June 05, 2004

Mourning in America: Ronald Reagan Dies at 93
I post this with deep sadness, but also with relief that President Reagan is no longer suffering and that he's gone on to his well-deserved rest and reward with the Lord.
I know you join with me in celebrating the life of this wonderful man and one of our greatest Presidents ever.
Thank you, God, for this man and the blessings his life and his work brought to this country and to the world.
And if you'd like to leave your sympathies and condolences for Mrs. Reagan, Michael, Patty and Ron, Jr., please go this website to leave them for the Reagan family:
Ronald Reagan Memorial
Godspeed on your final journey, "Dutch," as you "slip the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

President Ronald Wilson Reagan

1911-2004

He won the Cold War without firing a shot and he won our hearts by being himself.

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant..."

June 04, 2004

I'm quoting this fine piece in full because David's so good!
A sovereign Iraq

Yesterday, in defiance of all pessimists, Iraq resumed its life as a sovereign country, in a manner no one outside Iraq has the right to gainsay. We have a secular Shia prime minister (Iyad Alawi), and a ceremonial Sunni President (Ghazi al-Yawar). Both are acceptable to all reasonable parties, including the United States. We have a ministry of all the talents, such as they are: with every available regional, ethnic, and religious affiliation.

The formal transfer of power from Paul Bremer's occupation authority to the new Iraqi government waits till the end of the month, but with the self-dissolution of the interim Iraqi Governing Council, we have witnessed an effective transfer. From now on, American advisers won't be running Iraqi ministries -- won't dare try -- and allied troops on the ground will be consulting Iraqis before launching new raids on assorted bad guys. Best of all, the region's governments, including nefarious Iran and Syria (up to their eyeballs fomenting trouble within Iraq), will know it's too late to sabotage the hand-off -- because it has already occurred, by surprise, ahead of deadline.

No one else will say this, so I will. The Bush administration has handled the transfer of power in Iraq more cleverly than anyone expected, including me. The summoning of the U.N. envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, looked like very bad news (a poisonous old Arab League chauvinist who brokered the sell-out of Lebanon to Syria in 1982). In grim moments, I believed the Bush people were cynically using him to wash their hands of Iraq, and as it were, dump the quagmire back in the swamp of the U.N. Instead, they froze the ground beneath Brahimi's feet, and skated rings around him, haggling behind his back with Iraq's new political heavyweights to leave him endorsing a fait accompli. If it were not vulgar, I would say the Bushies suckered the U.N. into signing on to the New Iraq through Brahimi. A sovereign, free Iraq which will, incidentally, have a few things to say about the U.N.'s $100-billion "oil-for-food" scam, in due course.

Will this new Iraq be plausibly democratic? Too soon to count chickens. An Iraqi government that includes all non-violent factions, with or without elections, is already better than that for which we could have plausibly hoped. Elections on top of this will be gravy.

That self-dissolved Governing Council seems to have served its purpose as a public incubator of a new Iraqi political class, wonderfully unlike those in adjoining countries. The Americans have moreover done a superb job of playing politics, intra-Iraqis: a job of horse-trading beyond anything achieved by British imperialists in the past. I didn't agree with all the dirty tricks (and especially not with the CIA's unconscionable settling of accounts with Ahmed Chalabi, getting the Iraqis to raid his headquarters to bring him down to size*), but we have a presentably benign government at the end of the day.
[*This whole Chalabi thing was a confused mess to me. I couldn't find a news story about it to blog that I felt comfortable with as to what Chalabi did wrong and why he was in trouble and with whom.
However, this piece in the WSJ did the best job of explaining the to-do:
The Chalabi Fiasco . Perhaps the new Iraqi government needs someone with a little less baggage, all of it Louis Vuitton!, than Chalabi and that's what they got.--Jen]

Real praise ought to be showered on the Iraqis. This new political class -- consisting of returned Sunni and Shia exiles, Kurds, tribal lords, Shia clerical henchmen, and the odd, semi-halal, Baath-party "technocrat", has proved capable of forming workable coalitions whenever something has had to be achieved. If you read your history of American constitutional wranglings in the 18th-century, you will appreciate how far they came in how little time.

