February 2003 Archives

PejmanPundit has a lot on the Miguel Estrada nomination. Read pieces before this one, too. He had a lot to say.

Check out this group: Women for a Free Iraq. Via Israpundit.

We are a diverse group of women from Iraq who have come together to speak up about the suffering of our people under Saddam Hussein's brutal rule, and their yearning to be liberated. We represent a broad cross-section of Iraq's diverse ethnic groups - Sh'ias, Sunnis, Kurds and Assyro-Chaldean Christians. As the international community debates war on Iraq, we want to make sure the voices of Iraqis are heard. We share with you here our personal stories about the persecution of our families and communities by Saddam's regime, and our hopes for a free and pluralistic Iraq in which we can bring up our children without fear.

Sorry, I've been mucking about with the colors and layout quite a bit. With no artistic sense and little ability to make up my mind I keep changing things around. Hope you don't get dizzy! (And feel free to offer advice or preferences.)

Or at least of recognizing it. This is a nice piece speaking against the new moral relativism.


Via Instapundit


TCS: Defense - Speak No Evil

Ever since President Bush spoke of the Al Qaeda hijackers as "evil doers," a chorus of academic authorities have derided the President for his choice of words, some claiming that it was simplistic, some claiming that it was Manichean, some claiming that it was incitement to a fundamental Christian crusade—but all agreeing that the word "evil" should be struck from the President's vocabulary.


What no one seems to notice, however, is that it is not merely the President's use of the word evil that is coming under attack—it is our own, yours and mine.[...]

OxBlog has a good run-down on the Yale/Baraka episode which I pointed to in a couple of previous items.

Dancing with Dogs has a link to this site with photos of the Palestinian attack and burning of this Jewish holy site. The site itself is of disputed importance and questionable historical provenance, but that is beside the point. Many held the place holy and there was a religious school on the spot. Imagine the outcry were Jews to do this to a Muslim holy place?


The Jewish Virtual Library's "Myths and Facts" has a good summary of the incident, and reminds us of how much faith we can put in Palestinian promises.

Via InstaPundit

USS Clueless has a nice Fisking of an email he received from a UK reader.

ISRAPUNDIT: News & Views on Israel - In Memoriam - Cleo Noel and George Curtis Moore - An Interview with Former NSA Analyst, James J Welsh


In 1973, Black September terrorists took hostage and later killed two US diplomats. James Welsh was at that time an NSA analyst who heard the intercepts with Yasser Arafat giving the orders. Israpundit has an interesting interview with Mr. Welsh in which he describes what was heard and the later US Government cover-up.

Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online - The Present Farce - Should we laugh or cry as we watch history come full circle?


Hanson writes one of the best articles yet on the current way history is repeating itself. Read.

Louis Bonaparte was no Napoleon. And when the pathetic nephew came to power in France aping his tyrannical uncle, Karl Marx in 1851 dismissed the silly charade with the famous line, "History always repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, and the second as farce." Marx was stealing from Hegel and Engels, as he often did; but the truth of that dictum has never been more evident than in the recent sad spectacle surrounding the pygmy tyrant Saddam Hussein and the echoes of 1930s Western appeasement.


Saddam — in capability but not intent — is no Hitler. Even though he still tries to talk grandly about British and American decadence, blusters about liquidating the Jews, and counts on the indifference of France, his Republican Guard is hardly a Waffen SS and his scuds no more advanced than Nazi V-2s 60 years ago. Gassing the Jews while Europe watches is with us again: but while Germans once built nightmarish factories of death like Auschwitz, Saddam counts on a few missiles armed with Sarin gas to do the same to those huddling in plastic-lined rooms with their babies in gas masks.


Once more a weak French prime minister — Mr. Chirac sounds eerily like Edouard Daladier — scurries about, worried about everything but rising anti-Semitism in his own country, his hospitality for the thug Mr. Mugabe, and the shady deals of French companies. The German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's sordid past reads like brownshirt-Lite, or at least something out of the creepy cabarets and the street brawls of Old Berlin. His boss Gerhard Schroeder screams to mass rallies about a "German Way" — as if millions troubled over a stagnant economy can again sway from far left to right or back in the blink of an eye. The slur "cowboy" (a favorite word of Hitler's) has now returned to the German political lexicon, as we all again struggle to fathom whether the massive demonstrations of the unhappy in the New Berlin are nationalist or socialist in nature — or both.[...]

MEMRI: Latest News: Iranian Intellectuals Against Khamenei - Dr. Qassem Sa'adi: 'Your Regime Is Illegitimate, Your Foreign and Domestic Policies Are Failing and Despotic'


More disident voices within Iran now. A couple of quotes:

[...]Khamenei Rules Out Dealings With the U.S. While the Iranian People Want Engagement


Sa'adi claimed that by preventing dialogue with the U.S. and not renewing contact with it, even though U.S. leaders had admitted that in the past the U.S. made mistakes regarding Iran, Khamenei is harming Iran's national interests. He also accused Khamenei of hypocrisy, as Khamenei ignores America but seeks to improve relations with Britain:


"Many members of the regime advised you, particularly on matters connected to international and U.S. affairs. For example, in a letter given to you in my presence by [Majlis member] Dr. Rajaii-Horasani… [Rajaii-Horasani] stated that [now] you could set the conditions for talks and for renewing relations with the U.S… [while] if you fail to exploit this opportunity, the U.S. will set the conditions (later)."


Sa'adi said most Iranians want to improve Iran-U.S. relations: "[According to public opinion polls by Iranian public institutions], 75% of the Iranian people are opposed to Khamenei's policy [towards] the U.S. and support talks with it. In your opinion, three-quarters of the Iranian people are either politically illiterate or have no honor. [While] the people of the world praise the Iranians' political insight and national honor, you, who seized the administration of this nation, consider them devoid of political [understanding] and/or devoid of honor. How can you consider three quarters of the nation to be devoid of honor or politically [ignorant], yet at the same time continue to lead [such a] people?"[...]


Iran Errs in Espousing the Palestinian Cause


The linking of Iran's interests to the Palestinian cause was criticized by Sa'adi who deemed Iran's position as hypocritical in light of the fact that it does not support other Muslims, such as those in Chechnya or India.


"Must this [Palestinian cause] be linked so closely to our nation's fate? Is there a difference between Muslims in Chechnya or India and the Muslims of Palestine? Doesn't Russia's Red Army repress the Chechen Muslims? Why do [Iran's] ideological interests not demand that we support them [as well]?"[...]

Boston Globe Online / Editorials | Opinions / Romney's UMass pyro show


Newly elected Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney gave his State of the State speech yesterday. He, like many other Governors across the US, faces a serious fiscal crisis in the form of a huge budget shortfall. In spite of the odds, he boldly stepped forward and announced he had not found one, but two billion dollars in budget savings. It'll be interesting to see him try to implement it.


In response, liberal Globe columnist Joan Vennochi's column starts with a doozy. I know you don't like the man Joanie, but do try to show a little class along with all that shrill invective.

Changing the status quo is welcome. Blowing it up for the sake of blowing it up is dangerous, cynical entertainment - not unlike setting off pyrotechnics in a low-ceilinged nightclub.[...]

Via LGF


Forbes.com: Kings, Queens & Despots


At an estimated net worth of $300 Million, Yasser Arafat makes the Forbes list of richest Kings, Queens and Despots. I guess impoverishing your people and training the kiddies for murder pays well these days.

Photo via Blogs of War

MEMRI: Latest News - Holiday Greetings from Yasser Arafat to Saddam Hussein

[...]"Your Excellency, Brother-President Saddam Hussein, greetings and the blessings of Allah to you."


"As our glorious nation celebrates 'Id Al-Adha, the holiday of sacrifice and redemption, it is our pleasure to send to you, and through you to your revered government and your people – our brethren - in the name of the Palestinian people and leadership, and from me personally, our warmest regards, our heartfelt and sincere congratulations, and our deepest prayers to Allah the Glorious, may He lead our steps onto the road of virtue, success, and progress to our peoples, and strengthen our brotherly ties, cooperation and solidarity in a way that will serve our interests, our rights, our nations, and the future of our generations and repel all dangers that loom presently over us in our region."

[...]


"Any kind of support and assistance from you in these difficult times will enable us to continue our persistence and resistance until we put an end to the occupation, in all its manifestations, of our holy Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the Islamic and Christian holy shrines, and exercise our legal and lasting rights, based on international legal resolutions, and most importantly our rights for self determination, for repatriation, and for establishing our independent state with its capital Al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem]."


"Once again we send you our heartiest brotherly wishes, and to your Excellency we wish the best of health and happiness, and may Allah the Powerful protect Iraq from the great dangers and evils that loom over it ... and together, hand in hand [we will march] to Al-Quds Al-Sharif with the help of Allah."


"[Signed] Yasser Arafat, President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the PLO, Ramallah. February 5, 2003."

That's a quote from Hollywood pabulum puker Janeane Garofalo who you may have noticed has been "finding herself" lately. All this and much, much more at the new web-site, Hollywoodhalfwits.com.


Hollywood Idiots -- Exposing Celebrity Idiots and Anti-Americans

The Chronicle Online - Column: Self-determination? Via LGF:

History demonstrates that self-determination doesn't require mass murder. Desire to destroy others by one's own destruction is fueled by craven clerics selling murder for sex by peddling depraved fantasies of 72 celestial virgins for "martyrdom." Modern suicide bombing is bereft of honor: even kamikazes attacked targets that could shoot back, unlike today's suicide-bombers who hurl themselves at buses, towers, discos and restaurants.


Squeaky wheels don't deserve grease, especially when suffering that seduces is needless or self-inflicted. Why are groups employing suicide bombing deserving of sympathy or intervention? Why are Palestinians more worthy than Kurds, Iraqi Shi'ites, Tibetans or southern Sudanese? Won't the political success of suicide-bombing inspire others?


The inhuman brutality of Muslim to fellow Muslim--800,000 Pakistanis killed by Pakistan in 8 months in 1971, 20,000 Syrians killed in a week by Syria in 1982, 1.5 million Afghans killed by the Taliban in 5 years, 200,000 Iraqis killed by Saddam in 1988, 5,000 Palestinians killed by Jordan in one month in 1970, 300,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed by Kuwait in 1991--dwarfs anything done by Israel where 3,000 Palestinians were killed in eight years of intifada or the U.S. Those blaming Israel and America forget this, revealing their indignation as hollow. [...]

Some interesting stuff here.


Jerusalem Post - Sharon answers Bush: Palestinian statehood is up to our cabinet

(in full) In a lengthy speech introducing his new cabinet to the Knesset, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed today that the coalition guidelines do not require ministers to support Palestinian statehood.


But such a proposal would be put to a vote if a peace agreement is ever reached, Sharon said.


He said Israel was ready for "painful compromise" to make peace but would not concede on essential security matters.


"A political process for a real peace has to be based on lessons learned," Sharon said. "The people of israel is a peace-loving people. To achieve peace there is a readiness to make painful compromise."


However the Palestinian statehood advocated by US President George W. Bush as part of a wider peace plan that also calls for Palestinian reform, is "a matter of controversy in the coalition," Sharon said.


Sharon pledged such a proposal would be brought to a cabinet vote if it emerged as part of a peace deal. His remark confirmed reports that he had lured the right-wing National Union into the coalition by backing off an earlier commitment to insist that ministers support agreeing to Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.


Sharon also promised to improve ties between Israeli Jews and Arabs.


"We will always live alongside each other. The conflict hurts us all, and I intend to open a new chapter of Israeli relations with its Arab citizens," he said.


Turning to other issues, Sharon said he would also strive to boost immigration to Israel, to continue settlement building "throughout the country" and to expand Jerusalem.


Sharon also promised to better distribute the nation's military burden, alluding to cancel draft deferments for religious men. He also drew the ire of Orthodox backbenchers for alluding to the difficulties faced by some Israelis on religious issues.


He further pledged to "better distribute" the burden of taxes.


Sharon expressed pride in his 23-member cabinet, but criticized the Labor Party for refusing to join. He accused Labor of refusing to "even hold serious negotiations" to form a national unity coalition.

Via IsraPundit


Jewsweek - Britain's anti-Israel crusaders

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Britain, and some Anglican priests are doing all they can to fan its fire. Todd Pitock, a U.S.-based journalist, and Paul Kirby, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Corporation, investigate.


The Arab-Israel conflict has swept through Britain like a desert wind, and the 280,000-member Jewish community is feeling the lash of its heat. Last July, a synagogue in Wales was ransacked while a professor at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology fired two Israeli academics from a university journal as part of a cultural boycott campaign that caught Israeli professors in the cross hairs. Somewhat ironically, one of the sacked academics, American-born Miriam Schlesinger, is a former chairperson of Amnesty International who makes regular "solidarity visits" to the Palestinian Authority.


The mainstream British media has run stories with conspiratorial themes, such as a recent feature in the Independent, a respected broadsheet, purporting to explain the mechanics of how Jewish money and political lobbying controls the American Congress and the media. Antisemitism here, according to the Board of Deputies of British Jews and a report from the Stephen Roth Institute of Tel Aviv University, is rising.[...]

Design Picked for WTC Site Tops World's Tallest Towers (washingtonpost.com)

(in full)NEW YORK, Feb. 26 -- A sloping, angular collection of buildings with a spire that will rise 1,776 feet and define the Lower Manhattan skyline has been chosen for the World Trade Center site.


The design, by Studio Daniel Libeskind, features five towers, cultural facilities and a pit that will serve as the framework for a memorial to the approximately 2,800 who died on this site Sept. 11, 2001. A separate architect will be chosen to design the memorial, known as the "Park of Heroes."


The Libeskind team has framed its design for the 16-acre site as an homage to the victims and to the year of U.S. independence. He has suggested that the pit will serve as a quiet and meditative place.


The Libeskind selection came after a political tug of war in which the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., led by a close supporter of President Bush, appeared poised to pick the competing proposal, two soaring latticework towers designed by the Think architectural team.


But Gov. George E. Pataki (R) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg favored the Libeskind design. They will formally announce the choice Thursday.


"Libeskind's plan is cheaper, and it has a memorial space that makes the victims' families happy," said a source close to those who favored the Libeskind design.


Libeskind's proposal will cost about $330 million. Many in Manhattan's downtown business community have opposed plans to immediately rebuild millions of square feet of office space, as this would add to the glut downtown. The World Financial Center, across from the World Trade Center site, has 2.5 million square feet of vacant space.


Many questions remain, not least who will pay for and build the towers. Developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease on the site, has dismissed each plan because it doesn't provide enough office space. But tonight a spokesman for Silverstein suggested the developer could work with him.


Libeskind, too, has indicated that he would tailor his vision to the practicalities of the city. His original plan called for a 70-foot-deep memorial pit; he changed that to a 30-foot-deep pit when it was noted that subways could not run below such a cut.


The finalists each featured buildings surpassing Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest. The World Trade Center stood at 1,350 feet.

Refuting The Top Ten Most Annoying Anti-War Cliches - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)


Right Wing News has a great piece concisely refuting the "top ten" anti-war slogans.

Via PejmanPundit


yaledailynews.com - Applauding falsehoods at a university


In the same issue as the below referenced article (concerning Baraka's appearance at Yale), a little more heartening, if not in the report, at least in the fact that someone there "gets it..."

I was present at the Amiri Baraka affair at the Afro-American Cultural Center on Monday and I must say that it was one of the most disturbing events in my entire life.


It was not Baraka's ranting which upset me most. Having read his work, I was thoroughly prepared for whatever was bound to come out of his mouth. It was the response he received from my fellow Yalies that shocked me. Following a reading of his notorious poem "Somebody Blew Up America," the puerile verses of which are now well known to the Yale community, Baraka launched into a paranoid tirade. As he cited "evidence" of Israeli complicity in the World Trade Center attacks, many Yale students vigorously nodded their heads in approval and erupted into cheering. At the end of the event, the crowd leapt to its feet to give the former poet laureate of New Jersey a rousing standing ovation.[...]

Via Instapundit:


Now, It's Business That Booms - With Bombs Mostly Silenced, Commerce and Confidence Are Growing in Kabul (washingtonpost.com)

[...]Although countries around the world have promised more than $4 billion in aid to rebuild Afghanistan, there are today very few visible signs of the planned roads and schools and infrastructure projects. There are, however, signs throughout the capital, and in many provinces, of fast and dramatic change as Afghans and some intrepid foreigners open shops, businesses and even factories, quickly put up buildings to house them, and buy enough cars to create daily traffic jams.


In a city that had a handful of shopworn eating places two years ago, a new Chinese or Italian or American hamburger restaurant opens almost weekly, as well as kebab shops by the score. Small hotels have sprung up, and a $40 million Hyatt is on the way. The food bazaars are bustling and there are downtown blocks filled almost entirely with bridal shops. Rebuilt homes are rising from the ruins, and every little storefront seems to be stuffed with bathtubs or fans or with men building and carving things to be sold.


President Hamid Karzai, who will meet President Bush in Washington on Thursday, points to this mini-boom as one of the most important accomplishments of his fledgling administration, a sign that people are voting with their money. "People wouldn't start businesses and rebuild their homes here unless they believed that peace and security were coming to Afghanistan," he said in a recent interview. "This is the most positive sign of all."[...]

