"Driver? Say, driver! My ticket's not for Vladivostok!"
A man demanding political asylum in the United States took 11 bus passengers hostage the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Saturday, but released them unharmed, news reports said. The 29-year-old man, brandishing what turned out to be a fake gun, seized the bus, apologized to the passengers and demanded to be taken to the U.S. Consulate General, the news agency ITAR-Tass reported. During negotiations with police, the man said he and his family were in danger, the report said without giving details. He released all the hostages and surrendered after an appeal from his mother who was brought to the scene, the agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2004 12:55:16 PM ||
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If you have ever wanted to emulate Star Trek and talk to colleagues via a lapel communicator, then now is your chance. US firm Vocera has created a wireless voice communicator just like they use in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Similar to the TV series, all you do to contact someone is press the talk button on the lapel badge, say their name, and you will be put through. The gadget is proving popular in hospitals to make it easier for nurses to find and get advice from doctors.
Two former fraternity brothers Friday were sentenced to community service - but escaped jail - for stealing and eating a jumbo goldfish at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The men were drunk when they snatched Midas, an 18-inch koi fish that lived in a university-owned pond. The men fried the fish and fed it to fraternity pledges last year.
Fried? Everyone knows you serve koi grilled with soy sauce!
Casey Loop, 23, and Matthew Cox, 22, last month pleaded no contest of misdemeanor grand theft and vandalism. On Friday, a judge sentenced Loop to 300 hours of community service. Cox, who apologized for the prank immediately after the incident, was sentenced to 200 hours. They also received a combined five years probation. They could have received up to two years in jail. As part of their sentences, each man will have to work 40 hours at a Japanese institute that has a pond filled with koi.
"And don't you boys get any ideas, y'hear?"
The incident was filmed for the MTV series ``Fraternity Life,'' but never aired. Prosecutors used subpoenas to obtain out-takes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2004 1:19:49 AM ||
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#1
I'm glad that no blender was involved.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/17/2004 3:22 Comments ||
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#4
Rawsnacks: I thought koi were a kind of carp, probably tasted like shit. But expensive shit.
All goldfish are carp. The characteristics of carp are extreme fishiness and huge numbers of tiny bones. It's got to be cooked with many slices of ginger and green onions to get rid of the fishy taste. I can't believe a bunch of frat boys would eat a goldfish unless they had an expert chef on hand.
The independent group overseeing NASA's effort to resume shuttle flights said Friday the agency has completed the first steps toward returning to space. After the Feb. 1, 2003, accident that destroyed the space shuttle Columbia and killed all seven astronauts aboard, investigators recommended 15 changes. NASA has completed three changes and is putting into place most of the other recommendations, said Joseph Cuzzupoli, who oversees the technical panel of the Return to Flight Task Group. ``The progress that has been made by NASA in implementing the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board are substantial,'' said former shuttle commander Richard Covey, who is leading the task group. Covey said there is still much work to be done before NASA is ``truly ready to return to flight.''
The group say NASA has met recommendations to:
- Revisit its agreements with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
- Audit all major shuttle projects and elements, and implement a new policy that two NASA employees must attend all foam hand-spraying procedures and final reviews of all flight hardware.
- Implement a comprehensive inspection plan for the shuttle's thermal protection system.
``There is no doubt that this vehicle will be the most safe vehicle that has ever flown,'' Cuzzupoli said.
He means "safest." He's a rocket scientist, not an English major...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2004 1:14:16 AM ||
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Saudi authorities have arrested a reformist soon after he participated in a discussion aired on Aljazeera. According to Dr Said bin al-Ziar's son, his father was arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning. "Saudi security authorities have so far issued no official charges against my father," said Abd Allah al-Ziar. "Apparently, he had been arrested after participating in Aljazeera's special coverage on Usama bin Ladin's audiotape aired on the television channel last Thursday," he told Aljazeera. Dr Al-Ziar's son said "we cannot contact my father now." He said the authorities who carried out the arrest said Dr al-Ziar would be taken to the "Hayl prison". "I feel disappointed as he was taken to jail again without any charges levelled against him." Dr al-Ziar was previously jailed for eight and a half years on charges of calling for reform in the Saudi kingdom. He was released 14 months ago.
Maybe it was something he said?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2004 5:39:34 PM ||
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Dr al-Ziar was previously jailed for eight and a half years on charges of calling for reform in the Saudi kingdom.
How come we never heard of him before?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/17/2004 17:49 Comments ||
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.... An EOS Gallup Europe poll conducted last month in 30 European countries found most citizens opposed the U.S. intervention in Iraq and their own countriesâ participation in related actions without UN approval, ABC News reported on 20 March. While 82 percent of EU nationals believed a military intervention in Iraq without UN approval was unjustified, the figure among 13 EU accession and candidate countries -- including "coalition of the willing" members such as Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia -- was lower at 74 percent. The poll figures do not translate into large street demonstrations or significant political action, however. "If thereâs apathy in the West, thereâs even more apathy in Eastern Europe," Mary Kaldor, a veteran of the European Nuclear Disarmament movement and director of the Global Civil Society Program at the London School of Economics ....
The original motion to deploy Estonian troops to the Persian Gulf in May 2003 was backed by 69 of 101 deputies, a proportion similar to parliaments elsewhere in the region. But according to balticblog.blogspot.com, the final wording of the Estonian bill is likely to include language -- at the behest of Estoniaâs Social Democrats -- linking the extension to a UN mandate. The Estonian contingent is deployed in Baghdad, in a fairly peaceful zone.
Latvia has about 100 soldiers and Lithuania 90 troops participating in stabilization efforts in Iraq, and those leaders seem to be unflinching supporters of the coalition effort. Lithuaniaâs parliament recently approved the continued presence of its troops in Iraq. Russian news sources tend to report unspecified antiwar sentiment that they believe is growing due to casualties, but Baltic media do not report such sentiment as widespread, and antiwar demonstrations have not been reported in their respective capitals. ....
Bulgarians have ways of making their unhappiness known that do not always involve street demonstrations. One of them is the time-honored collective petitioning of the powers-that-be. .... Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, who had reasserted the governmentâs determination to keep maintain soldiers in Iraq, met personally with the relatives and assured them that measures were being taken to keep the troops safe. .... Such high-level assurance and attention seemed to mollify the soldiersâ families for now, and one relative admitted to journalists that the soldiers had not asked to be recalled from Iraq but their families were making the request on their behalf. Yet two days later, on 14 April, 15 of the approximately 450 Bulgarian troops stationed in Karbala asked to be relieved of their duties. ....