Can they stand up to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Wahabi terrorists, and Muqtada al-Sadr's Shia blackshirts? Yes, with continuing American help. These are every bit as much America's enemies as Saddam Hussein was, and I daresay the U.S. Marines will continue to oblige. They have done a magnificent job of reducing the numbers of psychopaths loose in Fallujah, Najaf, Kufa, and elsewhere, for much too little praise.

On the ground in Iraq, it is obvious from the range of sources the Western media do not bother with, that things are still going exceedingly well. There are more than 8,000 municipalities in Iraq, and serious violence in only five or six. Free elections for local governments have taken place or probably will in most of the others. The foreign troops are already out of sight and out of mind in much of the country, where crops are growing, generators are humming, and people are going about their lives.

My philosophy is, we do not know what tomorrow will bring, so let us celebrate today. Iraqis, Americans, allies, and all men of goodwill have reason to be happy about what has been accomplished in Iraq. Pray, pray, it continues.

I do pray, David, but thanks for the reminder!
I've become a fervent and international person of prayer since 9/11 and I don't intend to stop now!
But if the inestimable Mr. Warren says that the transfer of sovereignity has been effected in Iraq and that what has transpired in the new Iraq is a good thing, I think you can almost take it to the bank as a done deal!
I'll sweat a lot less until the official June 30th handover!
Now if we can just pray President Bush through the D-Day 60th year commemoration ceremonies this weekend...
And perhaps get the U.N. "seal of approval" on the deal, not that it really matters or that I care what the U.N. does, because I certainly do not!
(Note that our former allies on D-Day, France and Russia, are giving us grief in the UN about turning over control of our troops to the Iraqis, as well as China. SSDD.)

June 03, 2004

Bush: CIA director George Tenet resigns

CIA Director George Tenet, buffeted by controversies over intelligence lapses about suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
[This is just plain AP B.S.! Tenets intell about Saddam's WMDs was as reliable and accurate as everyone else's and they said Saddam had those weapons, also, even France and Germany.
As for the 9/11 attacks, the CIA was unable to work with the FBI until the Homeland Security Department was created to coordinate both and the Gorelick "wall" had been removed!--Jen]
has resigned. President Bush said today that Tenet was leaving for personal reasons and "I will miss him."
[...]
"He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people," the president said at a hurriedly arranged announcement before boarding a helicopter to begin a trip to Europe. Cheney stood outside the Oval Office to watch Bush's announcement.
[...]
Tenet had given some consideration to leaving last summer, but decided to stay on. Some close to him believe he wanted to catch al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who remains at large and is believed to be on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
[If he's still alive...--J.T.]
[...]
"He's been a strong and able leader at the agency. and I will miss him," Bush said of Tenet as he got ready to board Marine One for a trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and on to Europe.
   
 "George Tenet is the kind of public servant you like to work with," the president added. "He's strong, he's resolute. He's served his nation as the director for seven years. He has been a strong and able leader at the agency. He's been a strong leader in the war on terror."

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III praised Tenet. "George has sought at every turn to bridge the gap between the CIA and FBI with one goal in mind - the security of the American public," Mueller said. "Due to his constant efforts to bring the intelligence agencies closer together, we are better able to predict the actions of our adversaries and to protect Americans from evolving transnational threats."
[...]
Said [Porter] Goss: "Just boat loads of stuff have been dumped on him by all kinds of people. He was given the job of rebuildingan agency that had been depleted."
[Porter Goss, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is a former CIA agent and is being discussed as Tenet's potential successor.--Jen]
    House Speaker Dennis Hastert said: "He served his country a long time. History will tell what the implications of his tenure were."
[...]
Some close to Tenet have said the job of overseeing more than a dozen agencies that make up the intelligence community has been taxing for him. He suffered heart problems while at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, although a CIA official said his resignation was not health related.