Just got through watching the President's speech at the American Enterprise Institute. Just one quick impression, and the thing that jumped out at me about the speech was Bush's finally articulating directly one of the clear but unspoken goals of the action against Iraq - that it will make more likely an end to the Israel/Palestinian question. While many have been crying for "linkage" between Israel and Iraq, what they obviously wanted was for us to impose a solution on the Israelis and hope that that made the rest of the Arab world feel more spiffy towards us. Well, they're gonna get that, but in the opposite (and correct) order. First, let's get some stability (that means through democratic institutions) in the region, put some pressure, some serious pressure on the Arabs to curb terrorism, and then we'll talk about a Palestinian state and Israeli concessions.


Other than that, it was good to hear Bush continue to articulate the hard line. Without that, you can never expect our allies to rally with us.

Kesher Talk


Nice little collection of pointers to info about the various UN Resolutions regarding Israel.

Via LGF


yaledailynews.com - Not just another conspiracy theory: manipulating anger


Controversial conspiracy-mongering poet Amiri Baraka was recently invited to Yale, and according to the story at LGF, one Yale student/LGF reader says, he “argued point-blank in his subsequent speech that Israel knew about and was complicit in the attacks of September 11th, garnering him wild applause and numerous standing ovations.”


In some ways worse, though, is the linked op-ed in the Yale paper. All the usual is there - the media is slanted against the Palestinians due to the prevalence of Jews in controlling positions (would someone please tell these people that Jews are part of America, and if they have a certain viewpoint, than that's as legitimately "American" as any other?), an attack on the ADL and an accusation that they would never stand up for Muslims or Arab-Americans (they do) and the usual relativism-without-a-brain that seeks to put all "alternative views" (including conspiracy-theories) on the same level as mainstream thought.

Hey, I don't want to scare anybody, but I thought I'd pass this on. MEMRI: Latest News


MEMRI has this translation from an Islamist web site which seems to be stating that there will be a terrorist attack in around ten days. It's a bit vague, "...it is only a matter of a few days, a little more than ten or less until we hear the cry..."

[...]'It is Only a Matter of a Few Days, a Little More'


"You, our brethren, be firm and keep the path and hide in waiting and prostration [as in prayer] for it is only a matter of a few days, a little more than ten or less until we hear the cry announcing to us the good tidings of Allah's victory [coming] by the hands of our brethren, the Jihad fighters. This is a serious matter and not a joke."


'The Operations Have Already Been Set and the Lions Have Taken their Positions'


"The operations have already been set and the lions have taken their positions and everything is complete. They are only waiting for permission from the heroic commander."


"Whatever the enemy may do, he will never be able, Allah willing, to thwart anything. The brigades for the main missions are ready. They are supported by their brethren, members of the supporting brigades and the reserve brigades. The alternative plans are ready."


"Hence, whatever the enemy of Allah may do, he shall not be able to harm us, Allah willing."


'The Train of Death is on its Way'


"The train of death is on its way. Its riders are steadfast. Nothing will stop them or turn them back, Allah willing, from the goal: neither the bushes of the enemy nor his weeds, neither his reptiles [nor] his lizards will stop its progress."


"There is no force or advancement, except from Allah, the All-Powerful..."


"It is only a matter of a few days so be patient. We will come out and announce to you the news of the great victory."


"And so I repeat: supplications, supplications, supplications, supplications to Allah..."


"We implore Allah, to protect them [the Jihad fighters]... and to take away from them [the enemies'] hearing and sight."


'Oh Allah, This is America... Destroy it and Shake it and All who Walk in its Line'


"Oh Allah, this is America... destroy it and shake it and all who walk in its line and entrenches with it... There is no god but you, the exalted..."

FrontPage magazine.com - By Mark Steyn - The National Post


This one has a good perspective on the Glyn O'Malley "Paradise" controversy (among other stuff):

The other day, Barbara Amiel was writing about the transformation in the European view of the United States and Israel, and came up with an arresting metaphor:


"Laying out the world's changing attitudes to Israel and America so barely makes it sound like a conscious decision -- which is absurd. But changes in the spirit of the times are as difficult to explain as those immense flocks of birds you see sitting on some great African lake, hundreds of thousands of them at a time, till all of a sudden, successively, they fly up and turn in a specific direction. One can never analyze which bird started it and how it became this incredible rush. All you see is the result."


The world is always changing. In 1967, when the British Parliament decriminalized homosexuality in the teeth of some pretty vigorous opposition, no one would have predicted that a mere 30 years later the Conservative Party would be electing a leader in favour of gay marriage. If you're a British gay who's been longing to marry since 1967, that's an eternity. But it's a blink in the eye of a very old civilization's social evolution. Things change. You don't notice the iceberg melting, only that one day it seems a lot smaller than it was, and that the next it's not there at all.


So what will the "spirit of the times" look like in the Western world in 10 or 20 years' time? Here's a couple of early birds on the lake, plucked more or less at random from recent headlines:[...]

FrontPage magazine.com - By Rafael Medoff


So, think this guy will get the same treatment a non-Arab professing the same views would? Didn't think so...

While European Union officials praised Yasser Arafat's decision to appoint his first-ever prime minister, historians of the Holocaust winced at the news that a leading candidate for the job is the author of a book denying that the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews.


The candidate is Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen), Arafat's second in command, and his book, published in Arabic in 1983, translates as "The Other Side: The Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement." It was originally his doctoral dissertation, completed at Moscow Oriental College.


The book repeatedly attempts to cast doubt on the fact that the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews, according to a translation provided by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.


"Following the war," he writes, "word was spread that six million Jews were amongst the victims and that a war of extermination was aimed primarily at the Jews...The truth is that no one can either confirm or deny this figure. In other words, it is possible that the number of Jewish victims reached six million, but at the same time it is possible that the figure is much smaller -- below one million."


Abbas denies that the gas chambers were used to murder Jews, quoting a "scientific study" to that effect by French Holocaust-denier Robert Faurisson.[...]

The Second Resolution (washingtonpost.com)

[...]All this may sound like a legalistic debate over the wording of resolutions, but vital principles lie behind it. Resolution 1441, which the Bush administration painstakingly negotiated with the French and Russians, says what it does because past attempts to disarm an unwilling Iraq with U.N. inspections had failed. Saddam Hussein this time was to be offered a stark choice between immediate voluntary disarmament and "serious consequences," which all understood to mean war. This was a sound strategy, and it might have succeeded had the forceful message not been quickly undermined by the French and their allies. The most damaging contradiction in their position is this: They would insist that the United States act through multilateral institutions such as the Security Council; but they themselves will not support those institutions if the outcome is a sanctioned exercise of U.S. power. That's because their priority is not disarming rogue states, or strengthening world government, or even preventing war per se. It is, rather, to neutralize what the French call the American "hyperpower." When its security is threatened, there is no reason for the United States to accept such paralysis -- especially when it has the unambiguous terms of U.N. resolutions on its side.

You think Chomsky will pay much mind to this guy? East Timor was a Chomsky cause celebre for years while he could find ways to blame the USA for its problems.


Via War for Peace? It Worked in My Country


By JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA - East Timor's minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.

[...]Saddam Hussein has dragged his people into at least two wars. He has used chemical weapons on them. He has killed hundreds of thousands of people and tortured and oppressed countless others. So why, in all of these demonstrations, did I not see one single banner or hear one speech calling for the end of human rights abuses in Iraq, the removal of the dictator and freedom for the Iraqis and the Kurdish people? If we are going to demonstrate and exert pressure, shouldn't it be focused on the real villain, with the goal of getting him to surrender his weapons of mass destruction and resign from power? To neglect this reality, in favor of simplistic and irrational anti-Americanism, is obfuscating the true debate on war and peace.


I agree that the Bush administration must give more time to the weapons inspectors to fulfill their mandate. The United States is an unchallenged world power and will survive its enemies. It can afford to be a little more patient. Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, has proved himself to be a strong mediator and no friend of dictators. He and a group of world leaders should use this time to persuade Saddam Hussein to resign and go into exile. In turn, Saddam Hussein could be credited with preventing another war and sparing his people. But even this approach will not work without the continued threat of force.


Abandoning such a threat would be perilous. Yes, the antiwar movement would be able to claim its own victory in preventing a war. But it would have to accept that it also helped keep a ruthless dictator in power and explain itself to the tens of thousands of his victims.


History has shown that the use of force is often the necessary price of liberation. A respected Kosovar intellectual once told me how he felt when the world finally interceded in his country: "I am a pacifist. But I was happy, I felt liberated, when I saw NATO bombs falling."

OpinionJournal - You Can't 'Contain' Saddam - Cold War doctrine doesn't apply in the age of terror.


BY JOHN HOWARD - Prime Minister of Australia

Moscow was "contained" because of the possession of atomic/nuclear weapons by both the West and the Soviets. The doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction guaranteed the maintenance of the status quo delivered by containment, until the internal implosion of the old Soviet empire. The view, validly held, was that because both sides had weapons of mass destruction, the potential human cost of military action by the West and the Soviet Union at the time of Hungary in 1956, or Czechoslovakia in 1968, would have been infinitely greater than the human cost (bad though it was) in leaving dictatorial Soviet-backed regimes in power there.

Then, the potential cost of doing something was greater than the cost of doing nothing. Now, in the case of Iraq, the potential cost of doing nothing is clearly much greater than the cost of doing something.


If Iraq isn't effectively disarmed, not only could she use her chemical and biological weapons against her own people again and also other countries, but other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can join the weapons of mass destruction league. Proliferation of chemical, biological and, indeed, nuclear weapons will multiply the likelihood of terrorist groups laying hands on such arms. The consequences for mankind would be horrific.[...]


A peaceful outcome in the short term, which does not imperil our longer-term security and safety, appears remote at present. It could be made less remote if the world acted with greater unity. Iraq does respond to pressure. The inspectors are in Baghdad because of the American military buildup. Hans Blix and Kofi Annan have both said that. America's critics know it, too, but won't admit it. Rather, their illogical starting point is the presence in Iraq of weapons inspectors, only there because of U.S. pressure--the very pressure they have attacked![...]

To Iraq...and the IAEA of course.


Via Rantburg


Arab News: Egyptian Scientists Chased by US (in full)

The United States is asking Egypt to submit information about the scientists who, the US claim, were instrumental in building the Iraqi nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel in 1981, according to Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News.


Sources at the Egyptian Nuclear Committee said that most of these scientists independently contacted Iraqi universities for teaching positions, and not through the Egyptian government.


Most of the scientists graduated from Alexandria University’s nuclear engineering department. Dr. Yahya Al-Mashad, the brain behind the Iraqi nuclear reactor who was assassinated by the Israelis in 1980, was a teacher at Alexandria University.


Most of the scientists graduated between 1967 and 1970 and went to Iraq at the request of President Saddam Hussein, who knew some of them from his time when he was a political refugee in Egypt.


Forty graduates of Alexandria University went to Baghdad. On return, half of them found employment with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The US believes that the remainder are still in Egypt and has asked to compare the list of scientists submitted by Iraq with Egyptian university lists.


Fourteen of the 20 scientists in Egypt have died in suspicious circumstances, according to sources, who speculate that they, like Dr Al-Mashad, were assassinated by the Israelis.


It is known that there was an agreement between the Iraqi government and the Egyptian Nuclear Committee on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, but the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait put an end to cooperation.


Several Egyptian universities with nuclear engineering departments produce scores of graduates every year who cannot find employment in Egypt because the country only has one nuclear power station. The majority of these graduates look for work abroad, especially in the US and Canada, where an estimated 250 are currently employed. The 170 Egyptian nationals working for the IAEA form the largest group from any single nationality.

Ha'aretz - McCarthyism for Jews


An interesting look from a French Jew:

Prof. Daniel Dayan uses personal anecdote to buttress his theory about the exclusion of Jews in French society. They have, he says, been pushed outside the boundaries of the French "public." This sense of being ejected from the bosom of media consensus - which Dayan himself says he has experienced - may also be seen as a window on the hidden motives of the man, who does confess that he isn't objective and admits that he is "making a case."


"About two years ago, I was interviewed by the popular weekly Telerama," says Dayan. "The reporter approached me as an expert on the media - I had been interviewed as such on other occasions - and asked me general questions. I don't remember exactly how the subject arose, but during the interview I observed that if the public discourse in France on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is so slanted in Israel's favor, how can we explain France's use of the term intifada without mentioning the parallel Israeli term, which certainly exists, to describe the conflict? The reporter smiled in embarrassment and said: `Well, we won't be able to publish something like that.' I insisted. The reporter talked with her editor and finally they decided my quote would be published, but in the headline over the interview it said `Jewish expert.'"[...]

AFTER JOE LIEBERMAN completed his unsuccessful campaign for the vice-presidency, I pretty much concluded that anti-Semitism was no longer a major feature of American life. I went around making the case that the Anti-Defamation League should close up shop, since the evil they were organized to combat had shrunk to insignificance.


Now I get a steady stream of anti-Semitic screeds in my e-mail, my voicemail, and in my mailbox. It transpired that I couldn't have been more wrong. Anti-Semitism is alive and thriving. It's just that its epicenter is no longer on the Buchananite right, but on the peace-movement left.


"Hello. I'm a grandmother from Minnesota. I want to thank you for taking my call," a voicemail on my machine began recently. When you hear a message like that you sort of settle back and prepare for some civil sentiment. Then it continued. "I just wanted to know: Are you related to Paul Wolfowitz and Ari Fleischer? I can usually smell you people. . . ." At that point I deleted the thing.[...]

Not being Jewish, I never took the whole campaign to stamp out anti-Semitism that personally. But as an occasional Christian who spent the last few months in Kuwait, I was flabbergasted by the unanimity of everybody I met--from all over the Arab world and Europe--on the subject of Israel and the Jews. That was the only thing they all agreed on: The Jews are evil. They generally ascribed superhuman powers, coordination, and intelligence to the Jews who control the world in a very sophisticated conspiracy that knows no bounds.


I realized that anti-Semitism is a much bigger and more urgent problem than I previously thought. Otherwise intelligent, thoughtful people seemed to lose their senses when it came to the subject of Israel. The hatred for Jews is palpable, even among Christians and Europeans over there. The ease with which they equated the behavior of Israel and the Palestinians defies logic. It made me fear for the future of Western civilization because it demonstrated how easily people could let hatred overcome their appreciation of things like the rule of law and individual freedom.


--Alan Huth

Via Andrew Sullivan:


washingtonpost.com: U.S. Officials Say U.N. Future At Stake in Vote - Bush Message Is That a War Is Inevitable, Diplomats Say

As it launches an all-out lobbying campaign to gain United Nations approval, the Bush administration has begun to characterize the decision facing the Security Council not as whether there will be war against Iraq, but whether council members are willing to irrevocably destroy the world body's legitimacy by failing to follow the U.S. lead, senior U.S. and diplomatic sources said.


In meetings yesterday with senior officials in Moscow, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton told the Russian government that "we're going ahead," whether the council agrees or not, a senior administration official said. "The council's unity is at stake here."


A senior diplomat from another council member said his government had heard a similar message and was told not to anguish over whether to vote for war.


"You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said U.S. officials told him. "That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not."


President Bush has continued to say he has not yet decided whether to go to war. But the message being conveyed in high-level contacts with other council governments is that a military attack on Iraq is inevitable, these officials and diplomats said. What they must determine, U.S. officials are telling these governments, is if their insistence that U.N. weapons inspections be given more time is worth the destruction of council credibility at a time of serious world upheaval.[...]

Should have put this up a few days ago. (Maybe this should be "the quote of from time to time.")Telegraph | Opinion | The world was weak in 1935 - and Mussolini had his way


Read the whole piece, of course. By a reporter who was around in 1935.


"There is, of course, one big difference between now and then. America wasn't a player in 1935. Europe handled it. Now America is the lead player, which may be just as well."

Farrakhan condemns Bush


RightWingNews has some good commentary on this one.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Saddam: I won't destroy missiles


"Saddam Hussein last night defied the US chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, when he refused to destroy his Samoud 2 missiles and called instead on US president George Bush to join him in a televised debate.[...]"


Muhahahahaha...you dare defy our puppet, Dr. Blix?!?!

National Geographic.com - Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes


This sounds very cool.

Israeli scientists have devised a computer that can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC. The secret: It runs on DNA.


A year ago, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, unveiled a programmable molecular computing machine composed of enzymes and DNA molecules instead of silicon microchips. Now the team has gone one step further. In the new device, the single DNA molecule that provides the computer with the input data also provides all the necessary fuel.


The design is considered a giant step in DNA computing. The Guinness World Records last week recognized the computer as "the smallest biological computing device" ever constructed. DNA computing is in its infancy, and its implications are only beginning to be explored. But it could transform the future of computers, especially in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. [...]


In terms of speed and size, however, DNA computers surpass conventional computers. While scientists say silicon chips cannot be scaled down much further, the DNA molecule found in the nucleus of all cells can hold more information in a cubic centimeter than a trillion music CDs. A spoonful of Shapiro's "computer soup" contains 15,000 trillion computers. And its energy-efficiency is more than a million times that of a PC.


