Will miracles never cease? Now AP is admitting that, even without the UN, the U.S. won’t be going it alone.

Going to war without a fresh resolution would not mean going it alone, however. Britain, Spain, Italy, Australia, Turkey, Romania, Greece and Poland are among the nations that have indicated they would support the United States.

“If Saddam Hussein is not disarmed and is allowed to develop his capabilities he could strike Romania and the rest of Europe,” Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana said this week as the parliament in Bucharest agreed to provide noncombat troops to a U.S.-led coalition and to permit use of Romania’s air space and airports.

Will miracles never cease? Now AP is admitting that, even without the UN, the U.S. won’t be going it alone.

Going to war without a fresh resolution would not mean going it alone, however. Britain, Spain, Italy, Australia, Turkey, Romania, Greece and Poland are among the nations that have indicated they would support the United States.

“If Saddam Hussein is not disarmed and is allowed to develop his capabilities he could strike Romania and the rest of Europe,” Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana said this week as the parliament in Bucharest agreed to provide noncombat troops to a U.S.-led coalition and to permit use of Romania’s air space and airports.

David Warren has an unsettling description of the current diplomatic situation. It’s not pretty.

As you can see to the upper left, I’ve added a new graphic to my page, which will remain there at least until the liberation of Iraq. This is a campaign being promoted by Dean Esmay.

If you want to show your support for the Iraqi people, instead of all the people marching this weekend showing their support for Saddam Hussein (in fact if not in intention), then pick up a copy of the graphic and put it on your own page. It is a link to a site that promotes freedom and democracy, specifically in Iraq, but it could become a generic site for all of the subjugated people of the world.

Dean has all the details.

Amidst all of the lunacy on parade in the streets around the planet this weekend, it’s important to remember that we are not going to war against Iraq, any more than we went to war against Afghanistan (in the sense that we wish to conquer it and kill and/or subjugate its people). In both cases, we are in fact liberating the people from a band of thugs who had brutally taken over their country, and hijacked it for their own odious purposes.

As we go in, some few innocents will die who might have otherwise lived, but in the long run (and long, in this case, probably means mere months, or even weeks), many more innocents will live, and avoid further torture and deprivation, who would have otherwise continued to suffer, because we finally removed the cause of their misery. There are no cost-free actions.

A couple weeks ago, I put together a game theory analysis of the potential costs and benefits to us of taking out Saddam, for various actions under various states of the world. I ignored the costs and benefits to the Iraqi people in that analysis. It might be useful to do a similar one for them. I would be shocked if the right answer isn’t to remove Saddam, as quickly as possible.

There’s a nice survey of what’s going on in government and private launch over at Technology Review (apparently finished up in the wake of the Columbia loss, because he puts it in the context of the story).

David Chandler interviewed me for this article a few weeks ago, and it turned out pretty well (though he only has a brief quote from me). There’s a lot of discussion of suborbital as a stepping stone orbit, and what XCOR and Pioneer, among others, are up to.

Space Adventure?s backing of Xcor and other rocket companies provides a synergy that might be crucial for realizing the decades-old visions of reusable rockets, says Bruce Lusignan, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and director of the Center for International Cooperation in Space, a worldwide consortium of universities. He says revenues from space-related tourism could be used to finance a new generation of tourist-oriented launch vehicles, and ?that might be the core to building the capability up. That might be the right way to go.? And that means the EZ-Rocket?that unimposing test vehicle at the vast Mojave Airport?just might end up being the first PC of a new space age.

People are starting to get it.

As Glenn says, read the whole thing.

[Via Future Pundit.]

Kevin McGehee has a bumper sticker.

A researcher at RAND says that if a planet-busting asteroid is discovered to be approaching us, we, the great unwashed, should be kept in the dark.

Apparently, Tariq Aziz, at a Vatican press conference today, refused to answer a question about missiles by the “Israeli media.” To his credit, a German reporter asked if there’d an answer if he asked it. Reportedly, several reporters walked out, but the Vatican let the conference continue.

Pious XII became known as “Hitler’s Pope.”

It will be a shame, and another blow to the Church, if John Paul becomes known as Saddam’s.

[Update at 3:40 PST]

Here’s the story as reported by ABC. Apparently I was mistaken–it wasn’t at the Vatican–it was at a press club in Rome following a meeting with the Pope. Given the Pope’s position, however, my broader point remains.

Apparently, Tariq Aziz, at a Vatican press conference today, refused to answer a question about missiles by the “Israeli media.” To his credit, a German reporter asked if there’d an answer if he asked it. Reportedly, several reporters walked out, but the Vatican let the conference continue.

Pious XII became known as “Hitler’s Pope.”

It will be a shame, and another blow to the Church, if John Paul becomes known as Saddam’s.

[Update at 3:40 PST]

Here’s the story as reported by ABC. Apparently I was mistaken–it wasn’t at the Vatican–it was at a press club in Rome following a meeting with the Pope. Given the Pope’s position, however, my broader point remains.