The newest red state

Despite recent tragedies and fears, the New Year was well-spent, and hopefully it was for you as well. May the new year bring us greater knowledge of ourselves, of our faith, and allow us to be of greater service to our families, communities, and our faith.

Suketu Mehta, author of the magnificent Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, has a moving Op-Ed in the NYT about the Mumbai tragedies. Anna at Sepia Mutiny does a close reading of the text. Both are worth your time. Mumbai

I have a better plan to be able to fight the war on terror by strengthening our military, strengthening our intelligence, by going after the financing more authoritatively, by doing what we need to do to rebuild the alliances, by reaching out to the Muslim world, which the president has almost not done, and beginning to isolate the radical Islamic Muslims, not have them isolate the United States of America. [In response to another question] And I believe that a fresh start, new credibility, a president who can understand what we have to do to reach out to the Muslim world to make it clear that this is not, you know — Osama bin Laden uses the invasion of Iraq in order to go out to people and say that America has declared war on Islam.