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Saturday, April 12, 2003
Ban human Screwdrivers ... Don't bother trying any "fisking" in the future; it's been done. The heights have been scaled, the pinnacle achieved. Go here for the best...(via Athena) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Kuwaiti? Syrian? Apparently the people of Iraq are bewildered by the ethnic diversity of coalition soldiers..But Corpsman Benedict Bito, 19, of Alameda, Calif., may have gotten the strangest question while at his post in Numaniyah.(via Jim Miller) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Pretty, no. Thorough, yes... LOCAL MILITIA FIGHT "MUJAHIDEEN" _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I have nothing to add ... the thing speaks for itself I was struck by these two items, which were next to each other at Command PostStephanie Schaudel, co-coordinator for Voices in the Wilderness, an anti-war group in Chicago, said the "richness of culture" in Iraq is going to be subjected to Americanization by U.S. corporations during the post-war rebuilding of the war-torn nation. The result, she indicated, would be difficult for Iraqis to swallow.And this... Update - Basra underground prison: Fox reporting that British Forces on scene have no indications of people alive. Local residents insisting that relatives are imprisoned inside are digging with their bare hands to try and gain access, and the British have assisted. (here) Friday, April 11, 2003
Raisins embedded in a cake... Reader Ethan Hahn writes:I've been thinking lately that perhaps one of the most important unintended consequence of this war may be the fact that there is an entire generation of reporters, 600 of the best and brightest, who have been a) feeling first hand the concerns of common soldiers, b) learning how the military works, c) gaining the experience that will push them up through the ranks to become the people who run the media in the next decades, and d) gaining personal contacts with the men and women who will be running the military in the next decades. It seems to me that this could be remarkably impactful in ways we won't appreciate for decades..Now that's interesting. I think you are right. It will certainly be good to have a few reporters around who don't think of the military as an alien species living in swamps down south... And lets speculate a little further. Reporters are almost all "New Class" urban sophisticates, Liberals; and, to put it baldly, fairly anti-American. Voted for Gore or Nader. Now they are plunged into one of the great liberations of our time, under the leadership of Conservative Republicans and the US Military. Iraqis are handing them flowers, telling tales of torture, chanting "Long live Bush..." Syrians and Palestinians are trying to kill them. GI's are sharing their cookies with them and trying to keep them alive...They are being immersed in the horrors of a regime that their preferred lefty leaders tried to keep in power. SO, are their prejudices going to start to crack? Are their minds going to be opened just a teensy bit? Will we see something different from Vietnam/Watergate malaise? I'm all agog to find out. Whoever came up with the idea of embeds was a genius. Was it Rumsfeld? My only regret is that we didn't do more of it. I wish, when we entered Baghdad, we had headed straight for any prisons and busted them open, with lots of reporters along to take pictures. Especially that children's prison. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Also from The Corner: The House voted 414-0 last night on a resolution "Stating the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro regime; calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners and supporting free elections for Cuba." The vote was 414-0. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Posted at The Corner Notes from a call home by a soldier (from a phone still working in the looted UN Office in Baghdad!)--The Iraqi citizens love them and treat them like kings. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ It's about time the military clamped down on the chaos in Baghdad. We haven't seen looting and vandalism like this since the last few days of the Clintons in the White House.