While a desktop PC is designed to perform one calculation very fast, DNA strands produce billions of potential answers simultaneously. This makes the DNA computer suitable for solving "fuzzy logic" problems that have many possible solutions rather than the either/or logic of binary computers. In the future, some speculate, there may be hybrid machines that use traditional silicon for normal processing tasks but have DNA co-processors that can take over specific tasks they would be more suitable for. [...]

The Ornery American - Sarandon, Garafolo, Mandela -- McCarthyism of the Left


I kinda got tired of the Ender books after the second one, but I enjoyed this essay by Orson Scott Card:

Susan Sarandon, Janeane Garafolo, and Nelson Mandela -- what a crew.


This week all three unleashed savage attacks against President Bush and his policy on Iraq. Attacks that remind me of nothing so much as the wild and false charges leveled by Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.


Nelson Mandela is a genuine hero, a statesman. He is one of the few revolutionaries to achieve power and then govern responsibly, for the benefit of all the people.


Sarandon and Garafolo are, of course, not in that category. But they are both smart women with great talent -- and, in fact, their anti-war ads are very powerful.


"What has Iraq ever done to us?" is the core question both ads ask of the American people.


The answer, of course, is obvious. Iraq invaded their neighbor Kuwait back in 1991. The United States led a coalition to drive them out of Kuwait. We succeeded -- and, in obedience to international law and our agreements with our coalition allies, we did not proceed to drive Saddam out of power.


Instead, we imposed conditional ceasefire terms, among which were:[...]

MEMRI: Latest News

The Egyptian opposition daily Al-Wafd recently published an article titled "A Look at Martyrdom Operations," written by Egyptian attorney Ahmad Shawqi 'Iffat.(1) The following are excerpts from the article:

'All Our Problems ...Are Examined By Way of Hypocrisy, Falsehood, and Caprices'


"It is the disease of our glorious Arab nation that all domestic and foreign problems are examined in only one way - the way of falsehood, hypocrisy, slogans, personal caprices, and all the other ills of the world. I will restrict myself here to one example, namely, the so-called martyrdom operations, in which a young Palestinian blows himself up among the enemy."


"No benefit comes to the Palestinian cause from these operations, on the contrary: They have caused, still cause, and will continue to cause grave human and material losses, because the enemy's revenge for each such operation is terrible... Furthermore, we have lost the sympathy of the world, which, because of these operations, saw us as terrorists and murderers deserving nothing short of the severest of punishments."


"Considering all this, can any reasonable person accept the continuation of such operations, while there is no spark of hope, in the short or long range, that through these actions a solution will be found for the Palestinian problem?"


"However, our glorious Arab nation - whether out of lack of knowledge, willful ignorance, hypocrisy, indifference, lack of awareness, or any other shortcoming - finds no fault in continuing [these operations]. All that occupies the minds of many of the Arab clerics, intellectuals, and politicians, in their symposia, interviews, and speeches, is the [semantic] question of whether these operations should be considered martyrdom or suicide. A number of fatwas have been issued on this matter, and some(2) claimed that these were not to be considered martyrdom operations because they targeted civilians, not military personnel. But afterwards they reneged on this position, and argued that they were nevertheless considered martyrdom operations."


"By Allah, It is A Shame: Young, Innocent People are Killing Themselves"


"Officially, the Palestinian Authority said it did not approve of killing civilians on both sides, Palestinian or Israeli, and did not define these operations as either martyrdom or suicide. In this way, the [Muslim-Arab] nation occupied itself with this sterile discussion, which ultimately concluded that these must be considered martyrdom operations, and every living person must use this adjective when referring to them - and thinking otherwise was forbidden... Nobody asked himself, 'What next?' Isn't this the best proof that we are a nation of wretched people?"


"I believe the time has long since come to discuss the issue of these operations with the appropriate gravity, not simplistically and superficially, as they have been discussed to date. By Allah, it is a shame: Young, innocent people are killing themselves out of good intentions. These operations cause terrible losses of property, livelihood, and life."


"Can't We Find a Way Other Than Martyrdom Operations That Have Caused Us All This Unbearable Damage?"


"We must ask ourselves first whether these operations are of any benefit. Some, whose thinking is devoid of rationality, claim that they are highly beneficial because they signal to the world that the Palestinian people is alive - it has not died and will not die. Terrific! What brilliant thinking there is in the Arab world!"


"Has anyone claimed or can anyone claim that the Palestinian people is dead, while it has been struggling for its cause for over half a century, and will continue to struggle until the Day of Judgment... Oh, geniuses of bygone days, if we want to send a message that the Palestinian people is alive, can't we find a way other than martyrdom operations, that have caused us all this unbearable damage? Can't your minds come up with another way of sending a message to the world - if in fact it really needs to be informed that we are alive, as your shameful sterile thinking suggests?"


"Furthermore, I think - and there are many others like me who aren't [saying] - that these are not martyrdom operations - although superficially it would appear that there is something like consensus among the clerics that they are, because 'whoever is killed while fighting Jihad is a martyr.' I believe that those killed by the enemy in battle, even if armed with only a stone, are martyrs. I don't know whether they did not notice it, or intentionally ignored it, but the form [of the verb] in 'whoever is killed' is passive, meaning 'killed' by someone else, not by his-own hand."


"Honored gentlemen: Have you any other knowledge to persuade us to think otherwise? If you have, let's hear it, to make us regret what we have said and apologize. But if you haven't, then you should repent, and ask God's forgiveness."

United Press International: Feds crack down on drug paraphernalia


I don't know, but doesn't this sound like a waste of time and resources? C'mon.

[...]"With the advent of the Internet," Ashcroft said, "the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has exploded in the expansion."


The attorney general said "in homes across America we know that children and young adults are the fastest growing population of Internet users. Quite simply, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has invaded the homes of families across the country without the knowledge of those families."


Drug paraphernalia includes such items as miniature scales for weighing drugs, material to "cut" drugs to increase profits, roach clips and freebase cocaine kits, among others.


The attorney general said many of the items sold on the Internet were "sneaky pipes" -- marijuana or hash pipes disguised as highlighter markers, lipsticks or other innocent objects.[...]

Terrorist Profs - article by Daniel Pipes


Pipes' latest essay concerns the fact that three of the eight men just indicted as "material supporters of a foreign terrorist organization," (the Palestinian Islamic Jihad) are also "academic specialists on Middle Eastern and Islamic subjects."


I love Pipes' work, but I have a slight gripe with this piece. Pipes implies that these men weren't real scholars, that they'd just been pulling the wool over the eyes of their coleagues.

[...]All three alleged terrorists succeeded in talking the academic talk, fooling nearly everyone. Shallah wrote in 1993, in his capacity as director of WISE, that the organization's long-term goal is "to contribute to the understanding of the revivalist Islamist trends, misleadingly labeled 'fundamentalist' in Western and American academic circles."


Almost any North American academic specialist on Islam could have written those same sneering and duplicitous words. Many do.


The three passed for genuine scholars. Carrie Wickham, a specialist on Egyptian Islam at Emory University, said she "felt deceived" on learning who Shallah really was and expressed surprise that "a serious intellectual counterpart" like him could also be a terrorist.[...]

Jed Babbin on Postwar Iraq & Military on National Review Online


Jed Babbin discusses the pitfalls of the proposed (temporary) military government of post-Saddam Iraq. My question to the Administration would be why not organize a convention, or a sort of Loya Jirga, amongst all the Iraqi opposition groups, and bring them in to hash out a temporary government? Obviously, such a gathering would not include representatives of the largest constituency - the current residents of Iraq - but it could at least put an Iraqi face on the new government from a very early point. They could also take it upon themselves (again, with American cooperation) to lay out some sort of outline for transitioning into an even more inclusive arrangement.

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan - Two ex-presidents could learn from Eisenhower and the Bay of Pigs


You know I've really changed my viewpoint if I'm pointing people to a Peggy Noonan piece, but this is pretty interesting. Using the Republican reaction to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Noonan casts perspective on the public pronouncements of Messrs. Carter and Clinton. I'm not sure you can say that the parties themselves (either one) are so admirable nowadays, but the Presidents (ex and current) are behaving a bit differently than they used to.

Two of our former presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have been talking a lot about their views and feelings on Iraq. It would be nice if they took to speaking less and thinking more. They could start with an event in the latter years of Dwight David Eisenhower, a former president who knew how to do the job.


Forty-two years ago this spring, in April 1961, a young American president launched an amphibious invasion on a foreign shore. It was such a thorough failure that to this day the words "Bay of Pigs" are shorthand for "American military fiasco." The American-trained Cuban exiles who stormed the beaches of Cuba in hopes of liberating their homeland were, essentially, abandoned and left to die, denied the support they'd been promised by the U.S. government. Fidel Castro crushed them.


The Bay of Pigs invasion was badly planned, poorly executed and almost wildly unrealistic. (Months before it began former secretary of state Dean Acheson told JFK, in a private Rose Garden conversation, that you didn't need Price Waterhouse to figure out 1,500 guerillas aren't going to beat 25,000 Cuban regulars.) And yet after the invasion, when Kennedy both acknowledged the failure and took responsibility for it, he won the support of the American people. His approval rating jumped to 82%. He rallied. History, and his administration, went on.[...]

A little earlier I saw Paul Wolfowitz on FOX News giving his opening speech at a "Town Hall" meeting with a large group of Iraqi-Americans. After his initial speech, they cut back to regular programming and I can't find the meeting on any other station (including CSpan, etc...). It looked like it was going to be damn interesting. I wonder if anyone will be re-broadcasting it in full. If anyone knows, please post a comment or email me (contact info at left). Thanks!

Via this thread at Israel Forum.


Go for it

U.S. confronted Communism in Vietnam. It must now stand against Mediaeval Islam in Iraq - By Hamid Bahadori

As an Iran-Iraq war veteran still carrying an Iraqi bullet in my body, I can provide eyewitness testimony to Saddam Hussein's possession and use of weapons of mass destruction -- weapons that have remained in the Iraqi arsenal for more than 20 years. So why should we be concerned with them now?


Control of oil supplies is an important reason. But as much as 21st century Hippies want you to believe, it is not the main reason for going to war with Iraq. The U.S. can ensure the flow of oil by easier and more covert avenues -- as it has for decades. The war with Iraq, regardless of its outcome, will be one of those turning points in human history like the defeat of Persians at Marathon, the battle of Waterloo, the defeat of crusaders in the hands of Saladin, and the Mongol invasion.


Why such a high historical value on a relatively minor military campaign when for all practical purposes the Vietnam War was more complex and a lot costlier? This conflict is the biggest flash point between the modern Western civilization and the Islamic civilization that the West, and the U.S. in particular, has been hoping to avoid for a long time. But now, the time has come and we must act or face the consequences, as did the great empires before us.


We will either stop the Vandals before they sac Rome, suffocate the barbaric Arabs before they destroy the Persian Empire, take the sword out of Genghis Khan's hand before he kills millions of people, or we will be remembered as one of those nations who seemed invincible in their own times and failed to take action, when they could, to prevent their demise.[...]

Via LGF


Europe's Monomania (washingtonpost.com)

In Europe, anti-Semitism has been called the socialism of fools, which is confusing, because socialism is the socialism of fools. Confusion has been compounded because Europe, nearly six decades after the continent was rendered largely Judenrein, has anti-Semitism without Jews, as when the ambassador to Britain from France -- yes, our moral tutor, France -- calls Israel a "s----y little country."


But some clarity can be achieved by understanding that America has become for many Europeans what Jews were for centuries. From medieval times until 1945, Jews often were considered the embodiment of sinister forces, the focus of discontents, the all-purpose explanation of disappointments. Now America is all those things.


"These were not only young, politicized people," said Romano Prodi, head of the European Commission, speaking of the European demonstrations protesting U.S. policy toward Iraq. "This was the whole society that took part in a spontaneous way."


America approached this endgame with Iraq worrying about the "Arab street" but finds more trouble in the "European street." However, if Prodi's assessment is essentially correct, the broad-based demonstrations could not have been essentially motivated by concern for Iraq's rights.[...]


Today's demonstrators against a war to disarm Iraq can hardly be explained by fear for their safety, or by sympathy for Saddam Hussein's fascism. The London demonstration -- 1 million strong, much the largest in British history -- was not as large as the death toll from the war Saddam Hussein launched against Iran. The demonstrators simultaneously express respect for the United Nations' resolutions and loathing for America, the only nation that can enforce the resolutions. This moral infantilism -- willing an end while opposing the only means to that end -- reveals that the demonstrators believe the means are more objectionable than the end is desirable.


The demonstrators must know that Slobodan Milosevic and the Taliban would still be tyrannizing Muslims were it not for U.S. power. But they do not care.[...]


There is not much to be gained just now from additional attempts to reason with a leader that tone-deaf, or from attempts to soften the monomania of those swarming in the "European street." Perhaps U.S. policy can change European minds by changing facts in Iraq.


Perhaps not. However, America's vital interests are more dependent on those facts than on those minds.

Ha'aretz - Article


Uri Benziman lays out the planned future (and some of the road-blocks) of the Palestinian Authority. Well worth a read:

If the plan is followed, the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament) and the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will meet in Ramallah in the first week of March and elect Salam Fayyad as the first prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. The two bodies will also approve a series of additional appointments: Abu Mazen will be elected vice-president, Mohammed Dahlan will become national security adviser and, the crowning achievement, Yasser Arafat will retain his status as president of the PA, but henceforth with mainly symbolic tasks. Something like Moshe Katzav in Israel. Abu Ala will remain Speaker of the Legislative Council.


That is the Israeli plan, which has the backing of the Quartet (the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations), Egypt and Jordan. The finishing touches were put on the plan this week in London, when the Israeli delegation gave its consent to the convening of the two bodies, provided no one tainted with terrorism participates.[...]

Ha'Aretz

BEIRUT - Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Sha'ath on Saturday ruled out the possibility of a truce in attacks by militant Palestinian groups against Israel until it stops its "aggression and occupation."


Sha'ath spoke to reporters after talks with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and U.S. threats to attack Iraq. He met with Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Friday.


"The Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people are committed not to stop the intifada (uprising) until the Israeli aggression and occupation are eliminated," he said.

He said an upcoming meeting in Cairo with Palestinian factions would seek to agree on a political objective on how to deal with Israel, "which means an escalation or pacification (in intifada) depending on the international situation and depending on the needs and capabilities."


"There is a difference between the cessation of the intifada and agreement on administering it in such a way so as to benefit the Palestinian people," Sha'ath said.

Reflecting a bit on why it is I seem to have such a visceral draw to supporting the Bush administration's actions with regard to Iraq, I ask myself, were another leader in place going the easier, pacifist route, would I be as strongly in support of him against his critics? (As an aside, have no doubt, that no matter what route an American leader took, there would be plenty of vocal opposition.) I have to think that the answer is probably, yes. Unless I were very, very sure that the goal or effect of what I was seeing were unequivocally immoral or disastrous - and the odds are fairly slim that that would be the case - I'd probably defer to the people in power. I remember being disgusted with the vicious knee-jerk attacks on Clinton, so that the man couldn't get anything done without it being sabotaged or his motives called into question. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, I see the new opposition isn't doing much better than the old.


"No Blood for Oil," "Not In Our Name," "All Life Is Precious," and the thousand other trite expressions parroted by the peaceniks sound nice, but what do they amount to, really? Does anyone have an alternative path? Another plan? One that they can not only articulate, but put into play? The answer is no, they don't.


What nations need are not slogans, but policies. That means comprehensive plans of action that seek to achieve certain goals. These are plans that must not only take into account real life conditions, that is, they must be externally practical, but the infrastructure must be there to make them happen, that is, they must also be internally practical. In the case of our government, that means that it has be a course of action that the government in power can and is willing to put into place. That means giving the Bush administration our backing, not nit-picking every last policy goal. It becomes a bit childish after awhile doesn't it? The opposition didn't get what it wanted by getting their man in (although, according to Ken Pollack, Gore was one of the Clinton hawks on Iraq), so now all they do is seek to stifle. Half-enacted policies can be worse than no policy at all - and no policy at all just isn't going to happen.


When confronted with the question of how they'd handle things if they had the power, it's amazing how devoid of content the opposition is. The UN certainly has no long-term answer. They're content to have the US and UK stay ad-infinitum in the north and south of Iraq, as the sanctions slip into meaninglessness and our standing with the people of the region and the world suffers a slow war of attrition as we're blamed for being simple bullies. There is no exit strategy offered by these people.


Cutesy sayings reminding us of America's checkered foreign policy past are nice if you're a college student or professor who needs to do nothing but criticize, but the folks who's decisions actually matter don't have that luxury. So the USA overthrew the Allende government. Sorry, but...so? That means what, exactly? We wring our hands, tear up the Constitution, tear down the halls of government and proclaim the USA a failed experiment? Of course not, and it doesn't do our elected leaders one bit of good to consider doing so.


Look at the past so as not to repeat its mistakes, but then move on. You don't wallow in them forever. No good leader would ever do so, and no good leader would ever constrain his or her people's push into the future by being obsessed with these errors. Either articulate a plan or get out of the way.


I am anxious to give my support to a leader who seems to be looking to the future, who has a comprehensive policy...and right now, Bush is the "Man with a Plan."