I'm not going to speculate about why Mr. Tenet is leaving.
Maybe he really does want to spend some time with his family.
I'll bet he hasn't been home much in the last 3 years.
This is a tough war on a lot of us (Some of us--ahem!--have a lot more gray hair than we did on 9/11) and it's clear that Tenet has been busy and that his agents have found out alot and stopped many terror attacks all over the world.
Not being privy to the mysterious and secret workings of the CIA, it's hard to truly criticize Tenet's job performance. but he seems to have done a fine job to me and President Bush was pleased by his service to our country at this critical time in our history.
I wish Mr. Tenet well and would like to thank him for 7 years of service to we, the people.
And I'm just delighted that my President avails himself of the CIA's resources and expertise rather than shunning the CIA Director as Prezodent Clinton did with James Woolsey and Tenet himself.
When President Bush says he'll miss Tenet, you know that he will.
I think I'll miss Mr. Tenet also, now that I think about it.

Due to strange summer storms, we've been without power here in Dallas for most of the last 48 hours.
Apparently, we had one of the worst storms in Dallas history on Tuesday night when we were hit with lightning, rain and thunder and winds that reached up to 97 miles an hour.
The lights went off at 9:00 here--in the middle of the city--and stayed off until Wednesday afternoon and then went back out when more thunderstorms hit again last night.
The TXU crew got the lights back on sometime at 4:00 this morning.
With temperatures in the high 80s with high humidity, I started to understand in a real way how the people of Iraq and our soldiers there felt without any power in the heat.
I fared far less well than they, I fear.
I suppose I'm spoiled and take electricity and its many applications for granted, but not today!
The worse news is, it showed us that if there's a terror attack here with similar or worse effects on power, water, etc., we're screwed and now definitely in need of more batteries for all of our emergency lights, flashlights and radios.
Say a little prayer for us because there are more storms headed our way this afternoon that threaten to do the same things all over again.

May 31, 2004

President Bush, right, greets Gary Scheffmeyer, Vice President of Rolling Thunder upon their arrival at the South Portico of the White House Sunday, May 30, 2004. The leadership of Rolling Thunder, a motorcycling group which supports veterans, is backing President Bush's re-election. Left to right: Sydney Revere, Diane Evans, Preston Fairlamb, and Mike Lonetto, Scheffmeyer and Bush.


Bush Revved Up Over Biker SupportMembers of the Rolling Thunder motorcycling group revved their engines on the White House driveway Sunday during a visit with President Bush, who took about 10 bikers in jeans and leather jackets for an Oval Office tour.
[Wonder if President Bush showed them Saddam's gun? Betcha he did!--Jen]

The roar from bikers on the Mall nearby could be heard on the South Lawn as eight motorcycles, headlights illuminated and American flags jutting off the rear seats, rolled up the driveway to the South Portico where Bush was waiting to greet them.

Bush shook hands with Artie Muller, president of the veterans' advocacy group, and kissed Muller's rider, singer Nancy Sinatra, a veterans' supporter, who was dressed in a skirt, cowboy boots and a pair of dark shades.

Later, Bush addressed, via a telephone hookup, a Rolling Thunder rally at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in the capital.

The president noted the letter of endorsement he received from the group last week. "Artie, I thought you were going to offer me riding lessons," Bush joked, thanking Rolling Thunder for backing his re-election campaign.

"Ride safe," he told them.

Other bikers who rode up the driveway included White House budget director Josh Bolton, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi, and various Rolling Thunder leaders.
[...]
For the past 15 years, the group has announced its arrival with the roar of motorcycles -- not unlike the sound of the 1965 bombing campaign against North Vietnam that was called Operation Rolling Thunder.

Rolling Thunder is an organization that seeks to create awareness of POW/MIA issues and promotes increased veterans' benefits. It has 70 chapters and over 7,000 members throughout the United States and abroad.

"In the Oval Office, I looked you in the eye as you told me of your relentless pursuit of finding out the plight of many of our POW/MIAs, and I appreciated so much your concern, your care and your persistence," Bush told the rally. "I also want to thank you and your organization, Artie, for honoring the men and women of our military who fight today in Afghanistan and Iraq."