Posted
2:07 PM
George Will says .. ... Americans who are apt to argue that U.S. foreign policy needs constant infusions of legitimacy from the approbation of European governments are also apt to deplore, in the domestic culture wars, Eurocentrism in academic curricula. Such Americans resist the cultural products of Europe's centuries of vitality, but defer to the politics of Europe in its decadence. Why? Perhaps because yesterday's European culture helped make America what it is, and today's European politics expresses resentment and distrust of what America is. Both sensibilities arise from the distaste of some Americans for America... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Speaking of Nancy ... Don't miss Bill Quick's post Dueling Lunatics, featuring a conversation between Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information, and Nancy Pelosi... a little gem._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Truth is the first casualty of ... Charlene says that the reason the media dislike Bush and the invasion of Iraq is because he has emphasized the moral aspect. It affects them like a cross brandished at a Hollywood vampire.Now we are hearing how CNN suppressed horrifying stories because their Iraqi employees would have been endangered, and CNN's position in Iraq endangered. I'm not buying it. None of the big media have been eager to tell the truth about Iraq (and many have actively distorted it, with things like reporting Iraqi elections or parliament votes as if they were real). The story has always been available. There are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi exiles available to be asked, but one rarely heard about them. When stories were written about the Arab Street, they were never included. The reason the press didn't want to dig up the facts is the same reason they quickly stopped playing the clips of the World Trade Center collapsing. They didn't want to arouse ordinary Americans to say: This is EVIL. It's got to be stopped! They didn't want to arouse someone like George W Bush to say: This is EVIL. We have to act! Better a million Iraqis die, than have a pitiless moral spotlight shining on the amoral urban sophisticates of CNN and the major media. "What did you do in the war, daddy?" "I was a reporter. It was my job to be un-biased, and to report as if both sides were the same." Best of the Web made a good point: ..One cheer for Jordan for coming clean about his network's collaboration with a brutal fascist regime. And a question: What are CNN and other news organizations failing to tell us about other thuggish regimes, from communist Cuba to the Palestinian Authority? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Too good to be true? A story from The Corner"I was out looking at some soldiers and one of them was sharing some cookies he had just received in the mail. A photographer walked over to him and asked in a heavy French accent for a cookie. The soldier glanced up and told him no cookies for anyone from France. The photographer claimed he was half Italian. Without missing a beat the soldier broke a cookie in half and handed it over."(Via Donald Sensing) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Thursday, April 10, 2003
With Democrats like this, who needs ... Seen on Drudge Report:DEM HOUSE LEADER PELOSI TOLD REPORTERS THURSDAY: 'I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO REGRET ABOUT MY VOTE [AGAINST] THIS WAR. THE SAME QUESTIONS REMAIN. THE COST IN HUMAN LIVES, THE COST TO OUR BUDGET, PROBABLY 100 BILLION. WE COULD HAVE PROBABLY BROUGHT DOWN THAT STATUE FOR A LOT LESS'...Right. Just exactly how would you bring down Saddam? Was Hans Blix going to do it for us? The UN? Sanctions? Diplomacy? And how long would your plan take? Did you hear about that Children's Prison? Perhaps we should re-name it Nancy's Kid-Town, since you seem happy to keep it in operation. And the $100 Billion. I don't suppose you bothered to cloud the issue by subtracting the costs of containment (estimated at $19 Billion per year). Or the increased strength of our economy (leading to greater tax revenues) that lower oil prices will bring? Nor mention that the 100B number was just pulled out of a hat in the first place. The 100B figure is baloney, but let's imagine it is true. We've just liberated 25 Million people from one of the cruelest and most murderous tyrannies of our time. That's $4,000 a head. Hmmm. No, you're right. They are not worth it. They're not people, just brown-skinned riff-raff who don't vote for any Democrats. Let 'em die, getting control of Congress is much more important. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ My question now is ... ...when the oh-so-much-wiser-then-the-rest-of-us talk about the Arab Street, will the people of Iraq still be considered members of that influential club? Or does kissing American soldiers disqualify you?