Via lgf


Photos show 65,000 at peak of S.F. rally

Aerial study casts doubt on estimates of 200,000

San Francisco -- A survey using sophisticated aerial photography of Sunday's anti-war march and rally in San Francisco has produced results that indicate a far smaller crowd than the 200,000 protesters estimated by police and event organizers.


The results of the independent survey, commissioned by The Chronicle and SFGate.com, cast doubt on traditional counting methods and contradict the crowd estimate of 200,000, which was reported in this newspaper and news media around the world. Crowd size in a demonstration is important because organizers tend to use it as evidence of support for their cause.


In a series of detailed, high-resolution photographs, the aerial survey shows that around 65,000 people were in the area of Market Street and Civic Center Plaza at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, which organizers said was when crowd size was at its peak. That number does not take into account marchers who dropped out before or arrived after the moment the photo sequence was shot. Calculating a precise number of protesters for the entire rally is not possible from this survey, but the result is much more accurate than the visual scan method most commonly used by police and organizers.[...]

Opinion Journal, Best of the Web has this gem of a piece today:

Sontag Award Nominee


Here's an interesting article that makes a strong case against "antiwar" sentiment in Europe. It's worth reading in full, but here are some highlights:


In the first paragraph, the author mocks "the widely held vision of Helpless Europe being dragged into a bellicose folly by Big Bad America."


o She observes that contemporary Europe is "precisely designed to be incapable of responding to the threat posed by a dictator" and that Europe's self-conception "renders obsolete most of the questions of justice--indeed, all the moral questions."


o She deplores Europe's inaction "in the face of all this irrational slaughter and suffering," and observes: "Of course, it is easy to turn your eyes from what is happening if it is not happening to you."


o In answer to the placards at antiwar demonstrations, she says: "For Peace. Against War. Who is not? But how can you stop those bent on genocide without making war?"


o She argues that a dictator need not pose an immediate threat to those outside his borders to justify taking action against him: "Imagine that Nazi Germany had had no expansionist ambitions but had simply made it a policy in the late 1930's and early 1940's to slaughter all the German Jews. Do we think a government has the right to do whatever it wants on its own territory? Maybe the governments of Europe would have said that 60 years ago. But would we approve now of their decision?"


o She rejects as "grotesque" any attempt to equate the casualties inflicted by the . . . bombing with the mayhem inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people" by a genocidal dictator.


Here's her conclusion:


Not all violence is equally reprehensible; not all wars are equally unjust.


No forceful response to the violence of a state against peoples who are nominally its own citizens? (Which is what most "wars" are today. Not wars between states.) The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders. Can we really say there is no response to this? Is it acceptable that such slaughters be dismissed as civil wars? . . . Is it true that war never solved anything? (Ask a black American if he or she thinks our Civil War didn't solve anything.)


War is not simply a mistake, a failure to communicate. There is radical evil in the world, which is why there are just wars. And this is a just war. Even if it has been bungled.


Stirring words indeed. A powerful case for liberating Iraq. Only the author wasn't writing about Iraq, she was writing about Kosovo. The article appeared in the New York Times magazine, on May 2, 1999. The author? Susan Sontag.


And now, as Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story.

From Manhattan to Baghdad


Some good historical perpective here, on the attack on Iraq as part of a continuum, and how such continuums are often difficult to see when view from up close.

[...]The jailing of al Qaeda, the end of the Taliban, and the destruction of Saddam's clique will convince the Arab world that it is not wise or safe to practice jihad as it has been practiced since 1979. Killing American diplomats, blowing up Marines in their sleep, flattening embassies, attacking warships, and toppling buildings will not only not work but bring on a war so terrible that the very thought of the consequences from another 9/11 would be too horrific to contemplate.


Taking on all at once Germany, Japan, and Italy %u2014 diverse enemies all %u2014 did not require the weeding out of all the fascists and their supporters in Mexico, Argentina, Eastern Europe, and the Arab world. Instead, those in jackboots and armbands worldwide quietly stowed all their emblems away as organized fascism died on the vine once the roots were torn out in Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo. So too will the terrorists, once their sanctuaries and capital shrivel up %u2014 as is happening as we speak.


Since 1979 we have been caught in a classic bellum interuptum that could not be resolved through mediation and appeasement, but only - as we saw in 9/11 - made worse. Wars do not end with truces nor do they start because of accidents or miscommunications. They break out when one side has aggressive aims and advances grievances - whether real or perceived - and feels there is nothing to deter it. And conflicts end for good with either victory or defeat. Although we may not see it now, we really are in one war against one enemy — and since we started fighting it on September 12 we are, in fact, winning and will soon be nearing the end.

Trial set in 'racist rhyme' lawsuit - Black passengers say they were alienated by flight attendant


Was just watching The Abrams Report on MSNBC and he was discussing this suit:

KANSAS CITY, Kan., Feb. 13 — A judge has set a trial date in a discrimination lawsuit filed against Southwest Airlines by two black passengers who were upset when a flight attendant recited a version of a rhyme with a racist history.


GRACE FULLER, 48, and her sister Louise Sawyer, 46, were returning from Las Vegas two years ago when flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff, trying to get passengers to sit down, said over the intercom, “Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta go.”


The sisters say the rhyme was directed at them and was a reference to its racist version that dates to before the civil rights era: “Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; catch a n——- by his toe.”


“It was like I was too dumb to find a seat,” Fuller said. Sawyer said fellow passengers snickered at the rhyme, which made her feel alienated.


The sisters are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.[...]

Via OpinionJournal


Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

'Could I have the microphone for one minute to tell the people about my life?' asked the Iraqi grandmother


I spent part of last Saturday with the so-called "antiwar" marchers in London in the company of some Iraqi friends. Our aim had been to persuade the organizers to let at least one Iraqi voice to be heard. Soon, however, it became clear that the organizers were as anxious to stifle the voice of the Iraqis in exile as was Saddam Hussein in Iraq.


The Iraqis had come with placards reading "Freedom for Iraq" and "American rule, a hundred thousand times better than Takriti tyranny!"


But the tough guys who supervised the march would have none of that. Only official placards, manufactured in thousands and distributed among the "spontaneous" marchers, were allowed. These read "Bush and Blair, baby-killers," " Not in my name," "Freedom for Palestine" and "Indict Bush and Sharon."


Not one placard demanded that Saddam should disarm to avoid war.


The goons also confiscated photographs showing the tragedy of Halabja, the Kurdish town where Saddam's forces gassed 5,000 people to death in 1988.


We managed to reach some of the stars of the show, including Reverend Jesse Jackson, the self-styled champion of American civil rights. One of our group, Salima Kazim, an Iraqi grandmother, managed to attract the reverend's attention and told him how Saddam Hussein had murdered her three sons because they had been dissidents in the Ba'ath Party; and how one of her grandsons had died in the war Saddam had launched against Kuwait in 1990.


"Could I have the microphone for one minute to tell the people about my life?" 78-year old Salima demanded.


The reverend was not pleased.


"Today is not about Saddam Hussein," he snapped. "Today is about Bush and Blair and the massacre they plan in Iraq." Salima had to beat a retreat, with all of us following, as the reverend's gorillas closed in to protect his holiness.[...]

This poster from Blogs of War made me smile.

Inspectors Fault Iraqi Follow-Up (washingtonpost.com)


And they're cooperating less, of course. Have you noticed the coverage has even stopped suggesting the idea of scientists and their families coming out of Iraq for interviews (as 1441 calls for)? Now they're just trying to get private interviews without tape recorders. This will be worth nothing, of course. Dr. Hamza has said he is quite sure that, if given the chance, at least 20% of Iraq's scietists would defect right away.


Via Andrew Sullivan

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 19 -- President Saddam Hussein's government, apparently emboldened by antiwar sentiment at the U.N. Security Council and in worldwide street protests, has not followed through on its promises of increased cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors, according to inspectors in Iraq.


No Iraqi scientist involved in biological, chemical or missile technology has consented to a private interview with the inspectors since Feb. 7, the day before the two chief U.N. inspectors arrived here for talks with Iraqi officials. The United Nations also has not received additional documents about past weapons programs, despite the government's pledge to set up a commission to scour the country for evidence sought by the inspectors, U.N. officials said.


One U.N. official here said that since Friday's Security Council meeting, "we have not seen any positive moves on the part of Iraq." Another charged, "They are not fulfilling their promises."[...]


"They are feeling: The world opinion is with us. We can resist further pressure. We have time. We can play with the U.S. and U.K.," a U.N. official said. "This is very dangerous."[...]

College Professor Accused of Terrorist Ties Is Held in Florida

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A Palestinian college professor previously accused of having terrorist ties was arrested early Thursday by federal agents. He was one of several people arrested here, in Chicago and overseas, the FBI said.


Television reports showed Sami Al-Arian being led in handcuffs to FBI headquarters in Tampa after the arrest. His indictment is sealed until a court hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon.[...]


The tenured computer engineering professor was placed on forced leave and banned from campus shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and his subsequent appearance on Fox News Channel. The school also is trying to dismiss him.


He was quizzed about links to known terrorists, and asked about tapes from the late 1980s and early 1990s in which he said ``Death to Israel'' in Arabic.

OpinionJournal - The Tide of Madness

The world must stand against the evil that took my son's life. BY JUDEA PEARL

Tomorrow will mark the first anniversary of the day the world learned of the murder of my son Daniel Pearl, a reporter for this newspaper. It is time to step back and reflect on the significance of this tragedy.


Much has been written on the new challenges that Danny's murder represents to international journalism. But relatively little attention was given to one aspect of the motives of the perpetrators, specifically to the role of anti-American and anti-Semitic sentiments in the planning and execution of the murder. In fact, what shocked and united people from all over the world was the nature of those motives.


The murder weapon in Danny's case was aimed not at a faceless enemy or institution, but at a gentle human being--one whose face is now familiar to millions of people around the world. Danny's murderers spent a week with him; they must have seen his radiating humanity. Killing him so brutally, and in front of a video camera, marked a new low in man's inhumanity to man. People of all faiths were thus shocked to realize that mankind can still be dragged to such depths by certain myths and ideologies.


Danny was killed because he represented us, namely the ideals that every civilized person aspires to uphold--modernity, openness, pluralism, freedom of inquiry, truth, honesty and respect for all people. Decent people of all backgrounds have consequently felt personally targeted in this crime, and have been motivated to carry on Danny's spirit.




Reactions to Danny's death varied from community to community. In Pakistan, many have condemned the murder as a barbaric act carried out by a minority of fanatics at the fringe of society, while some find absolution in assuming that Danny was a spy. Sadly, anti-Semitism and sympathies with the perpetrators, as revealed in the trial of Omar Sheikh, seem to be more widespread than openly admitted. The trial itself is at a puzzling standstill, with no date set for appeal decision. In Saudi Arabia, the murder video has been used to arouse and recruit new members to terrorist organizations. In Europe, Danny's murder has been condemned as an attack against journalism, while the anti-American, anti-Jewish sentiments were played down considerably. This is understandable, considering the anti-American and anti-Western sentiment echoed in editorials in some respectable European newspapers.[...]

Via lgf:


James Earl Jones: 'We have to work together'


"The Voice" speaks a bit differently than many in Hollywood.

Jones, a former Army officer, drew perhaps the biggest round of applause after the subject turned to America's showdown with Iraq. He said that war is sometimes necessary.


"All people have to be prepared," Jones said. "If we are going to be the police, we also have to be the guardians. We can no longer play games. I was not against the war in Bosnia. I was against it taking so long. I was not against the war in Somalia. Again, it took too long, and we didn't finish the job. We should've stayed and finished the job. About this pending war, I just think we should've finished that war the first time."

FrontPage Magazine - Spectator.co.uk


Sorry, some links today but not much commentary from me. Another editorial from a sensible Englishman.

[...]I was in Florida researching a book on the second world war on 11 September 2001. In the week after the attack the airlines were down, so I drove across rural Florida and Georgia, watching the flags come out and the patriotic messages go up on the billboards. People were calling the radio shows. One question dominated, the same one I heard in bars, shops and around dinner tables: ‘Why do they hate us so much?’ ‘It’s just a minority,’ I said.


I returned home and realised that it wasn’t a minority at all. To my astonishment, it included many of my liberal and left-wing friends, and writers and thinkers I admired. In that first week a cartoon in the Guardian painted President Bush as an ape dumbly trying to impersonate Winston Churchill, while the Independent offered a blind, deranged Bush firing his cowboy six-shooter and treading on a dead Arab. And all this before a single American bomb had been dropped on Afghanistan, and with 3,000 bodies — we still thought 10,000 then — warm beneath the rubble.


I called up a friend in the television business. We both said we were fearful. I was talking about Islamic terrorism, perhaps next time with a nuke, but it turned out he meant ‘the mad cowboy in the White House’. It struck me then that, after so many years of opposing American foreign policy, the Left could not see beyond Vietnam-era slogans. It could not recognise that a toxic stew of rogue regimes, apocalyptic weapons programmes and a perverted form of Islam posed a deadly threat. It posed a particularly deadly threat, come to think of it, to the values of the Left itself: to women’s rights and gay rights; to secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism. In fact, you name the liberal ‘ism’ and Osama was against it. But one ‘ism’ still trumped all: anti-Americanism.


The coming endgame with Saddam will — at the very least — rid the world of a proven danger, and lessen the chances that the next terrorist attack will take out millions not thousands. If war comes, will innocent Iraqis die? Certainly. More than the Americans will admit, fewer than the peaceniks will claim. But innocents have been dying for decades under this revolting regime.


We’re told that war will drive Muslims into the arms of al-Qa’eda. But remember what bin Laden said in the days after 9/11: ‘America is weak, it cannot take casualties, it ran away in Somalia.’ Throughout the 1990s the West responded tamely to attacks by bin Laden (the African embassy bombs, the USS Cole), to attacks by groups linked to Saddam (the Saudi barracks bomb, the assassination attempt on Bush’s father, the first World Trade Center attack), and to the continued refusal of Iraq to disarm as required by the Gulf war ceasefire. Ten years of this weakness only encouraged our enemies to be bolder. [...]

FrontPage Magazine - "Peace" Marchers Out of Step

I HAD hoped that it would pour with rain during last Saturday's march for "peace."


Why? Exactly a week earlier in northern Iraq, a brave minister of the autonomous Kurdish government was foully done to death by a bunch of bin Laden clones calling themselves Ansar al-Islam.


Shawkat Mushir was lured under a flag of truce into a dirty ambush, in which he and several innocent bystanders - including an eight-year-old girl - were murdered.


There is already war in this part of Iraq, and on one side stands an elected Kurdish government with a multi-party system, 21 newspapers, four female judges, and a secular constitution.


In this area of an otherwise wretched and terrified country, oil revenues are spent on schools and roads and hospitals instead of for the upkeep of a parasitic and cruel military oligarchy.


The survivors of ethnic cleansing and torture and poison gas and chemical weapons - genocidal tactics which have cost the lives of at least 200,000 civilians - are rebuilding.[...]

Via Instapundit


Digital Chosunilbo: GNP Fosters Anti-Withdrawal of USFK Movement


I know next to nothing about South Korean politics (time to learn), but this sounds interesting:

A Grand National Party organization opposed to the withdrawal of the United States Forces Korea announced on Monday that 127 of the party's National Assembly members agreed with the group's objectives and had signed on as members. Thirty-six GNP assemblymen including Kim Yong-gap, Lee Won-chang, and Um Ho-sung launched the organization on February 5.


Kim told a general party meeting that 130 other Assembly members from other parties also wanted to join the organization. He said the group would pursue a national movement that included a nationwide petition to oppose the withdrawal of the USFK.


Kim said representatives of the organization would meet with US Ambassador Thomas Hubbard on Wednesday and deliver a signed petition on February 21.


Currently, the majority of GNP members in the National Assembly (127 out of 151) are participating in the organization, with only 20 or so younger progressive members refusing to participate.

Via LGF


OpinionJournal - The Other Front -- Pakistan: Friend or foe?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan--Lest we forget the other front, pay heed to this: For the past few weeks, American B-1 heavy bombers and helicopter gunships have been fighting the largest force of Afghan rebels to have surfaced in nearly a year in southern Afghanistan. The battle, which began on Jan. 27, now involves some 400 U.S. and Afghan government troops, who are looking for the remainder of a force of 80 rebels. At least 18 rebels have been killed so far.


The ominous issue is not that they are there, but that they assembled in Pakistan with heavy weapons, sophisticated communications equipment for a clandestine radio station, posters and pamphlets announcing a jihad against U.S. forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai, and enough supplies to set up a base camp (and a medical clinic) in the mountains south of Spin Baldak just 15 miles from the Pakistan border. Their objective was clearly to harass the 82nd Airborne division camp near Kandahar--some 120 miles to the west.[...]

Russia has promised to deliver $100 million worth of weapons to Mr. Fahim's army, which is outside the U.S.-led initiative to build a new multi-ethnic Afghan national army that will be loyal to the central government. Several U.S. demarches to Moscow to stop such arms deliveries have met with no response from the Russians.

Al-Ahram Weekly | Special | The war no one wants via Kesher Talk

[...]So, once you achieve your goals in Iraq and force Saddam Hussein out, will you leave?


