they claim to deplore in their targets.

[O]m det här mordet i övrigt följer det vanliga ryska mönstret kommer förstås ingen misstänkt någonsin att hittas och ingen gärningsman ställas inför rätta.

Men på längre sikt är brottsutredningen inte det viktigaste. För när allt kommer omkring har den som kramade avtryckaren - eller betalade någon för att betala någon som gjorde det - redan vunnit en stor seger.

Och som den ryska (och östeuropeiska) historien visar är det inte alltid nödvändigt att döda flera miljoner för att skrämma alla andra. Ett litet urval avrättningar i rätt ögonblick och på rätt plats brukar räcka.

[A]nna Politkovskajas kritiker klagade ibland över att hennes pessimism gick för långt: hon hörde till de journalister som såg katastrofvarsel i varenda story. Det är dock svårt för mig att inte skriva om mordet på henne i samma förebådade ton som hon själv skulle ha använt. Det är alldeles för likt något som hon själv kunde ha skrivit.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is often smiling, as if he knows something we don't, or at least not yet. It is tempting to view him as a madman. That way, when he speaks of wiping Israel off the face of the earth, we might convince ourselves that he is no more than a fanatical front man for the Iranian Republic's desire to possess nuclear weapons so as to assert itself in the manner of China or any other aspiring great power.

Unfortunately, whether mad or not, Ahmadinejad has a coherent ideological vision in which the call to wipe out Israel is no ordinary manifestation of anti-Semitism. Instead, it is the beckoning of an apocalyptic event that will usher in a millennium of bliss for all believers, indeed all mankind.

Nuclear weapons are the indispensable means to this end since they are the most reliable way of exterminating the Jewish state. They are therefore not to be negotiated away in exchange for other economic or security benefits. The revolution needs nuclear weapons to carry out its utopian mission.

[--] In his murderous fantasy of destroying Israel, Ahmadinejad has drawn together all the strands of Ali Shariati's jihadist ideology and added his own contribution, which makes it far more dangerous.

[--] "Our revolution's mission," he declared last year, "is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam." A rumor denied by the government but widely believed in Iran holds that Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a secret "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi. Ahmadinejad believes that the apocalypse is imminent and that he can accelerate the divine timetable. He is not content, as a traditional believer would be, to wait for the Hidden Imam to return. He plans to make the Last Days come on his own schedule, by using nuclear weapons to destroy the wicked as soon as possible.

[s]upreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani--hastened to support Ahmadinejad's call last October for Israel's annihilation, Rafsanjani, a former president of the Islamic Republic, added a mad detail: The Iranian leadership would be happy to see Iran devastated by an Israeli nuclear retaliatory strike if it meant they could wipe Israel off the map. "The application of an atomic bomb," Rafsanjani sanguinely remarked, "would not leave anything in Israel, but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world."

This willingness to see Iran absorb the "damages" of an Israeli nuclear response (surely millions of casualties) is only a variation of Hitler's willingness to divert resources needed to win the Second World War and expose Germany to catastrophically destructive bombing and invasion in order to speed up the Holocaust. Hitler was willing, even thrilled, to see Germany go down in the flames of his own Götterdämmerung in exchange for the chance to kill millions of Jews. Something of the same demented mirth sparkles in Ahmadinejad's eyes as he makes his cryptic little jokes about coming "surprises."

[A]s long as Iranian policy is dominated by Ahmadinejad and his allies among the senior clerics of the Islamic Republic, Iran cannot be negotiated with. Their commitment to the destruction of the Jews is a matter of principle, just as the implementation of the Holocaust was for the Nazis and the liquidation of the kulaks was for the Bolsheviks. Genocide through nuclear weapons is designed to bring about the happiness of the Year One for all of us. I believe that is why Ahmadinejad is almost always smiling.