While much concern has focused on their troops, Bulgarians have also expressed anxiety about possible terrorism. A little-reported sidebar to the Madrid tragedy of 11 March was the unusually large number of Eastern Europeans and Latin Americans among the victims -- presumably due to the number of students and migrant workers from poorer neighborhoods aboard the commuter trains that were struck, UPI reported on 11 March. Four Bulgarians were killed and eight others wounded in the Madrid blasts .....
Polls last year in the Czech Republic suggested that 70 percent of citizens opposed the war and did not back the deployment of the Czech antinuclear, -biological, and -chemical (NBC) unit to Iraq. Anxiety increased as the country followed the fate of three Czech journalists taken hostage ....
About 80 percent of Hungaryâs population opposed military intervention in Iraq, AP reported on 25 March -- perhaps explaining why the countryâs Defense Ministry appeared to flip-flop on the issue, first talking about reducing its 300-troop deployment, then saying it has no intentions of doing so. The opposition Democratic Forum called on the government to bring the troops home immediately .... The strongest opposition party, FIDESZ, took the position that Hungarian troops should be ordered home before their mandate expires only if they are unable to accomplish their mission. In an attempt to allay public fears, Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz told the daily Nepszabadsag that no fighting is going on in the area where Hungarian soldiers are based, and they are not expected to be directly involved in any armed conflict.
Polandâs President Aleksander Kwasniewski made headlines last month when he complained that his country was "taken for a ride" regarding the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, yet he vowed to keep Polandâs 2,500 troops in Iraq. Members of the Polish parliament called for a withdrawal of the countryâs troops from Iraq but have not gathered a majority to back them. In polls before and since the war began in Iraq, 70 percent of the Polish public has opposed the invasion of Iraq, less than in some other new and prospective NATO and EU members, but still a high majority. Two Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq. ....
Most Russians appear to believe the occupation of Iraq is a "crime against the Iraqi people," UPI reported on 18 March, citing RosBusinessConsulting and a February poll by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM). Some 62 percent of Russians characterized the war as a "crime," while 23 percent said it was necessary and 4 percent supported it. ....
Ukraine sent 1,634 troops to Iraq, in part to repair relations with the United States, which has been critical of Ukraineâs deteriorating human rights situation and made allegations of past sales of arms to Iraq. Four Ukrainian troops have died in Iraq to date -- three in accidents, including one incident of mishandled weapons. The fourth, Ruslan Androshuk, was killed in his tank in Al-Kut on 9 April while his unit was evacuating during a fight for a bridge over the Tigris River. He was the first combat death for Ukraine and received wide coverage on local television. Five other Ukrainians in Androshukâs unit were wounded. ....
Ukrainian military spokesmen repeatedly explained that their troops were unprepared for combat and had expected to serve as peacekeepers, not warriors. In discussions of the Ukrainian presence in Iraq, the word "peacekeeper" rather than "soldier" is always used, presumably to invoke associations with the United Nations even though the UN has not sanctioned a peacekeeping force from Ukraine or any other partner or ally of the U.S.-led coalition.
Parliamentarians who have opposed the war have been quick to pick up on the lack of UN authorization and the sense that the United States appears to be alone in making decisions about troop deployment. ....
The opposition Our Ukraine requested that Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk report on the peacekeepersâ situation and noted that -- before agreeing to the deployment in August -- the parliament had stipulated that they would not be engaged in fighting .... The Ukraine Defense Ministry said the troops would be kept in Iraq but expressed concern about their mission. "Peacekeepers are not meant to get involved in battle," said Deputy Chief of Staff Oleg Sibeshenko.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/17/2004 1:48:41 PM ||
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Seven months after Sweden's foreign minister was fatally stabbed, another government minister was punched by an attacker this week but wasn't seriously injured, officials said Saturday. Swedish media reported Integration Minister Mona Sahlin was hit on the shoulder during a political rally Thursday. Police confirmed the attack but would not provide details. "She has been exposed to an attack," the head of Sweden's security police, Klas Bergenstrand, told The Associated Press. "This shows that even if there isn't a concrete threat against a public person, there is always an abstract, latent and serious threat." Sahlin wasn't seriously injured, her spokeswoman Camila Buzaglo said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2004 12:46 ||
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#2
Clearly Kennedy had it right, but I doubt that he'd have a home in the Democrat party today. Shocking for today's Dems to hear, no doubt, but how many positive-talking tax cutters are there left in the party of the Left?
Either Kerry derives a certain euphoria from cognitive dissonance, or he is truly a hollow man. In these days where people really, truly are out to kill us, can we afford to have a windsock occupying the oval office?
WARNING - Chicken Hawk counterargument writ large... Kerry Hits Back at White House, Defends Patriotism
Reuters - Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry, lashing out at the White Houseâs "twisted sense of ethics and morality," accused Republicans on Friday of distorting his record and attacking his patriotism. "Did I mention I served in Vietnam?"
Kerry, at an outdoor rally on the University of Pittsburgh campus, used an American flag and the national anthem to fire back at Republicans who charge he is weak on defense for voting against some weapons systems and an $87 billion bill to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The record speaks for itself.
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, pointed out Vice President Dick Cheney and political adviser Karl Rove did not serve in the military. "Iâm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid their chance to serve when they had the chance," the Massachusetts senator said. "Iâm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism."
... which, as we all know, is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
The current issue is the war against terrorism. Do you refuse to address these concerns, Senator?
"Iâve seen how these people in the White House today, in their twisted sense of ethics and morality, donât think twice about challenging John McCain and what happened to him as a prisoner of war," he said in reference to attacks by President Bush in 2000 on his Republican primary rival McCain, an Arizona senator. Whatâs that town with great steaks? Kansas City? Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, said Kerryâs judgment in his voting record on defense and security was in question, not his patriotism. He called the Rove and Cheney comments "outrageous." "Outrageous!"
Cheney received a student and family deferment from military service, and Rove had a student deferment and later drew a low draft number but was never called. Itâs still a quesion of who shows more balls at facing down our enemies.
... leading to the question: how many wars has Kerry won?
"The fundamental difference in this election will be between President Bushâs steady leadership in the war on terror and John Kerryâs consistent political opportunism on the war on terror," Schmidt said. Mostly right, at least until Kerry develops solid, unambiguous stances on the subject. That doesnât seem to be in his character.
Kerry has come under heavy attack from Republicans, who have launched tens of millions of dollars of advertising trying to paint him as a waffling, traditional tax-and-spend Democrat. Some truths are self-evident.