Of course we will leave. We want to do what is necessary. If conflict comes -- and we hope conflict won't come, we still hope for peace, a peaceful resolution. But if conflict comes, and we have to go into Iraq, it is our goal, our simple goal, to find a solution quickly. We want to help Iraqis put in place a government in Iraq that would be responsible to the needs of all the people of Iraq, that will keep the country together, and will dedicate itself to the elimination of WMDs, to proper standards of human rights, and we will help fix all the systems that are now broken, with respect to health care, education. We want to see institutions with responsible leaders, and then, we want to go. We have lots of demands on the United States.


What do you ask from Egypt?


We ask, as always, from Egypt their support and their friendship. President Mubarak is a strong leader; he is a leader whose wisdom we value, and we stay in close touch with [him]. President Mubarak is also a leader of his own nation, who has to be responsible to the needs of his own nation, and to the will of his people. These are difficult times, and we will find ways through these difficult times. There is also a time when there is [a] need for all of us to be respectful of each other's religion. This is the time when we see hatred coming forward. Those of us in positions of leadership should speak against that hatred, whether it is hatred manifested by anti-Semitism, or hatred manifested by anti-Muslim comments or activities.


We can leave this room right now, and I can take you, within five minutes, to a mosque, a temple, a synagogue, a Catholic Church, an Orthodox Church. We know what diversity is; we know what the strength of all the religions of the world are when they are harnessed together in peace, in a manner which we have done here in the United States.


Are you going to respond in kind if Iraq uses WMDs?


We never discuss that. Why don't you worry about Iraq using WMDs, rather than, 'Would you respond if Iraq uses WMDs?' Will you scream bloody murder if Iraq uses these terrible weapons that [it] says it does not have? How could they use them if they don't have them? Now, if they use them, the United States has no intentions of doing anything that would hurt the people of Iraq. But we will do what is necessary to defend ourselves. But I hope before everybody asks what the United States would do, somebody would say: 'My God. They did have them. They were lying.' [...]

DEBKAfile - First Defection from Top Rank of Saddam Regime


Assuming this story is true, and he's in our hands, would it matter? There have already been a stream of defectors coming out of Iraq warning us about what's going on. The best you could hope for would be that a guy like this would point directly to where the major contraband stashes are, and that the inspectors would actually go there before it was cleaned up, or go there at all. Even if that were to happen, of course, you know the chant, "See? The inspections are working!"

Adib Shaaban, the right hand of Saddam Hussein’s powerful son Uday, has defected.


DEBKA-Net-Weekly reports exclusively that this key member of Saddam Hussein’s administration, who was charged with his son’s most sensitive missions, traveled to Jeddah at the beginning of this week, saying he needed to put through some gold transactions ahead of the war.


From Jeddah, he flew to Beirut and… disappeared.


US intelligence sources report that Shaaban never really went to Beirut. He made his way under cover to Damascus Monday and was picked up by an unmarked plane for an unknown destination.


As Uday’s closest aide, he also managed a chain of official publications, including the authoritative Babel, and was in on the Saddam regime’s deepest secrets.


Uday commands the secret army known as Saddam’s Fedayeen, the backbone of Baghdad’s defenses and custodian of the weapons of mass destruction that were not smuggled out to Lebanon.


Uday is also the chief of the ruling Baath Party’s covert service.


Shaaban must therefore be a veritable treasury of Saddam Hussein’s secrets. In American hands, Uday’s chef de bureau would be even more valuable than the proverbial smoking gun.

The Independent


I dunno about this one. Sounds too simple to me. Three big ships are cruising around the oceans, supposedly carrying Iraqi contraband? Interesting, though...

Three giant cargo ships are being tracked by US and British intelligence on suspicion that they might be carrying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.


Each with a deadweight of 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes, the ships have been sailing around the world's oceans for the past three months while maintaining radio silence in clear violation of international maritime law, say authoritative shipping industry sources.


The vessels left port in late November, just a few days after UN weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix began their search for the alleged Iraqi arsenal on their return to the country.


Uncovering such a deadly cargo on board would give George Bush and Tony Blair the much sought-after "smoking gun" needed to justify an attack on Saddam Hussein's regime, in the face of massive public opposition to war.


The ships were chartered by a shipping agent based in Egypt and are flying under the flags of three different countries. The continued radio silence since they left port, in addition to the captains' failure to provide information on their cargoes or their destinations, is a clear breach of international maritime laws.


The vessels are thought to have spent much of their time in the deep waters of the Indian Ocean, berthing at sea when they need to collect supplies of fuel and food. They have berthed in a handful of Arab countries, including Yemen.


American and British military forces are believed to be reluctant to stop and search the vessels for fear that any intervention might result in them being scuttled. If they were carrying chemical and biological weapons, or fissile nuclear material, and they were to be sunk at sea, the environmental damage could be catastrophic.

Pointer from BlogsofWar:


Ship gets arms in and out -- The Washington Times

The North Korean ship that last year delivered Scud missiles to Yemen transferred a large shipment of chemical weapons material from Germany to North Korea recently, U.S. intelligence officials said.


The ship, the Sosan, was monitored as it arrived in North Korea earlier this month carrying a shipment of sodium cyanide, a precursor chemical used in making nerve gas, said officials familiar with intelligence reports.


The same ship was stopped by U.S. and Spanish naval vessels Dec. 9 as it neared Yemen. It was carrying 15 Scud missiles and warheads. After a brief delay and assurances from the Yemeni government, the ship was allowed to proceed to Yemen with the missile shipment.


After unloading the missiles in Yemen, the Sosan then traveled to Germany, where it took on a cargo of sodium cyanide estimated to weigh several tons. The ship then was tracked as it traveled to North Korea. It arrived at the west coast seaport of Nampo on Thursday, the officials said.

OpinionJournal - The Western 'Street'

"Antiwar" mobs side with Saddam and against the Iraqi people.

[...]During the '90s, we were told that war was an excuse for the establishment of an American "empire" in the Balkans. But just ask the Serbs, the Albanians, the Kosovars, the Croats, the Slovenes, the Macedonians and other peoples of the peninsula what they think of that claim. In 1993, Alija Izetbegovich, then the beleaguered president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, explained his feelings to me in the starkest possible manner: "Only the Americans could save us from annihilation. If they do not come, there will soon be no Muslims left in the former Yugoslavia. The Europeans will debate until we are all dead."[...]

Polls, Palestinians and the Path to Peace - article by Daniel Pipes


The usual clear, cogent Pipes reasoning concerning the quest for peace and the facts that need to be faced if peace is to come:

Why are Palestinians so angry at Israel? There are two possible reasons.


Political: They accept the existence of a Jewish state but are angry with this or that Israeli policy.


Rejectionist: They abominate the very existence of Israel and want to destroy it.


Which is correct has many implications. If Palestinians only want changes in what Israel is doing (such as building towns on the West Bank), then it is reasonable to ask Israel to alter those actions - and the main burden of resolving the conflict falls on Israel.


But if Israel's existence remains at issue, then it follows that the conflict will end only when the Palestinians finally and irrevocably accept the Jewish state. Seen this way, the main burden falls on the Palestinians.


If it's a routine political dispute, diplomacy and compromise are the way to make progress. But if the Palestinians reject Israel's very existence, diplomacy is useless, even counterproductive, and Israel needs to convince Palestinians to give up on their aggressive intentions. More bluntly, Israel would then need to defeat the Palestinians.


Which interpretation is correct?


In a spring 2002 poll of residents in the West Bank and Gaza conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, a Palestinian organization, 43 percent of respondents called for a Palestinian state only in the West Bank and Gaza and 51 percent insisted on the state in "all of historic Palestine," code words for the destruction of Israel. [...]

This is a doozy. Pointer via LGF:


Yahoo! News - Chirac blasts eastern Europeans over pro-American stance, warns on EU membership


Nothing like a "principled stance" eh, Monsieur Chirac? It seems that France is doing all it can to lend credence to the view that its stance is more about European dominance (among other things) than principle.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - French President Jacques Chirac launched a withering attack Monday on eastern European nations who signed letters backing the U.S. position on Iraq, warning it could jeopardize their chances of joining the European Union.


"It is not really responsible behavior," he told a news conference. "It is not well brought up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet."


Chirac was angered when EU candidates Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined pro-U.S. EU members such as Britain, Spain and Italy last month in a letter supporting Washington's line on Iraq against the more dovish stance of France and Germany.


Paris was further upset when 10 other eastern European nations signed a similar letter a few days later.


France argued that the moves aggravated splits in the 15-nation EU and backed the ideas put forward by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who had earlier spoke of France and Germany as "old Europe" in contrast to the easterners seeking to join the EU and NATO.


"Concerning the candidate countries, honestly I felt they acted frivolously because entry into the European Union implies a minimum of understanding for the others," Chirac told reporters after an emergency EU summit on Iraq.


He warned the candidates the position could be "dangerous" because the parliaments of the 15 EU nations still have to ratify last December's decision for 10 new members to join the bloc on May 1, 2004.


Chirac particularly warned Romania and Bulgaria, who are still negotiating to enter the bloc in 2007.


"Romania and Bulgaria were particularly irresponsible to (sign the letter) when their position is really delicate," Chirac said. "If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way."[...]

Pretty damn bold statement made by Undersecretary of State, John Bolton today.Ha'Aretz - EU warns Iraq it faces a 'last chance' to disarm

peacefully

U.S. official says Syria, Iran will be dealt with after Iraq war

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in meetings with Israeli officials on Monday that he has no doubt America will attack Iraq, and that it will be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran and North Korea afterwards.


Bolton, who is undersecretary for arms control and international security, is in Israel for meetings about preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.


In a meeting with Bolton on Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that Israel is concerned about the security threat posed by Iran. It's important to deal with Iran even while American attention is turned toward Iraq, Sharon said.


Bolton also met with Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Housing and Construction Minister Natan Sharansky.

Yahoo! News - N. Korea Threatens to Abandon Armistice


What is troublesome is that, if you're North Korea, it may get to the point that their huge army becomes a "use it or lose it" deal.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) threatened Tuesday to abandon the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, accusing the United States of plotting an attack on the communist state.


A spokesman of the North's Korean people's Army said that the United States was building up reinforcements around the Korean Peninsula in preparations to attack the North, said the North's official news agency KCNA.


"The situation is, therefore, getting more serious as the days go by as it is putting its plan for pre-emptive attacks on the (North) into practice with increased zeal," KCNA quoted the unidentified spokesman as saying.


The spokesman said the "grave situation created by the undisguised war acts committed by the U.S. in breach of the armistice agreement compels the Korean People's Army side, its warring party, to immediately take all steps to cope with it."


"If the U.S. side continues violating and misusing the armistice agreement as it pleases, there will be no need for the (North) to remain bound to the armistice agreement uncomfortably," the spokesman said.[...]

As recorded in the minutes 111 of the 125th South Korean National Assembly held in 1985, 1,720 U.S. nuclear weapons were deployed in South Korea. They include nuclear bombs and shells, missile nuclear warheads, neutron bombs and shells, nuclear mines and backpack nukes.


South Korea has turned into the world's biggest nuclear base as more than one nuke has been deployed in every 100 square km of its territory.


The U.S. basic strategy aimed to mount a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK so called a nuclear umbrella strategy remains unchanged even in the post cold war period.


This land covering more than 100,000 square km has been converted into the biggest nuclear arsenal in the Far East as it is covered with a huge number of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, ground and air nuclear weapons, nuclear warheads and means of nuclear delivery.


Referring to the U.S. moves to convert the areas around South Korea into its nuclear base, the press release pointed out:


The U.S. has deployed nearly half of its nuclear weapons totalling over 20,000 and the majority of its strategic forces in the Asia-Pacific region around the Korean Peninsula.


It has in the region 560 military bases and facilities, at least 1,000 aircraft including strategic bombers and over 200 warships including 6 aircraft carriers and 34 nuclear submarines and over 6,500 nuclear weapons.

Ha'aretz - Hamas chief killed in Gaza operation

In the wake of the weekend deaths of four-man Israeli tank crew in Gaza, the Israel Deifense Forces has dropped its self-imposed restraints ahead of an American assault on Iraq, and is moving against Hamas in Gaza, including the use of pinpoint prevention, i.e., assassination, army sources said yesterday.


Riyad Abu Zid, the military commander of the Hamas, was killed yesterday southwest of Bureij refugee camp when he tried to resist arrest by an elite army unit that sprang a surprise checkpoint to make the arrest. Also yesterday, two Palestinian gunmen were killed and four other wounded trying to block a home demolition, that of the man the army says is responsible for Saturday's deadly attack on the tank.


On Sunday, six Hamas operatives were killed while handling a mysterious unmanned plane they planned to use to deliver a bomb inside Israel.


The IDF Spokesman said that in the death yesterday of Abu Zid, he had opened fire on the soldiers who tried to stop his car outside the camp, and they returned fire. A helicopter was brought in to medivac him to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, but he was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. Army sources emphasized the aim was to arrest - not kill - him, in the operation, so he could be interrogated about the Hamas command structure in Gaza. The army said Abu Zid had planned to set in motion a series of suicide bombings and car bombings inside the Green Line.[...]

OpinionJournal - Featured Article - 'Jews, Hindus Not Wanted'

While Americans are vying for gold in the replacement of individual rights with group rights, our friends across the pond sometimes do us one better. The automatic exclusion of members of two of the world's major faiths from performing jury duty in a case of terrorist threats in London does seem to be one step--but only one--ahead of our own institutions.


When it came time, late last month, for the English courts to try radical Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal on charges of inciting race hatred and the murder of "nonbelievers," particularly Jews and Hindus, the presiding judge took special precautions to assure the Jamaican-born preacher a fair trial: He excluded from the jury all Jews, Hindus and their spouses. This extraordinary step by an experienced judge in a cosmopolitan Western country may simply be an instance of the court's not wanting someone likely to identify with the intended victims to be on the jury. (If such were the case, the judge could have questioned potential jurors individually for actual bias.) On the other hand, it could be another step in the trend, emphatic already in the American legal system, of equating a citizen's race or ethnicity with his probable point of view or, more radically still, his ability to judge his fellow citizen fairly on the evidence.[...]


The Supreme Court will presumably get involved in this increasingly pervasive social, political and legal controversy when it decides the constitutionality of the University of Michigan's affirmative action program. However that case turns out, one hopes that the court will demonstrate sufficient wisdom to save us from a system where citizens will be chosen for, or excluded from, positions on juries, in colleges, and in the workplace, on the basis of race and ethnicity rather than individual merit and character, and where group-identity bean-counting becomes confused with efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination. The case in London is a cautionary tale of what our future might hold.

Reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday said in a final communique that it was necessary for Arab states to deny any kind of support for military action against fellow Arab state Iraq.


"(The foreign ministers) affirm the necessity for their countries to refrain from offering any kind of assistance or facilities for any military action that leads to the threat of Iraq's security safety and territorial integrity," the final communique said.


The ministers also agreed to preserve the security, safety and territorial integrity of Iraq, as well as neighboring state Kuwait, which Iraq invaded in 1990 and occupied for several months until it was expelled by a U.S.-led coalition.


"The Arab countries reject aggression on any of them or the threat against the security and safety of any Arab country as a threat against the national security of all Arab countries," the communique said.


The communique did not specifically mention the United States, which has said time was running for Iraq to come clean on its alleged weapons of mass destruction or face U.S.-led military action. Iraq denies it has such weapons.

Reuters


Another LGF nod.


I always thought Italy was a bastion of the whacko-left, and maybe it still is, but I'm thinking I'm liking these guys more every day.

ROME (Reuters) - The mayor of Rome snubbed Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz Sunday, canceling their scheduled meeting after Aziz refused to answer a question from an Israeli journalist at a news conference.

Mayor Walter Veltroni, who was due to meet Aziz Sunday morning before the Iraqi left Italy to return to Baghdad, delivered the news in a stern letter.


"I'm writing to inform you that I find myself obliged to cancel our meeting," Veltroni wrote, according to a copy of the letter sent to Reuters.


"The reason is because of your refusal to answer a question posed to you by an Israeli journalist at a news conference held at the Foreign Press Association (on Friday)," it continued.[...]


Veltroni closed his letter saying that if Iraq and its representatives could not adhere to the principles of liberty and democracy, "there can be no hope for your country, nor for a solution to the crisis in the Middle East, nor for the prospect of a more just and peaceful world."

Read me: Eject! Eject! Eject!: COURAGE


Pointer from LGF

CNN.com - Aziz: Destroying missiles would be 'unacceptable' - Feb. 16, 2003


Iraq confirms what we already knew - that they have been working on missiles with a range in excess of the 150km they are allowed. "They should not be destroyed because they are practically within the range we are allowed to have," says Aziz. Of course, it doesn't matter, as no one is going to hold them to it anyway.


Oh, and about that French idea to send blue-helmeted human-shields...I mean, UN Peacekeepers in? "'While on a trip to Rome to meet with Pope John Paul II, Aziz also dismissed a reported plan to send U.N. peacekeepers to Iraq.


'Iraq is a sovereign state. It has provided all of the security needed to re-inspect us, and we don't need United Nations troops to interfere or to be in our country,' he said."

Via Thinking Meat a pointer to this item at Avocare. You simply must read the news releases at the official North Korean News Agency site.