[...]
Gary Scheffmeyer, vice president of Rolling Thunder, said the president showed the group around his office, pointing out busts of presidents and paintings. Scheffmeyer said they talked about the war in Iraq, the fight against terrorism, veterans' health benefits and soldiers still missing from Vietnam.
Boy, has President Bush been busy!
There were the WWII vets and the dedication of their beautiful memorial yesterday, the Vietnam vets on Sunday and today he spoke at Arlington Cemetery and marked the ultimate sacrifice given by our service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's sad to think that there are so many who've given their lives for our country and for Freedom, but we stand today a grateful nation and if we're not united (yet), we're getting there and one of the things that helps that along the most is having a Commander-in-Chief like George W. Bush who respects and honors the military and our veterans for all that they do and have done.
May God rest the souls of those who gave the "last full measure of devotion" and may God continue to bless America!

Saudis stunned by Khobar killings of foreigners

Saudis were shaken to the core on Sunday after Muslim militants killed 16 people and held some 50 foreigners hostage in Khobar, a modern oil city traditionally tolerant of expatriates.

First off, notice that this al-Reuters piece was written by an Arab...then, notice the condescending tone.
Saudis were "shaken to the core?" Guess they forgot about that bombing of the Marine complex in 1996.
And "traditionally tolerant of expats?"
Isn't that nice of them?
How about desperately dependent on expats?
Does that work for you, Samia?
Because SA couldn't pump or sell any oil at all without these expats. Period.
Tolerating them because they're Christian, Western and "decadent" by Waahab standards is the least the Soddies can do!

"This makes you so depressed. This is something alien to Saudi. We are stunned and very upset," Saeed al-Mansour, a 22-year-old student, said.

Gee, that's curious, too, Saeed, given the fact that second only to crude, Waahab-based Islamist terrorism is SA's biggest export!
It's only "alien" because the Sods thought they could send IslamoFascism all over the world without having any at home!
Looks like they were very wrong about that.

Many Khobar residents, who for years blended easily with expatriate oil workers, said they feared Saturday's attack, in which nine Saudis and seven foreigners were killed, would drive expatriates to pack up and go.
[Uh, don't look now, but I think that's exactly what Al Queda wants them to do..and who could blame them for leaving?--Jen]
Tens of thousands of Western workers are vital to a country which is the world's biggest oil exporter and a key U.S. ally.

[Don't know about that either, Samia.
Prince Abdullah hasn't been to Crawford in quite a while.--J.T.]

Residents had watched apprehensively from rooftops as Saudi commandos stormed the building where the militants were holding foreign hostages, mainly Westerners, a day after they sprayed gunfire at oil firms and housing compounds.
[Interesting. This started the day before the attack...Who knew, except the Saudi domestic security?--Jen]
Security officials said most of the hostages were rescued
[Not quite: There were those 9 poor Western men whose throats they slit and 25 dead hostages in all. RIP.--Jen]
and that the leader of the group and other gunmen were arrested.

"They (militants) are barbarians who have no mercy," said Mohammed al-Katry, 29. "They want to wreak havoc and destroy everything that is good. They crave death and know they are going to die so they want to kill as many people as possible."

The hostage-taking is a dramatic and unprecedented twist in the kingdom's year-long battle
[I think the reporter means the "Kingdom's" battle on the opposite side of OBL and AQ.--Jen]
against followers of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group.
The U.S.-led war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have fuelled anti-Western sentiment among many Saudis in the Gulf state which follows an austere brand of Islam.

This really is the limit for even al-Reuters to claim that the WOT and the Paleostinian problem are what "caused" the emergence of Al Queda and "anti-Western sentiment" when just the opposite is true:
The War on Terror, OBL and AQ, the "Palestinian" effort to destroy Israel, which has been ongoing for almost 60 years, and all Jews (which has been ongoing for 1300 years) and 9/11 itself are the product of Saudi-supported Waahab IslamoNazism!

Nobody accepts these acts. This is revolting," added student Ashraf Abdallah. "These militants are outcasts and they don't represent our religion and our morals. We are frightened for our country."