"They donât think twice about trying to pretend to America that I somehow donât care about the defense of our nation," Kerry said, paraphrasing wording in the Star Spangled Banner. Look at your voting record, it speaks for itself.
He recalled his service under the U.S. flag and seeing flag-draped coffins of friends returning from Vietnam. "Did I mention I served in Vietnam?"
"When I look up, that flag is still there and it belongs to all Americans," he said, pointing to a flag near the stage. "Not to them, not to a party. It belongs to us."
The quote is by Samuel Johnson, by the way, not Mark Twain, though I'm sure Twain would have said it if Johnson hadn't said it first...
Kerry told the crowd of more than 5,000 that "asking questions about the direction of our country is patriotism."
scoun·drel
Pronunciation: 'skaun-dr&l
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
: a disreputable person : RASCAL
The Bush campaign is cutting back its advertising, which Kerry said had been designed to "distort" his record. Kerry told reporters he believed he had withstood the early Republican attacks. Itâs still early in the game, JFK.
"Theyâre out 50 million bucks and they got nothing for it," Kerry told reporters on his campaign plane on Thursday night.
"Dey got nuttin', I tells yez! Nuttin'! Never laid a glove on me!"
The rally in Pittsburgh, which featured a performance by rocker Jon Bon Jovi, concluded a week-long tour of campuses where Kerry plugged his programs to make college more affordable. He appeared in Pittsburgh as the powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, opened its annual convention in town. More than 50,000 gun-lovers packed the downtown convention center to sample what organizers billed as "Four Acres of Guns and Gear." Outgunned, so to speak...
Cheney will make the keynote speech at the convention on Saturday, but Kerry did not mention the gun issue during his appearance. Good call...
The NRA has not made an endorsement yet but is certain to back Bush over Kerry, who supports the federal ban on assault weapons and a waiting period and background checks for the purchase of handguns.
Posted by: Raj ||
04/17/2004 1:06:35 AM ||
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Four Acres of Guns and Gear
The Kerry rally was known as, "Four Liters of Hot Air and Fear.
#2
"When I look up, that flag is still there and it belongs to all Americans," he said, pointing to a flag near the stage. "Not to them, not to a party. It belongs to us."
Everything you have done, spoken and committed to since your return from Viet Nam has negated your military service. You shat upon soldiers while they were still in the field in 1971 and you are doing so now to the soldiers in the field in Iraq.
I would never question that which you do not have. Your sense of duty and patriotism you threw away when you committed perjury in lying before congress, when you gave aid and comfort to the enemy in your 'Winter Soldier' testimony, when you committed conspiracy to commit murder and sedition by failing to report a plot to kill civilians by an organization you ran, and you have done nothing but to reinforce your agenda and the agenda of your leftist allies and handlers: the destruction of the United States by wrecking our national defense, be it by voting against critical weapons system, withholding money to soldiers in the field, your very own defeatist remarks regarding current operations in Iraq, and the anti-American remarks by your current squeeze, a bagman for socialist causes.
This is to say nothing of your wife's love of leftist causes, so extreme that the company from which you and her draw your millions refuses to even be identified with you, in fear of the economic backlash that will surely come in the wake of your election.
You will find that hatred in a national election will only carry you so far. Mondale learned it in 1984, and you will learn it 20 years later. Replacing a conservative government, epecially while we are at war with soldiers under fire, with a defeatist socialist government, will be impossible.
So please, do not wander into the area of patriotism. You repudiated your love of country and your sense of duty to it in 1971; You swapped it for socialist politics; it can never be gained back but through humbly and quite publicly repudiating a lifelong career at attempting to weaken our national defense against all the threats it now faces, thanks in part to your service as a US Senator.
You have many, many years of speaking publicly, honestly, sincerely, and humbly about how wrong you were. It won't get you elected, but it will be the right thing to do.
#4
I realized that the Bush Campaign should let Kerry run with Vietnam until that horse drops dead.
Then slam Kerry and the Democrats with images of the Vietnamese hanging off a helicopter trying to get away from the US Embassy, people blowing there brains out to save there children because they would be orphaned and would face certain death from the commies. Remind the American people of all the murdering that went on after we deserted South East Asia because of a Democrat Congress chickened out. Remind them of about 5 million people being flat out murdered between Vietnam Cambodia and Laos because Teddy Kennedy and his crowd of cowards, and let's not forget the testimony of the modern day Benedict Arnold, John Kerry to congress.
Remind the Vietnam Vet's that were in the Hanoi Hilton and heard his testimony. Remind all the parents of men and women that died over there that it was for nothing except 60,000 of their American sons and daughters lives.
Remind today's soldiers and parents and god fearing Americans of that rhetoric of 30 years ago and that it is seeping into today's by the Leftist Socialist Media.
Yeah Senator Kerry you run with that Vietnam crap it's all you have at the moment and I am sure it's going to blow you right out of American politics!!
#5
"When I look up, that flag is still there and it belongs to all Americans," ....
"And this time I have the flag right side up unlike the cover on my book 'The New Soldier'".
If Kerry wants to run on his Vietnam era record, then he should be drawn into to defending his coalition with Hanoi Jane and the highly visible anti-American protests.
Those actions gave support to the enemy then much as his present day comments are embolding the Mullah led insurgents in Iraq today.
Good rant badanov.
#6
Kerry..."who charge he is weak on defense for voting against some weapons systems and an $87 billion bill to pay for operations in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan"
snicker...did Karl Rove write this piece? While it could just be real reporting of an issue, that is so rare these days, that excuuuse me for thinking that every piece written has an agenda for one side or the other.
If the agenda was to make Kerry look good - I rate this -2
If the agenda was to make Kerry look bad - I rate this a 10 for successfully allowing the choir to think they are singing on key - while exposing to the rest of the congregation just how bad they really sound.
#7
cont.. Of course, in order to make that choir actually sound good - they have to they have to be digitally remastered in the lab...live performances will always be a disaster....if you know what I mean.
#8
"When I look up, that flag is still there and it belongs to all Americans,"
Senator Kerry, would that be the American or North Vietmanese flag you are looking at? The last flag I recall you marching under was the North Vietmanese / Viet Cong flag.
And yes, Senator Kerry I, as an american citizen, have every damn right to question your patriotism and your ethics when you are seeking the Commander in Chief and President position. I have every right to review your military record and your voting record in your political career.
Senator Kerry, I have a friend who had to flee Vietnam. I've known people who have had to flee Vietnam in boats because of you and Hanoi Jane giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It was either flee or die. I'm sure their are Rantburgers who have honorably served in Nam (I myself was 12 years old at the time) and have left friends there.