... through the visit to the old home, youth, university students and schoolchildren from throughout the country have vowed to always share the same destiny with Kim Jong Il and prepare themselves as human bombs to defend the headquarters of the revolution ...

Another pointer to Dancing with Dogs Several links to different articles about the supposed oil-pipeline motive in the Afghanistan invasion. Nice little collection.

Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition - Report: Iraq asked Finland for Anthrax information

The Iraqi Embassy in Helsinki sought information about anthrax from the foreign ministry in October, Finnish media reported Saturday.


The query - reportedly lodged about a month before the return of UN weapons inspectors to Baghdad - sought suitable methods "for the early detection of anthrax," the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper reported.


The request also concerned "ways of protecting against anthrax, as well as methods, procedures and equipment needed for decontamination," the tabloid said.


Ilta-Sanomat said that the head of the foreign ministry's political division, Markus Lyra, confirmed the report.


"We did not answer it (the request) at all, and there have been no further discussions," Lyra was quoted as saying. "It is not our field."


"One wonders, whether it was intended simply for propaganda or similar purposes," he added.


Foreign ministry officials were unavailable for comment Saturday.

Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition - YMCA compares Israeli actions to crucifying Jesus

B'nai B'rith has issued a report sharply criticizing Jerusalem's Young Men's Christian Association and its women's affiliate for its array of pro-Palestinian activities, including a recent campaign undertaken by a group called "Free Palestine."


The report notes that, as part of the campaign, which is being spearheaded by the YMCA of "Palestine"and the eastern Jerusalem YWCA, a brochure was issued that compares the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel to the crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans.


The brochure states, "Jesus was crucified with the people who were branded as 'terrorists' by the authorities of this time. The Palestinians are currently crucified, humiliated, and denied their human rights and dignity." [...]

Yahoo! News - Annan: UN Could Issue New Iraq Resolution

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said on Saturday the United Nations (news - web sites) might need to pass a new resolution on Iraq and warned Baghdad not to try to take advantage of apparent differences in the Security Council.

IsraelNationalNews.com

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution this week congratulating Israel on its "free and fair elections" of last month. Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, the bill's original sponsor, said, "I congratulate our only true democratic ally in the Middle East - Israel - a country that stands with the United States on the key principles of human rights, freedom, peace and democracy; a country like no other in its region." Speaking on behalf of the bill, which passed by a 411-2 vote, Cantor said,


"Israel is currently fighting a war on terrorism against people dedicated to hate and destruction; dedicated to ending freedom and democracy; dedicated to suppressing the basic rights of life and liberty. For the past two and a half years, Israel has faced an unrelenting campaign of violence and terror against her citizens. Yet, during all of this unrest and violence, the Israeli people engaged in the most basic and most important feature of democracy: They held free, open and, competitive elections -an act in stark contrast to their enemies."




Other U.S. support for a secure Israel was expressed this week by six prominent Christian leaders at a press briefing at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week in Nashville. The briefing, given by Prime Minister Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin, was sponsored by the National Unity Coalition for Israel (NUC), an alliance of more than 200 Jewish and Christian organizations representing more than 40 million Americans. The NUC announced afterwards that contrary to public perception conveyed by the State Department and the media, "it is apparent that the vast majority of informed Americans oppose the Quartet Road Map calling for Palestinian statehood." Opposition to the plan was expressed as based on various perspectives, including, religious, legal, historical, military defense, security and terrorism issues.

Bin Laden son, al Qaeda terrorists spotted in Iran -- The Washington Times

U.S. intelligence agencies say Osama bin Laden's oldest son, Sad, is in Iran along with other senior al Qaeda terrorists, as Iranian military forces have been placed on their highest state of alert in anticipation of a U.S. attack on Iraq, according to intelligence officials.


Sad bin Laden was spotted in Iran last month, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. Sad is believed to be a key leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network since U.S. and allied forces ousted the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan.


Officials said it is not clear what relationship Sad has with the Tehran government, which on Thursday denied congressional testimony by CIA Director George J. Tenet that al Qaeda terrorists are in Iran.


The new reports are the first time senior al Qaeda terrorists have been identified in Iran. Earlier reports have indicated other al Qaeda fighters have been granted refuge in Iran from neighboring Afghanistan.


The intelligence on bin Laden's son comes as the Bush administration has released intelligence indicating Iraq is working with al Qaeda terrorists, including a senior associate of Osama bin Laden who has been in Baghdad since May.[...]


A Tunisian national, Nassim Saadi, was among six suspected al Qaeda terrorists who were arrested at that time and he had been found to have flown from Milan, Italy, to Tehran in January 2002.


Iran also backed Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who recently returned to Afghanistan from Iran and has joined forces with the remnants of the ousted Taliban militia and al Qaeda in opposing the government of Hamid Karzai and U.S. troops.

United Press International

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A U.N. spokesman Friday night said, without explanation, that Iraq has relinquished its four-week turn as president of the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, making way for Ireland to take up the slack.


"The Iraqi Mission to the United Nations informed the Secretary-General today that the Iraqi government had sent a letter to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva saying that they would not be assuming the rotating presidency of the Conference, which they were scheduled to assume on March 17," said the spokesman, Fred Eckhard.


Iraq had been scheduled to take over from Iran, which also suddenly bowed out as head of the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, represented by 66 states.


Ireland's term heading the Conference begins, coincidentally, on St. Patrick's Day.


The conference opened this year's session at the U.N.'s Palais des Nations in Geneva Jan. 21 under the presidency of Ambassador Rakesh Sood, of India.


Following in the presidential rotation were to be, in English alphabetical order, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Ireland, and Israel.


But Iran dropped out last month, moving up Iraq a notch. Now, Baghdad has bowed out, putting Ireland in the seat on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, Ireland's national day.[...]

CHAPTERS IN AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY


Chalk another good deed up to Honest Abe. Apparently, Jewish Chaplains are another product of the Civil War and Abe Lincoln's wisdom:

Armed with letters of introduction from Jewish and non-Jewish political leaders, Fischel met on December 11, 1861 with President Lincoln to press the case for Jewish chaplains. Fischel explained to Lincoln that, unlike many others who were waiting to see the president that day, he came not to seek political office, but to "contend for the principle of religious liberty, for the constitutional rights of the Jewish community, and for the welfare of the Jewish volunteers."


According to Fischel, Lincoln asked questions about the chaplaincy issues, "fully admitted the justice of my remarks . . . and agreed that something ought to be done to meet this case." Lincoln promised Fischel that he would submit a new law to Congress "broad enough to cover what is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites."


Lincoln kept his word, and seven months later, on July 17, 1862, Congress finally adopted Lincoln's proposed amendments to the chaplaincy law to allow "the appointment of brigade chaplains of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religions." In historian Bertram Korn's opinion, Fischel's "patience and persistence, his unselfishness and consecration … won for American Jewry the first major victory of a specifically Jewish nature . . . on a matter touching the Federal government."

The Washington Times

The student wing of Pakistan's fundamentalist Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami, has condemned Valentine's Day as a day of shame and lust.

I'd love to see a transcipt. MSNBC was just playing snippets. Two things of note: One was what seemed to be a veiled threat toward the European community to consider all the Arabs who live in their countries, and how they will feel to see Iraq attacked (as though Iraq is the representative of the Arab world).


The second was when an Israeli reporter stood to ask something along the lines of whether, if attacked, Iraq would attack Israel again. Aziz refused to answer, saying (again, paraphrasing), "I am not prepared to answer the questions of Israeli journalists..." Of course, the rest of the international press expressed outrage on behalf of their Israeli colleague and refused to continue the conference...not.


Again, it would be nice to see a transcript.


Edit: Israpundit is ahead of me with a pointer to this article about the incident. Apparently a few reporters did walk out - including some Germans. Good for them!

[...]Correspondent Menachem Gantz, based in Rome for the Israeli newspaper Maariv, asked Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz at a news conference in the Italian capital: "Are you considering any kind of attack as a possibility against Israel in case of an American attack?"


Aziz, invited by the Foreign Press Association to give the news conference, responded: "When I came to this press conference it was not in my agenda to answer questions by the Israeli media. Sorry."


Some journalists in the packed room of the association's headquarters whistled and booed at that reply.


The association's president, Eric Jozsef, a French journalist, urged Aziz to respond.


"No, I'm not going to answer," the Iraqi official said.


The room was packed with about 100 journalists, with scores of others listening from another room. About 20 of the journalists, including Israeli and German correspondents, walked out, Gantz among them.[...]

Link via Dancing with Dogs:


... And why I will not

Dr B Khalaf

Friday February 14, 2003

The Guardian


I write this to protest against all those people who oppose the war against Saddam Hussein, or as they call it, the "war against Iraq". I am an Iraqi doctor, I worked in the Iraqi army for six years during Iraq-Iran war and four months during Gulf war. All my family still live in Iraq. I am an Arab Sunni, not Kurdish or Shia. I am an ordinary Iraqi not involved with the Iraqi opposition outside Iraq.


I am so frustrated by the appalling views of most of the British people, media and politicians. I want to say to all these people who are against the possible war, that if you think by doing so you are serving the interests of Iraqi people or saving them, you are not. You are effectively saving Saddam. You are depriving the Iraqi people of probably their last real chance get rid of him and to get out of this dark era in their history.


My family and almost all Iraqi families will feel hurt and anger when Saddam's media shows on the TV, with great happiness, parts of Saturday's demonstration in London. But where were you when thousands of Iraqi people were killed by Saddam's forces at the end of the Gulf war to crush the uprising? Only now when the war is to reach Saddam has everybody become so concerned about the human life in Iraq.


Where were you while Saddam has been killing thousands of Iraqis since the early 70s? And where are you are now, given that every week he executes people through the "court of revolution", a summary secret court run by the secret security office. Most of its sentences are executions which Saddam himself signs.


I could argue one by one against your reasons for opposing this war. But just ask yourselves why, out of about 500,000 Iraqis in Britain, you will not find even 1,000 of them participating tomorrow? Your anti-war campaign has become mass hysteria and you are no longer able to see things properly.


Locum consultant neurologist, London

In the continuing story of events catching up to Japanese pacifism, my wife informs me (she's Japanese) that on today's Japanese news, the government was shown explaining to the Japanese people the fact that Japan would "have" to support the US in the case of war with Iraq. It's purely a matter of knowing what side of the slice their bread is buttered on, of course. The Japanese government understands that it needs America's support in the future showdown with North Korea. Here's the story in the Daily Yomiuri Online:

[...]Yukio Okamoto, a critic in the diplomacy field, said, "Though a military attack should be avoided if possible, Japan will have only three choices in the event of an attack. One is to support the United States. The second is to indirectly support Iraq by criticizing the United States for carrying out a military strike. The third is to remain neutral.


"The worst choice would be to stay neutral because this would mean Japan is unable to come up with its own opinion on an issue that could affect the foundation of global security.


"The remaining choice is whether Japan should support the United States, which is trying to eliminate weapons of mass destruction--though in a hasty manner--or if Japan should support Iraq, which has defied the United Nations since 1990.


"The answer is obvious."


Japan, which is limited militarily to a policy of self-defense, should focus on North Korea. While the threat of North Korean nuclear missiles is increasing, the country's alliance with the United States is a lifeline in terms of national security.[...]

At a Feb. 6 session of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said, in the view of the government, Resolution 1441 does not by itself legally justify a U.S.-led attack on Iraq. However, the government considers U.S. military operations legitimate because:


-- Resolution 1441 clarified that Iraq has not complied with Resolution 687.


-- The Gulf War truce comes into effect only when Iraq complies fully with Resolution 687.


-- If Iraq is in violation of Resolution 687, the truce is not effective, and the use of force is theoretically possible under Resolution 678.


When U.S. and British forces carried out air strikes against Iraq in 1998, they did so on the basis of Resolutions 678 and 687. Japan supported the strikes, also on the basis of the two resolutions.

Victor Davis Hanson on War on National Review Online

The Security Council is a funny place. I watched the Chinese ambassador grimace at Mr. Powell's speech — and thought of the entire country and hallowed culture of Tibet, now swallowed by his government. Not far away was a functionary from Syria, which has simply absorbed Lebanon. The Russian ambassador voiced pacifist objections too — whose country recently flattened Muslim Grozny. The French dignitary was waving his arms about preventing precipitous unilateral action… Well, you get the picture.


Since September 11 we have seen an array of strange developments illustrating the law of unintended consequences. Hypocrisy, irony, and parody — however we wish to characterize these surreal events — at least bring surprising moral clarity and, with it, real wisdom. [...]

Go check it out...

Nelson writes:


Hello.


A friend of mine who happens to be an excellent poet and an excellent person sent me a text against the war written by Senator Robert Byrd of Virginia, and asked me to move it further if I agreed with it. After following closely all the posturing of so many of my most mediocre colleagues in the Anglo-Saxon world and elsewhere, I have to confess that his mail, by an admirable poet, left me pretty saddened. I deplore the standpoint taken by almost all poets I admire, but I will continue to admire their work as far as it continues to deserve literary, poetic and esthetic admiration. I'm under no illusion, however, that the professional differentiation I will go on making between the other poets' works and their politics will be neither reciprocated nor extended to poets like me who, because they see the political landscape of the world in other terms, are, I'm in no doubt about it, in the absolute minority in the literary community. On the other hand, it is also true that I couldn't care less about it. Here is the answer I sent him today.


All best

Nelson Ascher

Paris


" Having lived in a military dictatorship myself and knowing through my parents about their experience with much worse dictatorships (fascist and communist Hungary, Nazi Germany), having seen innocent people murdered by religious fanatics in NY, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, Indonesia etc. having visited synagogues burned down recently in Europe, and after having seen below my own Parisian window people marching with openly anti-Semitic slogans, I think you'll understand me if I'll ask you a small favor. It is the following: please direct me to sites where I can find poets fighting against tyranny, dictatorship, Muslim fundamentalism, fascistic Arab nationalism, against people who praise and/or promote the intentional murder of civilians because, for instance, they are Americans, Australians, Brits, Jews. I'd like to know if there is any site with poets fighting for justice for the Kurds and the punishment of those guilty for their massacre.[...]

Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition: US, Israel agree to develop next generation of all-purpose jet fighters

The US and Israel have signed a letter of intent outlining the terms of Israel's participation in the development of the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter due to be completed by 2012. Israel will pay tens of millions of dollars over the next several years for the right to participate and purchase the planes.[...]


Some European partners in the program had resisted full Israeli participation. Israel last year was also late in applying for participation in the project, complicating the talks.


As a result, the US and Israel worked out a special bilateral security cooperation deal. Israel will be designated a "security cooperation participant" in the JSF program. Eight countries are already collaborating with the US.


Under the terms of the agreement, Israel will be barred from partner discussions during development, but will have full input via the US, sources said.[...]

Couple of mutually unrelated links from a thread over at LGF:


First, a story about the way the reconstruction of the multi-ethnic Afghan army may be one factor in helping Afghanistan as a whole rebuild (and move into the 20th century). Afghan Army gets ahead by getting along


Second, an article about yet another of Saddam's victim peoples - the "Marsh Arabs." THE IRAQI CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE MARSH ARABS: ECOCIDE AS GENOCIDE

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan threatens force against N Korea

Japan has warned it would launch a pre-emptive military action against North Korea if it had firm evidence Pyongyang was planning a missile attack.


Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it would be "a self-defence measure" if North Korea was going to "resort to arms against Japan".


Mr Ishiba said it would be too late if a North Korean missile was already on its way.


His remarks were the latest in the international row over Pyongyang's nuclear intentions, and followed a North Korean warning that it had the ability to strike American targets anywhere in the world, if provoked. [...]

AP Wire | 02/13/2003 | British Agency Claims New bin Laden Tape

LONDON - A second tape attributed to Osama bin Laden has the al-Qaida leader saying he wants to die a martyr this year in the "eagle's belly," in an apparent reference to the United States.


The British-based Islamic Al-Ansaar news agency on Thursday said it had a 53-minute tape of bin Laden that was allegedly recorded this month and acquired from a seller who advertised over the Internet.[...]

Unfortunately, my wife happened to catch enough of the news to see something about a story of people rushing out to buy plastic and duct tape...uggg. I was afraid of that. Sorry, but I have no intention at the moment of being "one of those people." I figure if the nerve agents reach us out here in the 'burbs, we're fucked as it is. Of course, I have to convince my wife of this...surprisingly, she did not noodge me all night. She seemed to "get" this one. Our house is fairly old and full of holes, anyway. The odds of sealing any reasonable part of it off for even a few hours worth of time (how much time can you have anyway, with no air-recirculation?) is somewhere between slim and none - and Slim just left town.

Yahoo! News - Saudi Rulers Explore Political Reforms

DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia - In the past few months, Saudi Arabia has taken unprecedented steps to encourage debate and explore reforms, signs that the royal family senses change is the best way to protect its rule from the turmoil an Iraqi war may cause.


The government has allowed a U.N. human rights team and a New York-based Human Rights Watch delegation to visit — the first such visits to the kingdom. Crown Prince Abdullah has come up with a proposal for an upcoming Arab summit that calls for greater political participation by the masses and met recently with 40 Saudi reformers who presented him their vision for change. The kingdom's prisons system also is to undergo a major overhaul.