Whether Saudis like Ashraf like to admit or not, "militants" like the ones who slaughtered expats on Sunday, Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers do represent their religion.

Khobar streets were sealed off and the luxury Oasis housing complex resembled a war zone. Tranquillity was shattered on Saturday after militants sprayed gunfire at Western oil firms and compounds in the second attack on vital economic sites.
Some Saudi nationals and newspapers criticised security forces for failing to protect residents after a year-long battle with al Qaeda-linked militants since a string of suicide bombings in Riyadh last year killed 50 people.

"The government must put a stop to this before terrorists drown us in this country," journalist Abdulaziz said in Riyadh.
"This is more evidence that religious institutions should not cross the line and should leave God's creatures to act as they want," he said, referring to the strict religious establishment blamed in the West for fostering militancy.

"We must find out...why we did not prepare against such attacks after citizens and residents became a target of these terrorists," leading local daily al-Watan said in an editorial. (Additional reporting by Fahd al-Frayyan in Riyadh)

I wonder how much the democratization of Iraq, next door to SA, is affecting the citizens of SA...from some of these "on the street" reactions, the Arab version of Liberty seems to be looking pretty good.
SA is in for some tough times and attacks like today's are probably only the beginning.
The Sod "Royal Family" is both the source of Waahab terrorism and its real target.
This attack on expats is only the warmup to AQ's goal to bring down the House of Sod itself, which they correctly deem to be "decadent and corrupt."
SA can't exist without the expats running the oil fields and yet they openly despise our Western lifestyles and make no secret of that, even to their "guests."
There are no Christian churches in SA, no respect for Judaism or Jews there except as the "enemy" to be crushed globally and when we had thousands of soldiers stationed there to keep Saddam contained, our lady GIs were jailed for not wearing Islamic coverings instead of their uniforms.
During the terrorists' siege on Sunday, the Sod "militants" showed their "tolerance" for Western values by dragging around the corpse of 62-year-old British oil exec Michael Hamilton, a married father-of-two, whom a colleague said "got on so well with the Saudis themselves. Nothing was too much trouble."
(Apparently, treating his body with respect and dignity after they'd murdered him was too much trouble for Al Queda. Tragic--God rest him.)

In memoriam: Michael Hamilton
The Sods need the money from selling their crude, not only to fund their own lavish lifestyles, but to fund more Waahab terrorism (all those imams, mosques, copies of the Koran that preach jihad and madrassas overseas), while nowadays, their native sons have taken all that ubiquitous Waahab preaching to the next logical step and joined radical Islamic "militia" groups like AQ who now wage jihad at home and thus the snake chases its tail in a vicious, deadly circle.
The "royal" Sods also have additional problems:
the "crown princes" are divided amongst themselves as to supporting or opposing the West, they are quite elderly and there will be an internal struggle in the palace for succession soon, and even given current elevated oil prices, the "princes" don't make as much money as they used to and have to split it increasingly more ways.
And there was bad news for them from the West even before this weekend:
Citibank announced that it was not going to be doing business in SA anymore, ending a 50-year-old relationship.
Yet, in their arrogance and stubbornness, the Sauds turned down President Bush's invitation to attend the G8 economic summit next week in Georgia where his "Greater Middle East Initiative," which centers on desperately needed reform in the Arab world, will be announced.
So, don't touch that dial!
...there will be more.
If most, or all, of the expat oil workers leave SA for their own safety, the Soddy royals will be forced to do something concrete and lasting about domestic IslamoFascism to get Westerners to come back.
They have to--they literally don't know how to do it and have never learned.
I'm beginning to think that the House of Saud is pretty short on intelligence, wisdom and foresightedness and too long on greed, envy and hatred.
Incoming Al Queda killer chickens returning to the Waahab henhouse!

U.S. Dedicates Memorial to WWII Vets

America dedicated a memorial Saturday to the fast-thinning ranks of World War II veterans, a poignant last hurrah drawing together tens of thousands of old soldiers, sailors and heroes of the home front.