So yes I have every farking right to question your patroitism and honor.
#9
Patriotism, hell. I question your existance, Kerry. God was definitely laughing when he made a gasbag like you, but I think he slipped up and put you in the wrong country.
And yes, I question your patriotism. I remember what you and your fellow-travelers did to the Vietnamese people. I remember how you lied to the very Congress you're now in, how you denigrated our troops while they were still fighting, and some where suffering and dying in prison camps. A great many of us remember.
Saying that we can't question your complete lack of patriotic behavior over the last 30+ years because you served in Vietnam (and managed to weasle out of it pretty quickly, too) is like saying we can't charge you with murdering these dead people here, that all the evidence shows you killed, because you were once a Boy Scout.
Move to Frawnce where you belong.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/17/2004 14:53 Comments ||
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Kerry served as a commanding officer in war time for, what, three months? Longer?
By the time of the election, Bush will have served as Commander in Chief, during war, for over three years.
Which one has more experience in the job they're competing for?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/17/2004 19:47 Comments ||
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Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has filed an amended 2003 federal income tax return to reflect that he had to pay $11,577 more in taxes. His campaign said Friday that the initial underpayment was due to an accounting error. Details here.
The amended form, filed Thursday, said the tax on the sale of Kerryâs one-half interest in a painting by Dutch artist Adam Willaerts was inadvertently calculated at the 20 percent rate rather than the 28 percent rate. I do that all the time with the sale of all my paintings...
Kerryâs original tax forms showed he paid $90,575 in taxes on adjusted gross income of $395,338. The amended return showed a total payment of $102,152, or nearly 26 percent of his adjusted gross income. Kerry files his returns separately from wife Teresa Heinz Kerry. And for good reason...
Posted by: Raj ||
04/17/2004 12:19:41 AM ||
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Nurse Fuzzy-Wuzzy - Can your patient borrow $11577. Please pretty please?
Adam Willaerts would be so proud. He's a campaign issue hundreds of years after his death.
#2
He sold his Willaerts! Nobody sells their Willaerts.
Unless his current income doesn't meet his spending needs. Or he has his eye on a Vermeer. If you've ever saved for a Vermeer you'd know that those things can really set you back! It's like saving for a new Cad.
#4
Beats the heck out of West Long Beach. Those refineries are smelly.
But to the issue : A day without your Willaerts is like a day without sunshine. Kerry must be crushed! Then he has to pay $11577 more for the privelege of being crushed. And, Nurse Fuzzy-Wuzzy probably has to lend him the money!
Then he's running for president and has to tell evebody he crushed at the loss of a Willaerts, and the wife is lending him the money to pay additional capital gains. And He wants to repeal "tax cuts for the wealthy". Is he a sadist?
#6
SHe bought and paid the mortgage on the house they he took a campaing load on.
Thats why THK doesnt want to release her returns - it will show her linkage to all kinds of boderline financial shenanigans designed to circumvent campaign finance laws.
Plus showing her worth bazillions and her paying all the bills makes him look like the blue-blood Richie-Rich he is instead of Lunch Bucket Jack he pretends to be.
#10
Kerry will probably have to amend the return a few more times because there are other errors. One error is not taking credit for the property tax he pays (he pays mortgage interest so I assume there is a PITI there). This should save him money. Of course if Teresa pays the property tax that would be pretty much a slam dunk campaign spending violation.
Even the most partisan critics of the war in Iraq insist they are every bit as determined as President Bush to secure a democratic peace there. Regardless of whether the administrationâs decision to go to war was correct, they say, the United States cannot now afford to cut and run. Yet, even as the presidentâs opponents give lip service to the importance of victory, they seize upon every setback suffered, exploit every challenge ahead, to suggest that defeat is inevitably what our nation is doomed to suffer. Their fatalism is often veiled — allusions to Vietnam, innuendo about quagmires — but the implications are clear. For the presidentâs critics, there is a domestic constituency to be won from failure abroad. They are campaigning on defeat.
To be sure, there can and should be a robust exchange of gas debate this year about the tactics and strategy adopted by the Bush administration in the global war on terrorism, including its choice to remove Saddam Hussein from power. But that should be a debate about how to win. Those who believe going after the Middle Eastâs most brutal dictator was a distraction that has exacerbated the problem of terrorism still have an obligation to explain what they would do in Iraq now that weâre there. How would they secure victory? But instead of trying to chart a path of progress, many of the presidentâs critics have devoted themselves to fomenting public despair over a war that, they keep repeating, should never have been fought. They lament the money "wasted" on the Iraqi people and the damage done to Americaâs reputation in its struggle against Islamist insurgents. They even suggest that Iraq is worse off today for having been freed from the grip of a tyrant — never mind what the majority of Iraqis themselves might think.
While some cynics may dismiss the hand-wringing from the halls of Congress and elsewhere as little more than electioneering, its effects are far more profound. This is not just a question of political honesty. The global war on terrorism is not a game from which we can simply walk away when it seems it isnât going our way. At the same time critics of the Bush administration insist it should have done more to combat al Qaeda in Afghanistan before Sept. 11 (on the basis of intelligence far weaker than that pointing to Husseinâs weapons of mass destruction), they miss the more profound lesson that national tragedy should have instilled: that the only deterrent to terrorism is strength and that weakness -- real and perceived -- is an incitement to further attacks.
What is weakness? Weakness is when Americaâs leaders compare Iraq to Vietnam, announcing to the world a faltering resolve to see our mission through. To our allies in the Middle East and beyond, these predictions of defeat send a clear and chilling message to hedge their bets, because the United States cannot be counted on. And to our enemies, they send an equally clear message: You can win. Let there be no doubt: Every time there is a call to abandon Iraq to the United Nations or unnamed "international allies," our enemies know this is a call to cut and run. And they are heartened.
The presidentâs critics cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim to be in favor of winning the war and also oppose fighting it, funding it and offering any coherent strategy for succeeding at it. They cannot credibly claim to be in favor of winning the war while decrying it as a "mistake" that cannot be won. Iraq is no longer a war of choice, if indeed it ever was. The choice now is between the long, hard slog to victory -- and negotiating terms of surrender.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/17/2004 6:06:24 AM ||
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The critics seem to think that we have the luxury of playing political football with the war, as if there will be no consequences to the demoralizing effect of their propaganda. They seem to be insufficiently afraid for their own and their children's freedom and even survival. Either that or they are just power-crazed cynics.