A few years ago, such actions could have been dismissed as an attempt by an absolute monarchy to placate its people with promises of change that would never see light.


But the ruling Al Saud family's worries over the fallout from a U.S.-led war on neighboring Iraq may mean that this time they're serious about reform.[...]

OpinionJournal - Iran Expects - Will Iraq's liberation help free its neighbor too? BY FOUAD AJAMI

Iran and Iraq are different, and the Bush administration knows the difference. Iran has the elements of change within it; Iraq will have to be changed by force. U.S. policy has been more subtle on Iran than its critics would have us believe. No credible American scenario envisages a war against Iran once the dust of battle settles in Iraq. The Iranians must know this, even as their clerical rulers protest their inclusion in the "axis of evil." Patience, deadly and dangerous in dealing with Iraq (in my view), could work in Iran's case. In this regard, the policy of the Bush administration has been on the mark. There has been no urge to court Iran. The zeal with which the Clinton administration pursued an accommodation with Iran's rulers has been cast aside. This has been one of the lessons of Sept. 11: Why court hated rulers if this only gets you the enmity of their resentful populations? It was in this vein that President Bush pitched his policy on Iran in his State of the Union address. A distinction was made between the Iranian theocracy and Iraq: "Different threats require different strategies." The regime in Iran was put on notice for its support of terror and its pursuit of weapons of destruction. But the people of Iran and their "aspirations to live in freedom" were embraced.[...]


As Iran battles its own demons, we needn't let our obsession with the power of the Iranian revolution that paralyzed American power after Desert Storm do so again in Iraq. Our fear of Iran was a factor of no small consequence in our walking away from the Shia and Kurdish rebellions that erupted against Saddam. America didn't know that world, and it was easy to see the Shiites of Iraq as followers of the Iranian clerical regime, a potential "sister republic" in Iran's image. But the Shiites of Iraq are Iraqis and Arabs through and through. The Arabic literary tradition is their pride, the Arab tribal norms their defining culture. They are their country's majority, and thus eager to maintain its independence. The sacred geography of Shiism is in Iraq--in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala and Samarra. Before Saddam shattered the autonomy of Iraq's clerical Shiite establishment, a healthy measure of competition was the norm between the Shiite clerical seminarians of Iraq and those of Iran. In the 1980s, the Shiites of Iraq faced the choice between religious faith and patriotism; they chose the later, fought Saddam's war against Iran, and paid dearly for it. Few Iraqis, I would hazard to guess, would want their country to slip into Iran's orbit.

MEMRI: Palestinian Leaders: Our Strategy Brought Sharon Victory


PA leaders editorialize on the...overuse...of violence and take an honest look at why they have Ariel Sharon to deal with. When dealing with a democracy, sometimes its foes get out what they put in.

"Three times the Israelis expressed faith in the forces of the Left and the Center, which could have made peace for them. The most serious [violent] confrontations took place while the Left and Center ruled, with the encouragement of Palestinian extremists with fanciful plans - which pleased the Israeli Right. The Israelis remember that during Benjamin Netanyahu's term of office, there were the fewest confrontations, and the fewest Israelis were killed. They also remember how the opposite happened during Peres's time, on the eve of the 1996 elections, when buses were exploding in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Ashkelon."

How about us? With all the fears of the Arab Street, and the pointing to the Palestinians as the root cause of all that is wrong in the Middle East, Iraq's own Saddam-haters continue to say, "Thank you USA. Hey everyone else, how about us?


Pointer from Andrew Sullivan.

Regime change in Iraq will provide a historic opportunity - one that is as large as anything that has happened in the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.


Iraq is rich enough and developed enough and has the human resources to become a great force for democracy and economic reconstruction in the Arab and Muslim world.



But most Arabs are in a state of denial. The gulf that opened up between Iraqis and the rest of the Arab world that began with the 1991 Gulf War has reached a kind of crescendo with the current crisis.


Out of the Iraqi opposition - as difficult and fractious as it may be - could emerge a new kind of Arab politics. One that I believe is far healthier than the politics that dominates the Arab world today.


Since 1967, Arab political culture has largely been dominated by Arab nationalism of one form and another. This has been an obsession to the exclusion of everything else.


And today, the spectrum of what is politically possible to talk about in Arab politics runs from Palestine at one end to Palestine at the other, with no room for the plight of the Iraqi people.



But, if you live in Iraq, Palestine is not the central question of your life - your home-grown tyrant is.[...]

Scientific American: The Infant Universe, in Detail

New data from a NASA probe located a million miles from Earth has provided scientists with the information necessary to paint the most precise picture yet of the early universe. The long-awaited images, unveiled yesterday, support theories that posit that the universe underwent a tremendous growth spurt shortly after the big bang. Moreover, they pinpoint the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years old--give or take 200 million years--a mere 1 percent margin of error.[...]

I've always had a very uneasy feeling around my Jewish friends who feel they need to be first in line to criticise Israel (not that I wasn't once one of them). Some of these guys need to be "more anti-Zionist than thou," make sure they have something negative to say about the Israeli government and a quick excuse for the latest Palestinian terrorist. It's always seemed obvious to me - should they get what they want - that once the dust settles, they'll look around themselves and find that the acquaintances they culitivated are not really their friends. Guess Rabbi Michael Lerner got a little reminder of that.

Yahoo! News - Iraq Grants Anti-War 'Human Shields' Entry Visas

Richard Z. Chesnoff - Syria's charade: America's 'ally' promoting terrorism


Nod to IsraPundit for the pointer. Nice article as a primer for what's been happening with UN Security Council member Syria.

Ten of the worst Palestinian extremist groups remain headquartered in Damascus and receive regular Syrian government backing and funds. These include the military wing of Hamas, the leading Islamic terrorist organization in Gaza and the West Bank; Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, whose guerilla camps south of Damascus are used to train terrorists from a mixed bag of Palestinian terrorist organizations that include the Al Aqsa Brigades, the terrorist branch of Yasser Arafat's Al Fatah, and Islamic Jihad, one of the primary fundamentalist gangs behind the recent rash of Palestinian suicide bombings and attacks on Israeli civilians.

News of the World - Hold your peace - A SERIOUS rift has opened up between Prince Charles and the government because he is seen to be AGAINST a war on Iraq and AGAINST America.




I wasn't aware of any of this. Is this all for real, or just British tabloid sensationalism signifying nothing?

There are also worries that he makes no secret of his anti-American views in conversations with members of Arab royal families and their leading officials.


A Whitehall source said: "Downing Street tries not to involve the prince in anything— because they have concerns over how he will react.


"He has this lunatic view he is the voice of the people."[...]


His visit to the Parachute Regiment barracks in Colchester does not merit a single line on his official website. It was not announced by his own office.


Yet his opening of an Islamic education centre in Leicester two weeks ago is reported on the website with 19 paragraphs, two pictures and a full transcript of his speech. [...]


The prince's views have led to a worrying split with the American leadership. Two months ago, Charles had to abandon an official visit to the US because the White House made it clear he wasn't wanted.


The snub—directly from President Bush—came after security sources advised that Charles's presence in America would be "very unhelpful".


Washington diplomats were concerned the prince would show his disapproval during meetings with President Bush.


Charles—who reads the Koran every day and often adopts Islamic dress at home—spends long hours discussing the Middle East's problems with Saudi royal family members. [...]

But who beside the US and friends is listening? This Iraqi defector has been screaming out for years about Saddam's WMD programs.


OpinionJournal - The Inspections Dodge

Why are France and Germany pro-Saddam? Follow the money.

What has become obvious is that the U.N. inspection process was designed to delay any possible U.S. military action to disarm Iraq. Germany, France, and Russia, states we called "friendly" when I was in Baghdad, are also engaged in a strategy of delay and obstruction.



In the two decades before the Gulf War, I played a role in Iraq's efforts to acquire major technologies from friendly states. In 1974, I headed an Iraqi delegation to France to purchase a nuclear reactor. It was a 40-megawatt research reactor that our sources in the IAEA told us should cost no more than $50 million. But the French deal ended up costing Baghdad more than $200 million. The French-controlled Habbania Resort project cost Baghdad a whopping $750 million, and with the same huge profit margin. With these kinds of deals coming their way, is it any surprise that the French are so desperate to save Saddam's regime?


Germany was the hub of Iraq's military purchases in the 1980s. Our commercial attaché, Ali Abdul Mutalib, was allocated billions of dollars to spend each year on German military industry imports. These imports included many proscribed technologies with the German government looking the other way. In 1989, German engineer Karl Schaab sold us classified technology to build and operate the centrifuges we needed for our uranium-enrichment program. German authorities have since found Mr. Schaab guilty of selling nuclear secrets, but because the technology was considered "dual use" he was fined only $32,000 and given five years probation.


Meanwhile, other German firms have provided Iraq with the technology it needs to make missile parts. Mr. Blix's recent finding that Iraq is trying to enlarge the diameter of its missiles to a size capable of delivering nuclear weapons would not be feasible without this technology transfer.


Russia has long been a major supplier of conventional armaments to Iraq--yet again at exorbitant prices. Even the Kalashnikov rifles used by the Iraqi forces are sold to Iraq at several times the price of comparable guns sold by other suppliers.


Saddam's policy of squandering Iraq's resources by paying outrageous prices to friendly states seems to be paying off. The irresponsibility and lack of morality these states are displaying in trying to keep the world's worst butcher in power is perhaps indicative of a new world order. It is a world of winks and nods to emerging rogue states--for a price. It remains for the U.S. and its allies to institute an opposing order in which no price is high enough for dictators like Saddam to thrive.

From FrontPage Magazine

"Yesterday and today, my friends and I visited Tanh Hoa province. There we were able to see at first hand the constructive work of the social revolution of the Vietnamese people. We saw luxurious fields and lovely countryside. We saw brave men and women who know how to defend their country from brutal aggression, but also to work with pride and with dignity to build a society of material prosperity, social justice, and cultural progress. I would like to express the great joy that we feel in your accomplishments.


"We also saw the ruins of dwellings and hospitals, villages mutilated by savage bombardments, craters disfiguring the peaceful countryside. In the midst of the creative achievements of the Vietnamese people, we came face to face with the savagery of a technological monster controlled by a social class, the rulers of the American empire, that has no place in the 20th century, that has only the capacity to repress and murder and destroy.


"We also saw the (Ham Ranh) Bridge, standing proud and defiant, and carved on the bills above we read the words, 'determined to win.' The people of Vietnam will win, they must win, because your cause is the cause of humanity as it moves forward toward liberty and justice, toward the socialist society in which free, creative men control their own destiny.


"This is my first visit to Vietnam. Nevertheless, since the moment when we arrived at the airport at Hanoi, I've had a remarkable and very satisfying feeling of being entirely at home. It is as if we are renewing old friendships rather than meeting new friends. It is as if we are returning to places that have a deep and personal meaning.


"In part, this is because of the warmth and the kindness with which we have been received, wherever we have gone. In part, it is because for many years we have wished all our strength and will to stand beside you in your struggle. We are deeply grateful to you that you permit us to be part of your brave and historical struggle. We hope that there will continue to be strong bonds of comradeship between the people of Vietnam and the many Americans who wish you success and who detest with all of their being the hateful activities of the American government.


"Those bonds of friendship are woven of many strands. From our point of view there is first of all the deep sympathy that we felt for the suffering of the Vietnamese people, which persists and increases in the southern part of your country, where the American aggression continues in full force.


"There is, furthermore, a feeling of regret and shame that we must feel because we have not been able to stop the American war machine. More important still is our admiration for the people of Vietnam who have been able to defend themselves against the ferocious attack, and at the same time take great strides forward toward the socialist society.


"But, above all, I think, is the feeling of pride. Your heroism reveals the capabilities of the human spirit and human will. Decent people throughout the world see in your struggle a model for themselves. They are in your debt, everlastingly, because you were in the forefront of the struggle to create a world in which the chains of oppression have been broken and replaced by social bonds among free men working in true solidarity and cooperation.


"Your courage and your achievements teach us that we too must be determined to win--not only to win the battle against American aggression in Southeast Asia, but also the battle against exploitation and racism in our own country.


"I believe that in the United States there will be some day a social revolution that will be of great significance to us and to all of mankind, and if this hope is to be proven correct, it will be in large part because the people of Vietnam have shown us the way.


"While in Hanoi I have had the opportunity to read the recent and very important book by Le Duan on the problems and tasks of the Vietnamese revolution. In it, he says that the fundamental interests of the proletariat of the people of all the world consists in at the same time in safeguarding world peace and moving the revolution forward in all countries. This is our common goal. We only hope that we can build upon your historic achievements. Thank you."


- Noam Chomsky, originally delivered on April 13, 1970 in Hanoi while he was visiting North Vietnam with a group of anti-war activists. Broadcast by Radio Hanoi on April 14, and published in the _Asia-Pacific Daily Report_ of the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, April 16, 1970, pages K2-K3.

Why, the USA, of course.


Reviled in Many Places Around the World, Americans Are Adored in Kosovo - from Tampa Bay Online


Hat tip to Dancing with Dogs for the pointer. Where were the peace protestors when NATO intervened in Kosovo? Where were the French and German obstructions?

DJAKOVICA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - American flags flutter on peasants' homes. A couple grateful for U.S. help in ending Kosovo's war names a daughter in honor of Madeleine Albright.



A six-story-high poster of former President Clinton towers over the capital's main drag, renamed Bill Clinton Boulevard. And the president of Kosovo is building a new compound he calls the White House.


Americans may be reviled in many parts of the world and accused of waging a war on Muslims, but they're adored in this U.N. protectorate, where the Muslim majority sees the United States as a savior.


"When I see scenes on television of people elsewhere burning American flags, I'm deeply hurt," said Dr. Besnik Bardhi, who runs a clinic in the southwestern city of Djakovica, where 1,000 people remain missing after the 1998-99 war.


Bardhi's wife was pregnant with their first child during Slobodan Milosevic's savage crackdown on Muslim ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province. The couple promised each other that if they had a girl they'd name her Madeleine, and Bill if it was a boy.


Their daughter, now 3, danced impishly across their apartment and pointed to a framed photograph of Albright, who was U.S. secretary of state during the conflict. "This is the woman who saved us," she told a visitor brightly.


"If there is a God, his missionaries on Earth are Americans," her father responded...

Boston Globe Online - Ariz. militias keep watch on border


Apparently, the "oppressive" United States continues to be a draw for folks who live in other places.

The 47-year-old father of two says his binoculars are to spot ''illegals.'' The gun is to protect himself in case he runs into trouble. The cap is to let everyone know that Americans like him are no longer willing to let Mexicans sneak in over the border.


Bouton belongs to Civil Homeland Defense, one of several citizen groups that have taken up unofficial patrolling along the border in recent months.

Anger has been mounting over the flood of migrants crossing into the Arizona desert since 2000, after US authorities cracked down on safer, more populated border areas in Texas and California.


That anger has been stirred by fear that illegal immigration from Mexico is somehow linked to terrorism, although there are no reports of terrorists ever crossing the Mexican border and the number of Border Patrol arrests has declined.


''We're not down here just for Mexicans,'' said Bouton, a retired Marine. ''We're down here for terrorists. The government is not going to get involved until something like 9/11 happens again, and then we're going to find out the bomb went through here.''


The citizen militias - Civil Homeland Defense, Ranch Rescue, and American Border Patrol (not to be confused with the government's US Border Patrol) - all want US troops sent to the border. They add that if the government won't protect the border, they will.


Although none of the groups has been linked to any violence, authorities in Mexico are worried about the patrols.


Mexican lawmakers traveled to Tucson a few weeks ago to appeal to Arizona officials to stop what they consider vigilante groups hunting Mexicans. Legislator Efren Leyva called the groups a time bomb that could shatter US-Mexico relations. He tied them to 40 incidents in which 92 people were detained, saying each ''had the risk of violence.''


''We are very worried about these people who want to take justice into their own hands,'' Leyva said. ''A Mexican migrant could get seriously hurt.''

The US Commission on Civil Rights is pressuring the US Justice Department to investigate the patrols.

Just received an interesting email from a contact in Germany giving a little run-down on some of the goings-on over there. Thought some of you might enjoy it. *Warning:* Contains some harsh language which I have left in:

The trouble with Germans (and I don't think this is just politicos, but also a substantial share of the populace) is that they regard Rumsfeld and Bush and Powell to be "dumb" Yanks.


Who's Powell? Some black ex-army guy who was involved in Desert Shield/Storm. Must be the Whitehouse's token nigger. No more, no less.


I mean, he was in the army FFS. And "nobody" loathes the army like the Germans


Rumsfeld? Who's he? Oh, former US ambassador to NATO? Where's that? Never heard of it ... somewhere in Africa?


They seem to discount Rumsfeld as a belligerent red-neck "yankee" (their terms of endearment, not mine).


They totally fail to see what the guy is capable of with just a few well-picked words.


They could learn a lot. He really knows how to play the game on the stage of world politics. Simple, but devastatingly effective.


OK, perhaps they're starting to notice it now, but it's probably too late.


Schröder's latest grasp for a straw is to claim that his current actions/decisions will prove to be of "monumental importance" to the next 10-15 years of European political history.


