July 25: Winds of Change Daily Round-Up

• Are Israel's strikes against Hamas' leadership recently just the beginning of something much bigger, involving not just Gaza but Syria as well? Occam's Toothbrush raises the issue, and points to David Warren's latest piece on the subject.
  

• Not that he needs the traffic, but InstaPundit is an outstanding source for commentary and analysis regarding Israel's missile strike on the head of Hamas' military wing.
  
  
• Looks like Eric Raymond isn't the only guy who understands what's really important. Now its the Oxford University students at OxBlog, linking to a piece on the relationship between sportcasters and American males. Good job, and please pass those Texas BBQ ribs....
  

• Remember all those conspiracy theorists who told us the war in Afghanistan was all about an oil pipeline? Remember the feeling that this was supremely idiotic? Well, you were right. It was idiotic, and it still is. The American Propsect explains that the pipeline project through Afghanistan was shelved a long time ago, and offers some simple reasons why only a nutcase would propose it even now. Which doesn't stop large segments of the left. Draw your own conclusions.
  

• Chuck Watson has had it with the War on Terror. It's not a war, he says. Just a matter of local regime change plus analysis and the guts to act on it.
  

• Relax, says Greg Buete. We're winning the war.
  

• Remember the the June 14 bombings of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi? Well, Pakistani police and Interior Ministry officials say they have arrested Mohammed Ashraf, treasurer of a group whose leaders have confessed to roles in the June 14 car-bombing. They may also be linked to the car bombing that killed those French technicians working on Pakistan's sub-building project. Fred at Rantburg has the details, as usual.
  

• (10:00am) We've always said that suicide bombing would be copied if it was allowed to succeed. Here's proof. Colombia's FARC planned a suicide plane attack a la 9/11 on either the presidential palace or the parliament building. The attack was allegedly planned for 20 July, Colombia's Independence Day, or 7 August, inauguration day for President-elect Alvaro Uribe. The mission was aborted when FARC leader Jorge Enrique Carvajalino, the brains behind the planned attack, was captured on July 18th.
  

• More arrests of key members in the 17 November Greek terrorist group, responsible for numerous bombings and killings over 25 years including a CIA station chief. As always, Greek blogger Sphaera Ephemeris is THE source for 17N news. See esp. his article: "Why 17N is Not a Crime Story" - he think these guys go much deeper than a small terrorist cell. I must admit, he makes a plausible case.
  

• (10:30am) Palestinian apologists are huffing and puffing that Israel's missile strike on Hamas military chief Salah Shehada is a violation of "international law." In a July 24 posting, California lawyer PejmanPundit looks at the relevant treaty (4th Geneva Convention), and finds... that the Geneva Convention specifically permits what Israel did.