Bloggasm

Greg Burch is a genuine polymath. He got an undergraduate degree in Chinese language and area studies from the University of Washington in 1979. The highlight of his time at UW was being part of the first official study tour to China at the time the United States established diplomatic relations with the PRC. After that, he spent five years working in the ocean shipping business and, as he says at his website, “bumming around here and there on my motorcycle.” He then went to the University of Texas School of Law where he was near the top of his graduating class in 1987. Since then he’s worked for the law firm of Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP, where he’s been a partner for 13 years and is the head of the firm’s China practice and the Houston office construction law group. Of his law practice, he says “It used to be all about white men fighting over money — it’s not all white men any more, but it’s still all about money.”

Greg Burch was, with Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, one of the original authors of the Forsight Institute’s Guidelines for Responsible Development of Nanotechnology. He’s also an accomplished 3d computer graphics artist and space enthusiast. He’s combined these interests to become a noted developer of “addon” spacecraft for the freeware space flight simulator, “Orbiter“. You can see his work here.

Greg began his blog — “Burchismo” — in May of 2003. One of the primary themes of his blog has been the threat posed to the West by the resurgence of Islamic violence in recent decades. “On the morning of September 11, 2001, I immediately perceived that I had a huge hole in my knowledge of the world,” says Greg. “I had spent a considerable portion of my life studying a non-Western culture — China. Now I realized that I would need to begin a program of study of another one.” Since that day, he’s read dozens of books “and literally tens of thousands of pages of text on the web” on Islamic history, society and culture.

You can see all of these interests reflected at Burchismo.

Simon Owens: As someone who focuses a lot on the rising problems in Iran, is there any particular strategy that you’d support?

Greg Burch: Given the terrible squawking about “American unilateralism” to which we’ve been subjected for the last three years, I think that Bush and Rice are handling things as well as they can be for right now. Russian and especially Chinese opposition to meaningful action will take a long time to spotlight for what it really is — simple expression of economic and geopolitical self-interest on their part. I think getting to the point of the recent entente among the five security council nations has been a masterpiece of diplomacy (and I give almost complete credit to Condi for that). We have to give it time to mature. Assuming continuing Iranian intransigience (and we can’t assume that — I expect a long dance of “cheat and retreat”) to be a real possibility, the U.S. should ultimately act militarily, and probably unilaterally. If that day came, the best course would be a pure air campaign, but probably not a quick one, and it would be one with serious military and diplomatic costs.

Ultimately, though I think there’s a better chance of a long, drawn out game that could end with an ambiguous situation in which many believe Iran has developed nuclear weapons, and many don’t. This will be a terrible situation for the next U.S. president, but one that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Simon Owens: How long do you think this administration would hold out before issuing a deadline for Iran. And once they do so, what kind of action do you think they will take?

Greg Burch: As I say above, I think there’s a good chance that the Bush administration won’t have the diplomatic opportunity to be ABLE to issue a deadline for Iran. In that situation, Bush will bequeath a dangerously unstable situation to his successor. If, however, the opportunity presents itself, then a pure air campaign should be the program. First, a steady deliberate destruction of air defenses that could take some days, coupled with initial cruise missile strikes against key known nuclear sites. This would be followed by what could be a protracted campaign of some weeks in which targets are assessed and hit multiple times, and new targets are hit as they present themselves from the responsive activity observable with “national technical” means (i.e. satellites and UAVs).

Under no circumstances would I think that a ground campaign could be a good move. Iran’s too big, the nationalist sentiment is too prickly and the potential for a terrible guerilla war is too great.

But, ultimately, I think those who desire a clear-cut point after which military action is the only clear alternative stand a very good chance of being disappointed. If it comes, it will definitely be after the mid-term elections. From a purely domestic point of view, GWB might consider the right time to do it to be not long after this November. This would give him the longest period in which to try to make it work before his administration is finished. In that regard, he might view the firestorm of protest to which he would be subjected to be a kind of heroic-tragic opportunity for him to be a political “sin eater” — he would take the burden on himself so his successor wouldn’t have to bear it.

Simon Owens: How has your interaction with other political blogs been? Do you feel that there seems to be a real political discussion going on between blogs?

Greg Burch: On a couple of issues, I’ve had real interaction. I had some real back-and-forth with Reason Online’s Ronald Bailey over tort reform a couple of years ago. I’ve had a few exchanges with other blogs on things like energy policy and the like. But I personally haven’t had as much of that kind of exchange as I’d like. Part of that is my own fault — in the beginning, I promoted my blog fairly agressively through personal notes to Glenn Reynolds, who I happened to have known from those ancient days before Instapundit because of work we did together at the Foresight Institute. (Who knew then that he was bound for such greatness?) But over the last year or so, I’ve been more of a “passive blogger,” writing almost only for my own benefit, it seems. This question may prompt me to be a little more outgoing in the blogosphere. Unless you’re in the “first tier” of blogs, you DO have to be proactive in promoting your blog, whether it’s just to generate pure traffic or to engender the kind of dialogue that makes the blogosphere so worthwhile.

Simon Owens: In terms of the recent Senate debates over the Gay-marriage ban, do you think this will be as successful at rousing up the conservative base?

Greg Burch: As a fairly libertarian person, I sincerely hope not. I don’t consider myself a “conservative” at all, not least of which because I believe that the program of the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment is unfinished. Until it is, I can’t call myself a conservative. In the meantime, I value individual liberty too much to support a ban on gay marriage.

Simon Owens: Do you think it wise for Republicans in Congress to war so much with the administration? How will this affect the elections?

Greg Burch: Frankly, I’m concerned that the Republicans in Congress have been too passive relative to the administration. The result has been a kind of “devil’s bargain” in which the administration has tolerated terrible bloat in the federal budget in return for passive support from Congress. Had Congress been a more active and positive participant in shaping policy, the Republicans might not now be facing the threat they have in the upcoming elections.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own blog?

Greg Burch: Without a doubt, I visit Little Green Footballs more than any other blog and find that Charles Johnson — who I don’t know, but with whom I seem to share both a social and political worldview and a fondness for the aphorisms and music of the late, great Frank Zappa — does an amazingly good job of keeping his blog focused and fresh. After that, I think you can find the best in-depth commentary and insight at The Belmont Club. I depend on Defense Tech for a very good round-up of current events and developments with regard to both military technology and policy. Although it’s not a blog, I usually look to Salon as my source for current thinking and upcoming talking points on the Left. Oh yeah, and then there’s that law professor’s little blog — Instapundit.