He's basically stating to the world that Germany - which "he" embodies - is not obligated to any other government (OK, that could also be called sovereignty). The current issue regarding war with Iraq will, in his opinion, determine whether future world policy is decided on a multilateral basis, or merely dictated by the US (again, he's probably not far off the mark there, considering how UN-effective a certain global policymaking body has become...)


But at the end of the day, it's basically just more of the "counter-balance to the US now that the Sov Bloc is gone" rhetoric.


I guess whether you're pro or contra to such a stance depends on whether or not you really deem such a counterweight a necessity ...


Mind you, Schröder's certainly an achiever.


Not only has he managed to totally ruin Germany's domestic economy in the past 4 years, he's now also fucked up beyond all recognition all of the work that genuine German statesmen like Genscher and Kohl put into building up US/German relations. Well done, Gerhard.

Did anyone happen to catch the American General who shed a tear on 60 Minutes last night when asked about his feelings about seeing South Koreans buring the American flag? Although there have been some small pro-American demonstrations, one can't help but be struck by the obvious overwhelming anti-American sentiment there.


At the horrible risk of being naive about current American interests in South Korea one's natural reaction might be to simply say, "Hey, what the hell are we doing there? They don't want us? Let's get out!" So what if North Korea invades the south? They're hardly like to cause a domino effect of Communist regimes taking over world-wide?


But there's a little problem isn't there? The thing making it a little bit more difficult, leaving aside current geo-political considerations, is the fact that 34,000 Americans gave their lives defending freedom in South Korea. 34,000 Americans died, and America spends approximately $3 Billion per year defending the DMZ so the current crop of internet addicted South Korean spoiled brats can spit in our faces.


Any American President wanting to pull our troops out of Korea is going to have to explain to all the friends and families of all those dead, why we would just pull out and give up for nothing what America bought at such great cost. Right or wrong, that's a question that will need to be answered.


Of course, American soldiers aren't there to defend liberty, they're "Imperialist Aggression Forces." That's why our flag burns...and a General weeps.

What's Behind Latest 'Orange Alert'

The Bush administration raised the national threat alert from "yellow" to "orange" Friday after receiving new intelligence reports that pointed to the possibility of multiple imminent attacks by Al Qaeda against Jewish groups and Jewish-owned businesses inside the United States, NEWSWEEK has learned...

Bat Yeor on Europe on National Review Online

...For iniquity engulfs those who hate, who kill - and not the hated victim. It is those who hate who are sick: sick from envy; sick from the frustration of having failed to achieve an absolute, pathological domination; sick from a schizophrenic lust for power. To heal these societies one must first diagnose the evil and not mask it under the excuse of "poverty" and "underdevelopment." Terrorism is not a consequence of poverty. Many societies are poor, yet they do not produce an organized criminality of terror. To subsidize societies which nourish ideologies of hate will not suppress terrorism, rather such pusillanimity will reinforce it.


America should not choose European ways: the road back to Munich via appeasement, collaboration, and dhimmitude. For decades at the instigation of France, Europe backed Arafat - the godfather of modern terrorism - as the champion of liberty, and their hero.

The cracks between Europe and America reveal the divergences between the choice of liberty and the road back to Munich on which the European Union continues to caper to new Arab-Islamic tunes, now called "occupation," "peace and justice," and "immigrants' rights" — themes which were composed for Israel's burial. And for Europe's demise.

NYPOST.COM National News: BUSH: WE'LL FINISH THE JOB THAT ISRAELI HERO STARTED By URI DAN

February 6, 2003 -- JERUSALEM - President Bush consoled the children of Israel's first astronaut by telling them he would finish the job begun by their father - who bombed Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor.


During a memorial service in Houston on Tuesday, Bush praised Ilan Ramon, an Israeli Air Force colonel, along with the six other Columbia crew members who perished.


Afterward, the president embraced some of four Ramon's children and asked them to "tell me about your father," Israeli newspapers reported yesterday.


The children told Bush their father was a jet-fighter pilot who destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 when Israel feared it would be used to develop atomic weapons.


"Your father started the job," Bush told them. "And I am going to finish it." [Full Story]

WorldNetDaily: Lebanese leader: Bush a 'mad emperor'

"The oil axis is present in most of the U.S. administration, beginning with its president, vice president and top advisers, including (Condoleezza) Rice, who is oil-colored, while the axis of Jews is present with Paul Wolfowitz, the leading hawk who is inciting (America) to occupy and destroy Iraq," he continued...





"And by the way, Aznar and Blair spend a lot of time in front of the mirror every morning, it seems, so that their hair is parted perfectly," said Jumblatt.


"'People who pay that much attention to their appearance are fascists by nature. Or they have psychological or sexual complexes. I think the best way to understand (them) would be to … read Freud," he said. …

I've been listening to G. Gordon Liddy's radio broadcasts from Israel via the Jerusalem Post's, America's Voices in Israel.. Liddy (and others) speak to various Israeli personages. It's worth a listen.

Jerusalem Post reports, "Iranians, Palestinians join thousands in consoling Ramon family"

The IDF has received more than 10,000 condolence messages via e-mail from all over the world for the family of astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon, which are in turn to be passed on to his family.


Poems, prayers and tributes have come even from such countries as Iran and parts of the Palestinian Authority-ruled areas, as well as Ireland, Scandinavian countries, German, France, Argentina and India.


A 27-year-old female student from Teheran wrote "I wish to let you know that the Iranian people also feel the depth of your pain in this devastating incident. Anywhere human beings suffer, we all suffer as a whole whether we realize it or not, and this tragedy is no exception."


A resident from the West Bank city of Nablus said "we all in Nablus send our hearty condolences to the Ramon familty and the Israeli people on the loss of Col. Ilan Ramon in the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. Ilan is a courageous person who lost his lifefor the sake of mankind."


Another West Bank resident from the city of Bethlehem wrote "I'm very sorry that your son died in this tragic event. It is a big loss for the world to lose an astronaut like Mr. Ramon and his friends. I hope you accept my condolences."


An email from the Las Palmas Canary Islands said "we feel a great sorrow for the loss of Ilan Ramon. He was a model of perfection, humanity, knowledge and valour." A writer from Panama described Ramon as their hero and a message from NASA said "we are sending you our heartfelt condolences. Ilan was our pride and our hope. Ilan lived for us and Ilan died for us. His memory will live in Jewish history!"


The army plans to present the thousands of e-mails to the Ramon family when they arrive in Israel.


Meanwhile those who wish to convey their thoughts can continue to send messages to ilanfamily@mail.idf.il

Salon.com has an interview with Camille Paglia a friend pointed me to. I thought I'd take out a few snippets and give my impressions. There are a few gaps here - this is not a cut and paste of the whole interview. You may want to read the whole thing at the link above, first.

"The foreign press has asked me repeatedly to comment on Iraq, and I've said I don't think it's right as an American citizen to do that. I said I should reserve my criticisms of the administration for home consumption," said Paglia. "That's why I'm talking to you now."

But most members of the current administration seem to have little sense that there's an enormous, complex world beyond our borders. The president himself has never traveled much in his life. They seem to think the universe consists of America and then everyone else -- small-potatoes people who can be steamrolled.

And I'm absolutely appalled at the lack of acknowledgment of the cost to ordinary Iraqi citizens of any incursion by us, especially aerial bombardment. Most of the Iraqi armed forces are pathetically unprepared to respond to a military confrontation with us.

There's just no way that Saddam's threat is equal to that of Hitler leading up to World War II. Hitler had amassed an enormous military machine and was actively seeking world domination. We don't need to invade Iraq. Saddam can be bottled up with aggressive surveillance and pinpoint airstrikes on military installations.

As we speak, I have a terrible sense of foreboding, because last weekend a stunning omen occurred in this country. Anyone who thinks symbolically had to be shocked by the explosion of the Columbia shuttle, disintegrating in the air and strewing its parts and human remains over Texas -- the president's home state! So many times in antiquity, the emperors of Persia or other proud empires went to the oracles to ask for advice about going to war. Roman generals summoned soothsayers to read the entrails before a battle. If there was ever a sign for a president and his administration to rethink what they're doing, this was it. I mean, no sooner had Bush announced that the war was "weeks, not months" away and gone off for a peaceful weekend at Camp David than this catastrophe occurred in the skies over Texas.

Yes, exactly! What weird irony with an Israeli astronaut onboard who had bombed Iraq 20 years ago. To me this dreadful accident is a graphic illustration of the limitations of modern technology -- of the smallest detail that can go wrong and end up thwarting the most fail-safe plan. So I think that history will look back on this as a key moment. Kings throughout history have been shaken by signals like this from beyond: Think twice about what you're doing. If a Roman general tripped on the threshold before a battle, he'd call it off.

The Bush administration is not known for thinking twice -- they pride themselves on their certitude, a certitude that strikes many as arrogant.

I think that Bush administration officials are genuinely convinced of the rightness of their positions, although their biblical piety is cloying. I think they do intend the best for the American people. It's not just a covert grab for oil to placate corporate interests.

But I also think that their current course of action in Iraq is disastrous for long-term world safety. After 9/11, what should have been perfectly clear is that we need a long, slow process of reeducating the peoples of the world, to try to convince Muslims of the fundamental benevolence of American intentions. And we had most of the world behind us in the days after 9/11, except for the Muslim extremists.

One of the concerns of those who'd rather not have a "War In Iraq" is the fear of the quagmire we'll find ourselves in after the military campaign is over. We dare not go forward to Baghdad for fear of nation-building, chafing the "Arab street" and a long military occupation. But haven't they noticed? There is a quagmire, and we're already in it - up to our necks.


One of the things that the First World War drummed into the psyche of Americans is that when you go to war, you don't leave the job half done. Stopping on the way to Berlin left the Germans pining away for the day when they could rebuild their honor. It wasn't too many years before Hitler played on that feeling and WW2 came a knocking.


So, having learned our lesson from the "War To End All Wars," when it came time to fight the second time around, we didn't make the same mistake twice. Hitler made it easy for us in Europe - he had his armies fighting to the last and the taking of Berlin with an enforced change of government was inevitable. In Japan, the allies would accept nothing short of unconditional surrender - in spite of the fact that this condition may just have caused the war to go on longer. One thing was for sure, we didn't want to have to come back again.


In the end, the Japanese were forced to stare the very destruction of their civilization in the face. They had no choice. The forced re-structuring of their government was what they got as well.


Both societies found the experiences so traumatic and soul-shaking, that neither would return to the same warrior path that had led them to stare over the precipice again.




The first Gulf War came about after a long-belligerent Iraq finally went so far that the world community could no longer ignore them. Unfortunately, the conclusion of the armed conflict did not remove the real cause of the conflict - not the occupation of Kuwait, but the regime in Baghdad. It would be unfair to blame George Bush, Sr. for that outcome. It would be easy to forget the political reality of the time. The UN mandate governing the invasion did not call for Saddam's removal. The Arab governments did not want us to remove Hussein, and we cared sufficiently about their concerns that we were afraid that the Western Powers removing an Arab leader by force would agitate the Arab Street so badly one or more of these governments may fall. We also still had the idea that a Hussein government would continue to contain Iran.


So Saddam was left in place. In effect what we had was an Arab leader who stood up to the United States and won. The fact that he lost the military campaign was beside the point. He had fought and tried and was still in power - another Arab victim of the Imperialist Americans. He was left in place to play his games of agitation. The other Arab governments could continue to appease their radicals and they and Hussein were in a better position than ever to continue their proxy war against Israel.


In order to enforce UN Resolutions to prevent Saddam from continuing to oppress his people, the US, UK and, for a very short time, France, set up the northern and southern no-fly zones. Once these were in full swing (but not before, shortly after the cessation of hostilities, Saddam was able once again to commit oppression and massacres on these people), they were, and have been responsible for allowing the northern Kurds, for instance, a measure of autonomy they have not known before - complete with a measure of democracy.


Unfortunately, these zones are no long-term solution. We can't stay there forever. We need an exit strategy. When it was still hoped that Saddam would be overthrown, that was the exit strategy, but it's not happening. Instead, we've let Saddam revel in political games. The US/UK "occupation" continues to chafe the Arab world on a continuing basis, and Saddam wastes no effort in playing on this. To the Arab world, we look like oppressors, continuing to pick on yet another Arab government that won't kow-tow to Washington. Saddam wastes no effort in claiming all sorts of civilian casualties from the occasional bombing.


He parlays this across the Middle-East, combining his identity as victim with cash rewards to the families of homicide bombers and making himself into a figure-head of the radical Islamic world - something no one needs and which does no one any good at all.


Further, the NFZ's (no fly zones) cost us money and risk lives. They harm our political standing with very little hope of reward. France understood this early, and got out, leaving the US and UK holding the bag.


Various UN resolutions - the various "Oil for Food" programs - have been manipulated by Saddam. Although progressive resolutions have attempted to make more essential items available in order to help the Iraqi people while preventing Saddam from re-arming, Saddam has refused to cooperate fully with the UN. The Iraqi people have suffered. Although the numbers are clearly exaggerated for effect by Saddam, much of the world buys his inflated figures, and it's no skin off his nose if a few babies starve for the cameras. Important to note is the fact that again, in the Kurdish areas out of Saddams' control, where the various UN agencies are actually able to operate freely and distribute goods under the programs, there is no such humanitarian crisis.


Unfortunately, that doesn't help our image. The sanctions have to end sometime. We can't keep them up forever. It's the US and the UK paying the diplomatic price. Not the UN, and not Saddam. It has to come to an end some time.


Saddam has masterfully played the world off against each other. He's kept pressure on his fellow Arabs through his manipulation of the Arab Street, he's kept control of his own money through "Oil for Food" by refusing to cooperate with the UN, and he's rewarded those governments who support him against the US with lucrative contracts and cheap and smuggled oil - notably the French, Russians and Chinese. Ironically, before the sanctions, business was done through a number of Iraqi firms - now it all goes through the government. Again, this further isolates the US and UK.





So now we have much of the world community sitting back and telling us that we have to continue with the status-quo. Well that can't happen. They aren't paying the price for it. That price includes money, it includes risk, it includes lost diplomatic clout, it includes erstwhile allies distancing themselves from us and it includes a continuing irritant across the Arab world.




So, should we just call it quits? Declare victory and depart the field? Leave the already porous, corrupted sanctions in place but give up any semblance of enforcement? Any sanctions at all would continue to provide a diplomatic stick for any two-bit Middle Eastern demagogue. Cancel them altogether? Remove the NFZ's? Leave the Kurds, the Shi'ites, the Marsh Arabs to their fates - again.


I submit that this would eviscerate the United States' credibility. It would leave one of the worst of the Middle East's tyrants in power, and worse, increase his prestige immeasurably. Imagine what mischief a stronger Saddam would be able to reak across that region. (I'll leave out of this discussion the obvious destruction of whatever credibility the UN has left.) He would have won, and the US would be shown to have been a paper tiger once again. Just stick to your guns against her and she can't last. We would have shown a weakness in our core that no tin-pot dictator would fail to note.


So while we're fretting over the quagmire in front of us, let's not neglect pulling ourselves out of the one we're sitting in.


And you just know, in the end, we'd have to come back.

Opinion Journal brings in this pointer to a little story about the continuing efforts to get Afghanistan back on its feet. Nice to see this type of thing. Money is one thing (and we're sending a lot of it), but people and faces on the ground are something even better.

Nation-Building

The Pentagon recently unveiled a new plan to set up what it calls Joint Regional Teams in towns across Afghanistan. These will be manned by 60 government and military officials, including special operations soldiers, Civil Affairs troops, State Department officers, and representatives from other coalition partners. Though these teams will be armed with assault rifles, their most potent weapon will be their calculators, tape measures, and laptop computers. They will act as middle men--and women--to help get contractors in and construction projects done for local villages.

US senator accuses France of being interested in oil contracts

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (AFP) - US Republican Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate, Wednesday accused France of opposing military action against Iraq solely to protect its oil interests.

Rumsfeld poked a stick once again into the den of one of the members of the Axis of Weasel:

"And then there are three or four countries that have said they won't do anything. I believe Libya, Cuba and Germany are the ones that I have indicated won't help in any respect," Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee.

I happened to find myself at this Iranian Blog. He points to another piece of note in Opinion Journal by S. Rob Sobhani, Iranians for Bush:

The Bush Doctrine on Iran seems simple: The U.S. will be a partner in Iran's quest for freedom. To the rulers of Iran, the most alarming part of President Bush's speech were the words, "while they export terror we will export freedom and liberty." This message, more than any other, irks the clerical establishment because it signals that the U.S. will not wait for the mullahs to change their behavior. Rather, change will be thrust upon them.

The Independent's Robert Fisk continues his terrific record of sensible editorials (that's a joke, son). Very few people actually come as close to being in the "pro-Saddam" camp.

Sources, foreign intelligence sources, "our sources," defectors, sources, sources, sources. Colin Powell's terror talk to the United Nations Security Council yesterday sounded like one of those government-inspired reports on the front page of The New York Times - where it will most certainly be treated with due reverence in this morning's edition. It was a bit like heating up old soup. Haven't we heard most of this stuff before? Should one trust the man? General Powell, I mean, not Saddam.