#2
wow! That was a WaPo article. I clicked on the link expecting it to be a blogger since it's so rare to see common sense written in a newspaper. I didn't want to set up a registration - anyone know who the author was?
#5
Fred Thompson also is a television and film actor. He had a memorable bit part in The Hunt for Red October as a Navy Battle Group Commander. He is also on Law & Order. Consider him our man in Hollywood.
#8
This is one of the reasons, if not the major reason, why I keep hammering away at leftists over the war on terrorism. Every word they utter in disparaging our military mission in Iraq, every lie I hear uttered such as (I support the troops, but I dont think they should be over there-type bullsh*t) here and elsewhere emboldens and inspires a ruthless enemy to ever new lows of hostile intent and conduct.
That means every bullet, every bit of shrapnel, every degree of hostile heat generated that touches any of our people, or our allies, the left should be held accountable for from their remarks. And not in the fall.
Now.
Even to this day, with 3,000 people on our own soil murdered in a dispicable and cowardly attack and a gross demonstration in Fallujah of the extent to which jihadis will go to kill Americans, even to kill their own people including children and women, the left still thinks this is just some big fun game of Who-can-be-the-biggest-humanitarian, with no consequences for their words as they apply to others.
They're dead wrong.
And I mean every syllable uttered in contempt for our effort in military operations should be met with such outrage, they cannot even speak of such things while we have troops under fire.
Not one word.
Note: I had to wake up early, so I am really cranky this morning, but I meant every word I just typed.
War metaphor is icky misses the point
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 commission, called Tuesday's staff report an "indictment of the FBI." Commission member John Lehman called Wednesday's staff report an "indictment of the CIA. "One complaint is that the FBI treated terror as a crime, pursing evidence and compiling cases with a mind to their succeeding in a court of law. That would seem the very least of the agency's failings.
I dunno. It seems a reasonable approach, since terrorism arrests within the U.S. go into courts of law. They just have to work on the details...
If anything, it may be time to just give up the fight and get the wife fitted for that burqa rethink our "War on Terror" response to the Sept. 11 atrocities. The fiery assault by those associated with a shadowy foreign-based organization certainly felt like an act of war, at least in an unconventional, metaphorical sense.
To me, it felt like an act of war in the blown up buildings, thousands of dead people sense...
But conventional war is between states and governments.
If you lack imagination. Wars are actually fought between armies (actually between military establishments), though up until now they've been fought as matters of government policy. This particular war is being fought as a matter of religious policy, something that hasn't been seen since the Crusades. That doesn't make it not a war. Al-Qaeda did in fact declare war on us. They did it three years before the 9-11 attacks.
One nation is attacked overtly or threatened by another, and the governments of one or both nations respond with military force. But no nation attacked America on Sept. 11.
... wrote Procrustes in his editorial.
No government - to our knowledge - dispatched the attackers and operational or financial support doesn't count. So there was no nation to attack in defense, no government to condemn.
Oh, certainly there is. There was the government that gave the armed forces that attacked us refuge and comfort. There are the governments that finance them. There are the governments that shelter the organizations that provide their cannon fodder and their ideologues. There are the governments that provide them space for training centers and that provide them the resources of war. I could go on all morning...
A crime, though, is an act of individuals, committed for the pursuit of their own aims, not in service or allegiance to any nation or government. And that little trifle about radical Islamists believing that faith and government are indivisible? Fuhgeddaboudit Justice, then, lies not in the destruction of a nation's government or infrastructure but in giving sleazy leftist lawyers a chance to get the murdering scum off the hook assembling evidence, proving guilt and meting a slap on the wrist proportionate punishment.
No. Justice lies with stacking up dead bodies of armed bad guys and their supporters, at least a hundred of them for each of our own dead. That's justice. Legalism involves bringing them to trial and blah blah blah.
"The mission is to root out terrorists, to find them and bring them to justice," President Bush said on Sept. 26, 2001.
I think he might have had my kind of justice in mind, though he probably hadn't put a quantitative analysis on it...
When the government of Afghanistan clearly stood in the way of that pursuit of justice, military action was justified.
But the Seattle bird cage liner wasn't happy about military action then, either...
And had Iraq stood in the way of that pursuit, similar action would have been justified. But, administration allegations to the contrary, there was no demonstrable Iraq connection to 9/11.
Except that the administration didn't allege a direct connection.
Logic 101: Osama bin Laden is a terrorist. All terrorists are not Osama bin Laden.
What might have been accomplished had the United States invested $87 billion sending Officer Friendly to the Hindu Kush with an arrest warrant and an Arabic Miranda card in the pursuit of a criminal investigation of those who devised and directed the 9/11 attacks?
Oh, you mean $87 billion worth of kill squads, running from country to country and assassinating the ass hats that run the war against us? That might be a good idea. I've got a little list...
By assimilating the metaphor of war in combating terror, we may have become obsessed with actually defeating the bastards instead of currying the favor of leftist media asshats the pursuit of revenge instead of the pursuit of justice. What more can be said? F***ing leftist scum-sucking fifth column media bastards.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
04/17/2004 1:35:47 AM ||
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Just a guess: This paper won't be endorsing Bush.
This is so typical of leftist logic. After spending three weeks of their very own campaign to drop blame for 911 directly onto Bush, by using literary used tampon Richard Clarke, then by Ben-Veniste's exhibitionism of what a man should be like, then finding to their shock and horror that their favorite spooge monkey, Clinton, gets to hold the lion's share of the blame; THEN to top it all off, that evil(TM) John Ashcroft points out that an unnecessary 'wall' between agencies, direct and deliberate defunding of the military and law enforcement agencys on little more than a socialist whim all of which could conceivably at the very least have make 911 far, far more difficult, they change the premise of their argument.
God forbid we should win this war. That would take courage, dedication to a task, committing resouces and manpower, but most of all, precisely what the left will never do after the USA is in a war: Support the troops while they are in active combat operations.
The left, including this newspaper, fully supports the war on the United States. These folks truly believe the pen is mightier than the sword, and they will sink to no level low enough to ensure terrorists win.
Maybe we can use a law enforcement on the paper. We know how much they are in love with the law. Depraved indifference, 3000 counts. That makes as much sense as sending a 'posse' out to get Al Qaeda.
#2
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: as intelligent as a post!