Frail now, full of spunk then,
[Actually, more than a few of them are still full of spunk!--Jen]
they were thanked for service that "helped save the world."

The National Mall, where huge numbers usually gather in protest[Like John Kerry and Jane Fonda.--J.T.], instead offered a last-of-a-lifetime scene of commemoration as veterans assembled by the sweeping monument of granite and bronze that was more than a decade in the planning.

"We have kept faith with our comrades from a distant youth," said former Sen. Bob Dole, a driving force for the memorial. An Army lieutenant in the war, Dole lost the use of his right arm when a shell hit him while he served in Italy.

"What we dedicate today is not a memorial to war. Rather it is a tribute to the physical and moral courage that makes heroes out of farm and city boys
[My Dad was one of those farm boys, who served with the Army for over 3 years in Europe!
He would have loved this and I'm sure he would have been in Washington for the dedication if he'd lived!--Jen]
, that inspires Americans of every generation to lay down their lives for people they'll never meet," Dole told a crowd estimated at 140,000 by police.

Many veterans gripped canes. Others sat in wheelchairs. The hardiest among them grabbed their wives and danced in the aisles when 1940s swing music wafted over the crowd. Young people came up to old people and said thanks.
[Bless their hearts, every last one of them!]
[...]
"These were the modest sons of a peaceful country," said President Bush. "They gave the best years of their lives to the greatest mission their country ever accepted."
[...]

Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, sitting next to each other on the stage, jumped up to help a Medal of Honor winner who fell from his wheelchair near them;
[This may actually be the only selfless act Bill Clinton's ever performed.--J.T.]
the man stayed for the rest of the event after a medic checked him.
[...]
The elder Bush, a Navy pilot shot down over the South Pacific in 1944, said the World War II generation was remarkable for the challenges it faced, but Americans today, as in any point of history, can rise to the same level of commitment.
[...]
Raymond Veley, 80, of Marysville, Ohio, fought in Italy with the Army and spent 17 months as a POW. Running into other ex-prisoners in Washington was a powerful experience, he said, because "we all know what the other one went through."
[And I'll bet you it made whatever our soldiers were supposed to have done to the Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib look like a tea party!--J.T.]
[...]
The president, born a year after the war ended, concluded his speech on the Mall by asking "every man and woman who saw and lived World War II, every member of that generation, to please rise as you are able and receive the thanks of our great nation."

They rose slowly, as they were able, some in tears, American flags in their hand or tucked into camera straps.
[...]
The memorial features 56 granite pillars, each 17 feet high and representing the states, territories of that time and the District of Columbia, and two arches more than twice that height — Atlantic and Pacific — symbolizing the two theaters of the war. A wall with 4,000 sculpted gold stars commemorates the more than 400,000 Americans killed.

What a wonderful thing to have accomplished this for the "Greatest Generation!"
And about time, too.
But there's something to be said for this fine memorial to be dedicated now, even if so many of our WWII vets have passed on from old age and the war has been over for almost 60 years because we're at war again and once more in the fight to save the world.
The enemy is basically the same--Evil.
And once again, the U.S. and her allies are on the side of the Good.
I want to thank our dads and granddads (and some of our moms and grandmothers) for their service and saying with their very lives that Freedom was worth fighting and dying for.
We get whatever will to fight that we have now from them and they taught us the pride, the dignity, the honor and the respect for our country that impels us to defend it today.
One of the big reasons I named my blog what I did--the Greatest Jeneration--was in the hopes that we shall become the NEW Greatest Generation and rise to the occasion of defending Democracy that the War on Terror and 9/11 has given us and in so many way, many of us already have.
As Rosie the Riveter (Don't forget all those at home who worked on the homefront during WWII!) reminds us, "We can do it!"
This war isn't over by a long shot, but these World War II vets teach us to Keep The Faith and that with perseverance, courage and resolve, Victory is possible!
(And a big thank you to Sen. Bob Dole and actor Tom Hanks, who spearheaded the drive to get this Memorial funded and built!)
May God continue to bless the Greatest Generation of WWII and may He hold in His arms all those souls who have already passed on to their reward, like my Dad!