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ good point ... ...made by Orrin Judd...Something important happened today, but you may have missed it. You may have missed it because it's actually something that didn't happen. As he did after the election in November, George W. Bush stood back from the cameras and allowed others to be the story. Imagine, if you can, that Bill Clinton were president today--what would he have done? Of course, he'd have tried to make himself the story. George Bush, instead, let the Iraqis themselves have the day, with a proper nod to Rumsfeld & Meyers. There is a rare grace to this man. .. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Logic is logic, That's all I say. A friend writes:I was at a dinner last night after a seminar by a visiting professor (who shall be nameless) and he commented that he had been traveling a lot lately and he had yet to meet an intelligent person who did not despise George W. Bush. The circumstances were such that I had to hold (and bite) my tongue. Interestingly to me is that everyone else at the table considered the comment to be totally unremarkable.The visiting prof is just being exact. He doubtless defines "intelligent people" as "the set of all people who, like me, despise George W. Bush." The logic couldn't possibly be more clear and compelling.... Some of us criticize the Left for flinging accusations carelessly, but that is wrong. All is done carefully according to strict rules. For instance, the accusation that Bush is a moron follows from the rigorous application of this rule: Moron. Only use if two or more of the following criteria are met: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ It's really an old American tradition ... In his last column Paul Krugman said:"In 1944… the opposition didn't pull its punches: Thomas Dewey, the Republican candidate, campaigned on the theme that Franklin Roosevelt was a "tired old man." As far as I've been able to ascertain, the Roosevelt administration didn't accuse Dewey of hurting morale by questioning the president's competence. After all, democracy — including the right to criticize — was what we were fighting for. …Yet self-styled patriots are trying to impose constraints on political speech never contemplated during World War II, accusing anyone who criticizes the president of undermining the war effort."Donald Luskin (He of the other Krugman Truth Squad) knows better... Just a few minutes Googling turned up the proof. I found that in the only address made by Roosevelt during the 1944 presidential campaign against Dewey, FDR responded to one of the Republicans' criticisms by saying. "I doubt whether even Goebbels would have tried that one." And in response to Republican second-guessing of the way the war was being administered, he said "…it was hardly calculated to bolster the morale of our soldiers and sailors and airmen who are fighting our battles all over the world."I would add that the Republican Part kept up the practice of calling the Democrats traitors long after the Civil War. It was called "waving the bloody shirt," and it was effective for a long time. It certainly backfired in the very ugly campaign of 1884. ...On October 29, two things happened to upset Blaine's plans. That morning, he made an appearance in New York City at a meeting of several hundred pro-Blaine Protestant clergymen. Reverend Samuel D. Burchard delivered a warm welcoming address which ended with the words: "We are Republicans, and don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." Blaine somehow missed the bigoted phrase, and did nothing to deny or repudiate it when he got up to speak. A reporter assigned by the Democrats to cover the meeting eagerly reported the mistake to the Democratic headquarters. When asked if Blaine "met this remark?" the reporter replied that Blaine had made no reference to it. The Democrats then spread the quote all over New York City and elsewhere. By the time Blaine finally got around to disavowing the remarks, it was too late. He lost thousands of votes among the Irish-American voters in the city... [contributing strongly to his losing NY, and Cleveland winning the election] Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Victory over the Ba'athists Anthony has declared this VB Day! I like it -- sounds nice.(His permalinks are currently kaput -- look for 9/4/03) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Is this gun smoking? It's certainly "hot" Al-Tuwaitha is the headquarters of the Iraqi nuclear program. It's enormous, with over 100 buildings. (No doubt they were worried about running short of energy).US Marines have now apparently discovered another city underneath it! A vast complex of bomb-proof underground labs and warehouses. Did the inspectors ever see this? Our experts say they haven't heard of it. Also, if they did inspect it they would have been fried-- some of the underground areas are extremely radioactive. Read about it here. (Via Betsy Newmark ) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ International Law--the biggest cargo-cult of all ... This from the Telegraph:UN gives warning to US and Britain (Filed: 08/04/2003)Somebody oughta pull the plug on this whole International Law hoax. It's a Cargo Cult. Tranzi witch-doctors cobble together law courts from palm fronds, make robes from banana leaves, and solemnly enact rituals just like the real courts that white people have. Surely they think, "Law" will emerge, take form, become real, and confer great benefits on the islanders... summoning the riches that the Americans so mysteriously have. My son mentioned this line, seen in a forum: How can they call it International Law, when only the English and Hebrew speaking countries are expected to obey it? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The lidless gaze of Peter Jennings... Austin Bay writing at StrategyPage (via InstaPundit)...With a peaceful and more just 21st century the grand strategic goals, US and allied forces liberating Iraq must –more or less simultaneously-- end combat operations, cork public passions, disarm Iraqi battalions, bury the dead, explain the inexplicable to orphans, generate electricity, pump potable water, bring law from embittering lawlessness, empty jails of political prisoners, pack jails with criminals, turn armed partisans into peaceful citizens, re-arm local cops who were once enemy infantry, shoot terrorists, scotch terrifying rumors, thwart chiselers, carpetbaggers and blackmarketeers, fix sewers, feed refugees, patch potholes, get trash trucks rolling, and accomplish this under the lidless gaze of Peter Jennings and al-Jazeera. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ East Dearborn Paul Fallon, writing at Dean's World:...I tore myself away from the TV early in the afternoon to run some errands. When I heard NPR reporting spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of east Dearborn (the predominantly Middle Eastern suburb of Detroit) only fifteen minutes from my house in good traffic, I raced there._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Let freedom ring ... Andrew Sullivan says it well:...It's a victory over those who marched in the millions to stop this liberation, over the endless media cynics, over the hate-America crowd, and the armchair generals. It's a victory for the two countries in the world that have always made freedom possible and who have now brought it to another corner of the world made dark by terror. It's a victory for the extraordinary servicemen and women who performed this task with such skill, cool, courage and restraint. It's a victory for optimism over pessimism, the righting of past wrongs, the assertion of universal truths against postmodern excuses, and of political leadership over appeasement. Celebrate it. Don't let the whiners take this away from you or from the people of Iraq....optimism over pessimism _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The disturbed cousin Sylvain Galineau writing at chicagoboyz about French "intellectual" discourse:...Incidentally, this is exactly how most TV debates among self-appointed French intellectuals go. Some intractable American social problem is being debated ad nauseam without any agreement being reached until someone points out that "America is historically Protestant". Everybody nods gravely at the depth of the insight thus revealed. It doesn't even have to mean anything and half of them can't even explain why it has anything to do with the original question, or even who Protestants are. Don't ask... Tuesday, April 08, 2003
work of the Civil Affairs soldiers...  Children return to school in a village near the city of Najaf in central Iraq on April 4, 2003, for the first time since the war started. Soldiers from the 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion helped cleanup the school that was damaged by artillery fire. The soldiers also took money out of their own pockets to pay the teacher several months salary in advance. There are more pictures here. (There are girls in the class, though all the boys seem to have pushed to the front ... boys are like that.)
Posted
11:22 AM
Monday, April 07, 2003
Now that's a friend... Dean Esmay has been blogging for one year...After tiring of this nonsense, one day my funk-soul brother Jerry Kindall sent me an email and said, "Dude, you need a blog." And I said, "what's a blog?" He didn't really answer. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ But, but, but, but what about the quagamire? Financial Times: ...According to military sources here, advance elements of the US 4th Infantry Division are being rushed into central Iraq from Kuwait, ready to spearhead the attack on Tikrit. It is hoped that the assault on the 'spiritual heartland' of the regime will deal yet another psychological hammer blow to Iraqi resistance...More bad news for Nancy, Tom, Jaques, Vlad and the other Friends of Chemical Ali. V Corps doesn't need any reinforcements in the south. Actually we are probably just hoping we get a chance to try out all the cool gadgets that 4ID is equipped with, before resistance evanesces. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ More imperialist Western bullying ... BBC News, By Sarah Oliver, In southern IraqThis sort of thing is sure to anger the Arab street, and stir up myriads of new terrorists...we should have stayed home (because the most important thing is to be safe...) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Watch for it ... Charlene was just driving and heard Rush Limbaugh say that the next lefty line will be that Saddam was the more restrained of the combatants..._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ How dare they not wait for 4ID? I've been watching video clips of the Brits rolling into Basra, and 3ID raiding deep into Baghdad. Splendid stuff. I keep thinking of all the people who savored the thought of our plans going wrong because we didn't send enough soldiers. Ha! The poor guys in 4th Division are probably gnashing their teeth and saying, "Wait for us! Leave some fun for us."What a day! The sun is shining, Coalition soldiers are taking baths in Saddam's gold-plated bathtubs, Ba'athists are being lynched in Basra, and Ramsey Clark has a full-page ad in the SF Comical, our local "newspaper," calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush! Lovely, lovely, just lovely... Sunday, April 06, 2003
What mad pursuit... There's an interesting WaPo article on how divided and confused the Democrats are. This is the last paragaph:...Democrats believe that after the war they will unite around criticism of Bush's diplomatic missteps and the administration's plans for the reconstruction of Iraq. Democrats, they argue, will have no trouble sketching out an appealing Democratic alternative. But the struggle to enunciate a policy on the war may foreshadow a continuing struggle between the party's centrist and liberal wings long after the shooting stops in Iraq.What delightful lunacy! They are going to criticize Bush's supposed diplomatic missteps after we've won the war! What could be more compelling. Bush & Co will be finding mass graves, torture chambers, nerve gas, calutrons, terrorist links, and damning evidence of French and Russian perfidy. Meanwhile the Dems are going to argue that Saddam was starting to destroy his al-Samoud missles, so the war was really unnecessary! And that we've needlessly alienated our "allies," such as the French. Big electoral victories are sure to result...in Berkeley and Ann Arbor. And then, then they will produce an appealing Democratic alternative for the reconstruction of Iraq! A plan. How rich! Produced by a committee of course. No cowboys they. With all factions represented. The academy, public employee unions, anti-war groups, Hollywood. What a powerhouse of intellect. These are superior people, they've told us so many times. Get ready to fall off your chairs. Of course it is not suggested in the article that Democrats will actually do anything in Iraq. Just "sketch an alternative." No Democrats will be flying to Iraq to roll up their sleeves and help out any way they can. Yeech, too messy. Too common. And I love that phrase "unite around criticism." It's not even imagined that they might ever unite around anything positive or constructive, not even this imaginary plan to reconstruct Iraq. "All for one, one for all--united in criticism of Bush 'till 2008" What a concept. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ We've had some good news ... I mentioned in February a friend of our son's who was in the hospital after being attacked. I'm glad to report that it is looking like he will make a full recovery._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ NeoCon Conspiracy covers up ugly side of war... This war isn't just cheering crowds and cakewalks--Our friend Peter Pribik linked to this picture, which you won't see on FOXNews..._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Posted
12:37 PM
From an interview with U.S Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz ...SNOW: What makes you confident that democracy can take hold in a nation that has been more or less under the thrall of Ba'athist dictatorships for more than 40 years and does not have the kind of history that other nations have? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ What is "diversity" really like? A friend wrote:"I wanted to make sure you saw this. It was an op-ed piece in the NYT of all places. I am still looking for the study he did, no success so far..."Is Diversity Overrated? By STANLEY ROTHMAN, ORTHAMPTON, Mass.My friend, (who is an academic), wrote: "I asked some people here about his basic point; that even those who publically push diversity programs in universities admit that they come at the expense of overall academic performance. They all said yes, he's right. They also said that the main exceptions are those whose careers are specifically tied to diversity programs, i.e., the dean of "student life" and various minions in her department. But these powerful people. They have mastered only one skill in life––playing the race card. But they do it very, very well." _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I hope we see lots more stories like this ... Bulgarian corporate incomes from post-war Iraq reconstruction are expected to amount from UDS 900 M to UDS 1 B, Economy Deputy Minister Milen Keremidchiev announced quoting the preliminary estimates of the Economy Ministry. |