Posted by: Mike ||
04/17/2004 8:50 Comments ||
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"box of rocks intelligencer" doesn't sound as good, I guess
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2004 9:12 Comments ||
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This is the camp that believes that terrorism is something we just have to endure. Every year or so thousands or maybe tens of thousands will be murdered during a terrorist act. Then we will send in the FBI and try to search down the perpetrators. This was the 90âs strategy. A multi-front war on terrorism in their view is worse than the loss of life due to terrorism. If the United States uses its power to search out and eliminate terrorists where ever they may me than as a country we may become too powerful. Also since it is our policies that create the breeding ground for terrorism than we deserve that ever we get from those people that we have wronged. Thankfully most Americans either instinctually or intellectually reject this kind of argument. The lefts only recourse is to snip from the sidelines and use empty arguments like Bush didnât find WMDâs, Bush is Hitler, or Bush knew about 911.
Posted by: Canaveral Dan ||
04/17/2004 10:25 Comments ||
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Good thing we didn't have this crowd around in 1942! They would have had us surrender to AXIS forces after our defeat in the Philipines, Guam, etc. Headlines:
"Washington Group Prods Rosevelt to Cut Losses After Defeat in Phillipines"
"Relatives of Pearl Harbor Victims Angry that Rosevelt Will not Apologize For Attacks"
"Group Finds Connection Between Delano Family and German Group"
"Peace Group Shows Photos of Dresenden Massacre"
"German Group Files Complaint Against News Service For Using word KRAUT"
Facing mounting criticism of the United Nations' management of an oil-for-food humanitarian program in prewar Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan today appointed former U.S. Federal Reserve Bank chairman Paul Volcker to head a panel that will probe allegations of corruption at the U.N. agency. Volcker's appointment comes less than a week before the first of two hearings in the U.S. House into allegations that Iraq was able to illegally siphon billions of dollars from the U.N. program when it was supposed to exchange oil only for civilian goods. U.S. lawmakers have warned that a credible investigation into corruption in the program is essential to restoring the United Nations' reputation at a time when it is being called upon to help Iraq through its political transition this year and elections early next year. "Assuming there is wrongdoing found by some U.N. officials, it is important to have an independent and credible investigation into these allegations to put to rest any lingering concerns," said Nancy Soderberg, a former U.S. representative of political affairs to the United Nations. "I think Secretary General Annan has made it clear he will do what it takes to save his skin and his son."
And these are the guys who will guide the Iraqis to democracy, uh-huh.
Volcker's panel will probe those charges as well as broader allegations that Hussein skimmed billions of dollars from the 1996 oil-for-food program, which permitted Iraq to sell oil and use that money only for purchases of food, medicine and other civilian goods. The Bush administration has defended Annan, charging that Russia, France, China and other commercial partners of the former Iraqi regime bore greater responsibility for misconduct by routinely frustrating efforts to rein in abuses in the program. "We have had resistance" from those countries "with respect to correcting improprieties and inadequacies" in the program, John D. Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. The United States says it supports an appeal by Annan and Volcker for passage of a legally binding Security Council resolution that would "compel member states and entities to comply with the secretary general's intention to thoroughly investigate the charges," according to Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations. But Russia opposes the adoption of such a resolution. A senior Russian diplomat suggested that the oil-for-food "scandal" is an invention of conservative activists in the United States who also promoted the theory that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. "Are they doing these hearings alongside with the WMD inquiries?" Russia's acting U.N. ambassador, Gennady Gatilov, said in an interview. "I personally have very big doubts about any possible corruption on the part of the United Nations."
Gee, I have no doubts at all.
U.S. and U.N. officials say they have been aware of abuses in the program since late 2000. But they said they could find little hard proof until the collapse of Hussein's regime. That's when Iraqi civil servants told U.S. officials the regime charged a cash commission of at least 10 percent on every contract since 2001. "It was the ministry officials themselves who came to us and said, 'Here's what's been going on. Here is the system; here are the percentages,' " Robin L. Raphael, the State Department's Iraq reconstruction coordinator, told the Senate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2004 1:32:23 AM ||
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Holy Hell! Paul Volker? The killer of the Cateresque Inflation Tiger?
This man is ruthless and thorough, just the kind Annan does NOT want running this investigation.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's military government on Saturday reopened the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party, almost a year after shutting it and all other party offices, a party official said. The government appeared to be bowing to intense international pressure to ease restrictions against democracy proponents. The move comes a month before a constitutional convention, part of the ruling junta's stated plan to move the country toward democracy.
However, critics have argued that such apparent concessions are aimed a deflecting criticism against Myanmar's hard-line rule rather than granting greater freedoms. It was unclear whether the step indicates the government is preparing to release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
On Saturday, three government officials broke open the wax seal on a lock on the pro-democracy party's office door near the Shwedagon Pagoda in the capital, Yangon, said Maung Maung Yin, an NLD official. The development coincided with the first day of the Burmese New Year, when people believe doing good deeds will earn them merit. "It is an auspicious day, it's New Year's Day and we are very happy that the headquarters was reopened today," Maung Maung Yin told The Associated Press.
He said the three officials came to his house in the morning and asked him to accompany them while they broke open the seal at the dilapidated two-story building. Maung Maung Yin said the government officials told him they would not go inside the premises. "They said, 'it is open now.'"
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2004 1:00:30 AM ||
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So it's Myanmar this week?
Why don't they just do one of those Chad/ Rumanian flag things. It'd cut down on the confusion, unless Burma and Myanmar decide to go to war.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/17/2004 14:31 ||
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Great link! Some thoughts:
Lots of Western-style dress--jeans, tees, even an Eminem shirt.
Must be an eyebrow shortage there--several men only have one! Isn't there a UN program to help these unfortunates?
All those beautiful, olive-skinned brunettes hidden away in those damn burka-like robes and headresses--what a shame! Scratch Tehran off the list of Spring Break destinations.
I hate seeing those adorable children wearing those headbands--too many pictures on LGF of Paleo kids wearing those and waving guns has conditioned me to despise those @)#* headbands.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/17/2004 14:50 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq appeared to briefly lose consciousness during a news conference Saturday, bumping his face into a podium microphone. He left the room for a period but returned smiling and answered more questions. There was no immediate explanation for the apparent fainting spell suffered by Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy head of operations in Iraq, who delivers daily briefings to Baghdad-based journalists alongside the top U.S. coalition spokesman Dan Senor.
Kimmitt had left the podium for a few minutes earlier in the press conference, which was broadcast live internationally. He returned, looking pale, to take more questions. Just after answering a question, Kimmitt leaned toward Senor and whispered, "I gotta go." Senor nodded and said, "OK," and then told reporters the next question would be the last.
As he listened to the question, Kimmitt's eyes rolled upward and he began leaning forward into the podium. The podium's small black microphone struck him on the right side of the mouth. After a few seconds leaning against the microphone, he slumped backward but remained standing. Senor stepped toward him and said, "You all right?" "No, I'm not," Kimmitt mumbled. Two aides approached the podium and led him out a side door.
Senor continued answering questions. About 15 minutes later, Kimmitt returned again and resumed answering questions. When one reporter prefaced a question by saying, "I hope you're feeling better," Kimmitt smiled but offered no explanation.
Stress, lack of sleep or something more?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2004 3:03:52 PM ||
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Probably listening to the same stupid questions and looking into the vacant faces of the same idiotic reporters, day after day after day.. That would do it for me.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
04/17/2004 15:29 Comments ||
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Maybe a little "Saddam's Revenge" from the water.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/17/2004 15:33 Comments ||
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Maybe being forced to fight a State Department war, is taking its toll. Foggy Bottom allowed the Mahdi Army exclusive patrol privileges in large sections of northern Baghdad, and indulged al-Sadr when he made last year's trip to visit Iranian stringpullers like Rafsanjani.
If you want troop morale to collapse, then impose suicidal rules of engagement on them.
Posted by: Man Bites Dog ||
04/17/2004 15:40 Comments ||
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"Â Maybe being forced to fight a State Department war, is taking its toll. Foggy Bottom allowed the Mahdi Army exclusive patrol privileges in large sections of northern Baghdad"--
And you know this...how exactly? I'm no fan of the State Dept. but I'm not buying this. "and indulged al-Sadr when he made last year's trip to visit Iranian stringpullers like Rafsanjani.
I might give you this one if it's true, but I don't see State as having any clout in CPA-administered Iraq. That would have been Bremer.
If you want troop morale to collapse, then impose suicidal rules of engagement on them.
Troop morale isn't collapsing, only poor, tired and hot Gen. Kimmit.
The "suicidal rules of engagement" are, from the best that I can determine, there because we're trying not to alienate the 80%+ percent of the Iraqi population that like us and want a free Iraq by killing them along with the bad guys.
Posted by: Jen ||
04/17/2004 16:13 Comments ||
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Fainting spells are surprisingly common. The medical term is "neurally mediated vaso-vagal syncope". Which is a long winded way of saying the vagal nervous system can occassionally get the upper hand over heart rate and shut it down cold, leading to precipitous loss of blood pressure in the brain, and then fainting with a collapse to the ground. I don't think anyone fully understands why it happens--but dehydration and stress definitely appear to be associated with it. Full blown incident can look a lot like an epileptic seizure with some muscle jerking while the body goes through a reboot procedure to get the heart going again. Can be alarming to bystanders, but assuming you aren't operating machinery, it's generally harmless.
#7
I try to avoid dehydration and extreme stress when flying my plane. Rough on the insurance rates....
On a serious note, I magine General Kimmitt, like any good marine, has been putting his heart and soul into the mission. I hope that he takes better care of himself. The marines are doing the dirty work so we all can live peaceful and meaningful lives, if we choose to do so.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/17/2004 17:43 Comments ||
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The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, appeared to briefly lose consciousness during a news conference. He left the room for a period but returned smiling and answered more questions. The military said Kimmitt was worn out from the flu.
#9
Dehydration. Happens all the time to recruits in boot camp who dont drink enough water. He's under stress, in the heat, and on his feet too long. All he needed to do was lock his knees and over he went.
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - The foreign minister of Jordan on Saturday criticized President Bush's endorsement of an Israeli plan to maintain contentious Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. Marwan Muasher's comments came ahead of Wednesday's scheduled talks in the United States between Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah II, a close U.S. ally in the Middle East. Muasher told reporters Jordan wants assurances Washington remains committed to an Arab-Israeli settlement based on exchanging land-for-peace and creating a Palestinian state in line with the U.S.-backed road map plan.
"Negotiations on a final solution should be left only for the sides concerned and it's not the right of anyone, except the concerned sides, to delve into issues related to final status negotiations," Muasher said after meeting visiting Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath. Muasher said Jordan wants "clear American assurances regarding its commitment to the peace process, the road map and international resolutions to be commiserated that ... an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza isn't a pullout from Gaza only, but a first step on the way of a complete end to Israel's occupation."
Don't worry, I think the Israelis are going to withdraw from, oh, 40 - 50% of the West Bank. Unless you get your cousins under better control.
"It is imperative to move carefully in order to reaffirm these actualities and to put the peace process back on its right track," Muasher said, adding that "the latest developments related to the peace process were very worrying." Muasher said Abdullah will make Jordan's position clear to Bush when the two leaders meet next week.
"Marvin! What is this tripe from the Jordanians?"
"Um, Mr. Secretary, they're making their position clear."
"File it. Usual place. And I don't care what Gorelick says!"
In Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Arab countries would not budge on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, nor accept any relinquishing of land seized by Israel in 1967. Moussa, who met Saturday with the 22-member Arab League's permanent representatives, also said a Saudi land-for-peace initiative with Israel, adopted by Arab countries at a 2003 summit, still stood.
Oh yeah, the "let's find a way to help the Israelis commit national suicide" plan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2004 2:22:15 PM ||
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One million Arabs live in Israel. The racist exclusion of Jews from Judea and Samaria, is a historical extension of Hitlerism. The Paleos can go to hell.
Posted by: Man Bites Dog ||
04/17/2004 15:42 Comments ||
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Religious zealots stormed the Ahmadiyya Mosque in Nakhalpara yesterday and seized the sect's books the government banned on January 8 apparently to calm anti-Ahmadiyya tempers. Police accompanied five demonstrators of the anti-Ahmadiyya International Khatme Nabuwat Movement Bangladesh to the mosque after over 2,000 activists staged a protest procession, the latest in a series of anti-Ahmadiyya demonstrations against the Muslim sect since November last year. Khatme Nabuwat raiders found two books of Bangla interpretations of the Quran and Bukhari Sharif, a Hadith collection -- and handed them over to police. The activists of the outfit gathered at Rahim Metal Mosque in Tejgaon after Friday prayers and Khatme Nabuwat Amir Mahmudul Hasan Momtazi led the procession to the Ahmadiyya mosque. "We appreciate the government for banning Ahmadiyya books, but it did not seize them and declare Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim. It prompted to act on our own," Khatme Nabuwat Secretary General Nazmul Haq told The Daily Star.
Accompanied by police officials, including Officer-in-Charge of Tejgaon Police Station Ruhul Amin, the outfit's Nayebe Amir Nur Hossain Nurani and four other leaders went in after law enforcers halted the procession a few yards short of the mosque. Nakhalpara Ahmadiyya Jamaat unit President Qamrul Islam, Imam of the mosque Moazzem Hossain and local Ahmadiyya leader Rafiq Ahmad were present during the raid. Minutes later, the anti-Ahmadiyya activists held a rally at Tejgaon Nabisco intersection with Momtazi presiding. Nazmul Haq, Abul Qashem, Abu Taher and Abdur Rahim Qashemi addressed the rally that scheduled a demonstration for May 29 to seize publications from Ahmadiyya mosques in Chittagong. "They (Ahmadiyyas) are running anti-Islam activities, claiming to be Muslims. They have no right to use Islamic terms for them and identify their places of worship as mosques," Momtazi said. Khatme Nabuwat will hold a rally at the Nabisco intersection on June 11, demanding that the government declare Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim.
"The raid shows an ominous sign," said Towhidul Islam, a spokesman for Ahmadiyyas. "The government banned our books under pressure from religious fanatics and police are now accompanying them into our mosques." Another anti-Ahmadiyya group, Khatme Nubuwat Committee Bangladesh, threatened on April 6 to launch a broader movement if the government does not declare Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim by June.
Yeah, yeah. Those are just cultural differences. We should understand them, I'm sure. But to me, the lack of religious freedom is of a piece with the lack of most other things in Islamist countries. Take away freedom of speech and you take away freedom of religion. You're ruling, rather than governing, and the populace is reduced to faceless masses. They become nothing but cannon fodder, because that's the way they regard themselves.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2004 1:12:53 PM ||
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EFL, could also be filed under Politics.
Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni wondered aloud yesterday how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could be caught off guard by the chaos in Iraq that has killed nearly 100 Americans in recent weeks and led to his announcement that 20,000 U.S. troops would be staying there instead of returning home as planned. "Iâm surprised that he is surprised because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus," said Zinni, a Marine for 39 years and the former commander of the U.S. Central Command. "Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not?"
Zinni made his comments during an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune before giving a speech last night at the University of San Diegoâs pretentiously named, lefty Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice as part of its distinguished lecturer series. For years Zinni said he cautioned U.S. officials that an Iraq without Saddam Hussein would likely be more dangerous to U.S. interests than one with him because of the ethnic and religious clashes that would be unleashed.
That's the argument that's left much of the Middle East ruled by hereditary tyrants and tin hat dictators for the past 60 years...
"I think that some heads should roll over Iraq," Zinni said. "I think the president got some bad advice." "Fire Rumsfeld."
Out of uniform, Zinni was a troubleshooter for the U.S. government in Africa, Asia and Europe and served as special envoy to the Middle East under the Bush administration for a time before his reservations over the Iraq war and its aftermath caused him to resign and oppose it. "Iâve been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things," said Zinni, 60.
I think most of us cut Zinni some slack because he did the right thing: he didn't agree with the policies, so he resigned. He didn't remain in place and try and subvert them.
The problems in Iraq are being caused, he said, by poor planning and shortsightedness, such as disbanding the Iraqi army and being unable to provide security. Of course, keeping the Sunni dominated Army in place may have caused other problems. But calling a man like Zinni a traitor is completely off base. Who said this?
"Weâre betting on the U.N., who we blew off and ridiculed during the run-up to the war," Zinni said. "Now weâre back with hat in hand. It would be funny if not for the lives lost." The ridicule did not come from our government, he must read Rantburg or Scrappleface. Truth is, weâve used the UN to the extent possible in Iraq but it preferred the cozy economics of the Oil for Food program to the instability of a free Iraq.
As an institution for handling international crises, the UN is right up there with doilies and antimacassars. As a jobs program for diplomats' relatives, it's not bad.
Several things have to happen to get Iraq back on course, whether the U.N. decides to step in or not, Zinni said. Improving security for American forces and the Iraqi people is at the top of the list followed closely by helping the working class with economic projects. Hard to disagree. Arenât we spending $87B on that right now?
I think it's the mechanics of achieving the objective, rather than the objective itself, that's open for discussion. My personal opinion is that the path to improved security for American forces and the Iraqi people lies over stacks of dead turbans. Once they've been thoroughly perforated and neatly stacked, their opinions won't matter anymore and the rest of us can reach concensus.
But itâs not the lack of a comprehensive American plan for Iraq nor the surging violence that has cost allied troops their lives â including about 30 Camp Pendleton Marines â that most concerns Zinni. We have a plan, its just not working out that well and needs to be adjusted. But this fundamental criticism is valid and must be addressed:
"In the end, the Iraqis themselves have to want to rebuild their country more than we do," Zinni said. "But I donât see that right now. I see us doing everything. In fact, their unwillingness to handle policing is the main reason why we need more troops.
"I spent two years in Vietnam, and Iâve seen this movie before," he said. "They have to be willing to do more or else it is never going to work." Itâs not the quagmire part that resembles Vietnam, but the fact that, for strategic reasons, we are more committed to the security of a country than its own citizens.
He told an overflow crowd that the United States tries to grapple with individual issues in Middle East instead of seeing them as elements of a broader question. "We need to step back and get a grand strategy," he said. Actually, we have a comprehensive and ambitious grand strategy but tried to implement the Iraq phase it on the cheap.
Article needs a link...
Posted by: JAB ||
04/17/2004 10:17:09 AM ||
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I thought the South Vietnamese were doing a great deal, near the end, up until the point where they ran out of ammo and we (at the behest of the current Democratic Presidential Nominee and his allies) cut off their supplies.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/17/2004 13:24 Comments ||
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Phil: I thought the South Vietnamese were doing a great deal, near the end, up until the point where they ran out of ammo and we (at the behest of the current Democratic Presidential Nominee and his allies) cut off their supplies.
Actually, the South Vietnamese were doing a great deal even before the end. Their total losses were over 200,000 KIA. At the end, they were totally outgunned by huge amounts of weaponry shipped by the Chinese and the Soviets for the 1975 Mig, tank and artillery assault from the North.
#5
"Iâve been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things," said Zinni, 60.
Let me join that happy group, General!
I'm sure the line forms to the Left...
Posted by: Jen ||
04/18/2004 1:32 Comments ||
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"Itâs not the quagmire part that resembles Vietnam, but the fact that, for strategic reasons, we are more committed to the security of a country than its own citizens."
Actually, I think just the opposite is true.
If anything, we've been so anxious to win Iraqi hearts and minds, that we went a little lax on the country's security.
Posted by: Jen ||
04/18/2004 1:35 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
