July 10, 2004

THE SENATE INTEL REPORT: SO MUCH FOR 'BUSH LIED'

THE Senate Intelligence Committee report on the intelligence failures governing run-up to the Iraq war is a devastating document — for those who might have thought the sole reason to go to war in 2003 was Saddam Hussein's presumed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

The thing is, I don't know a single such person.

Those who supported the war, in overwhelming numbers, believed there were multiple justifications for it.

Those who opposed and oppose it, in equally overwhelming numbers, weren't swayed by the WMD arguments. Indeed, many of them had no difficulty opposing the war while believing that Saddam possessed vast quantities of such weapons.

Take Sen. Edward Kennedy . "We have known for many years," he said in September 2002, "that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." And yet only a few weeks later he was one of 23 senators who voted against authorizing the Iraq war.
[BTW, this should remind us that Congress did vote on a declaration of war on Iraq, despite the Left's claim that there's been no formal "declaration of war."--Jen]

Take French President Jacques Chirac, who believed Saddam had WMDs and still did everything in his power to block the war.

So whether policymakers supported or opposed the war effort was not determined by their conviction about the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, politicians supported or opposed the war for the same reasons they support or oppose almost anything. Some believed the war was necessary; others believed it counterproductive. Some believed their vote, for or against, would help their party. Some took whatever side they believed the voters back home wanted.
[How unusual for our elected representatives to consider what the electorate wants! For shame that this only includes a small group!]

And some — like the two men who make up the Democratic presidential ticket — clearly chose sides based on their fear of being on the wrong side of a triumphant war as they looked ahead to facing the American people in 2004.

Yes, those of us who backed the war believed Saddam possessed WMDs — but not in such quantities that it would make taking out his regime an impossibility (as seems to be the case with the nuke-possessing North Korea). We also knew he had used chemical weapons inside his own country and against Iran. We knew he was one of the world's leading terrorist sponsors, offering safe haven in Baghdad to some of the world's worst terrorists and paying $25,000 a head to encourage suicide bombers to strike inside Israel.

And we knew that the sanctions regime against him was eroding. We feared that Iraq would soon break loose from international restraint and would then be in a position to do things we didn't think Saddam had yet been able to do — like build a nuclear weapon and give it to a terrorist group.

The basis for the war in Iraq was not that Saddam could kill us all in 2003. It was that he might be in a position to do us and the world incomparable harm in the coming decade, and that the lesson of 9/11 was that (as President Bush said in June 2002) "if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long."

Nothing in the Senate report vitiates that terrifyingly vital set of concerns.

The report condemns the CIA for overstating the intelligence it did have on Iraq's weaponry. But it doesn't claim that the CIA actively discarded or disregarded contravening evidence. There was almost no evidence that Saddam did not possess weapons of mass destruction until after the war was won and we began looking for them.

Let me cite the most dramatic example I've found so far in this lengthy report. In July 2003, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson claimed he had proof that the administration ignored anti-WMD information because he had gone to Niger for the CIA and reported back that there was no evidence Iraq had obtained uranium there.

The White House knew of his mission, Wilson said, and therefore had trumped up charges about Iraq's nuclear program. This was the first source of the "BUSH LIED" trope that has become a staple of the Left over the past year.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has an eye-opening refutation of all this: "Because CIA analysts did not believe that the [Wilson] report added any new information to clarify the issue," the report states flatly on page 46, "they did not use the report to produce any further analytical products or highlight the report for policymakers. CIA's briefer did not brief the vice president on the report, despite the vice president's previous questions about the issue."

The Senate report has determined unquestioningly that Dick Cheney never heard about Wilson's trip. A major "BUSH LIED" pillar has just collapsed.

Indeed, the report destroys the entire edifice of the "BUSH LIED" temple. Here's the key sentence: "The committee found no evidence that the [intelligence community's] mischaracterization or exaggeration of weapons of mass destruction capabilities was the result of political pressure."

This sentence, on the second page of the report's conclusions, was agreed to, unanimously, by the members of the Senate committee,including every Democrat. Some of them, disgracefully, are already claiming that they don't think that sentence means what it says.

In other words, THEY LIE.

Go, John!
Of course, the CIA has their own version of intell on Saddam's WMDs and the rest of the world's security organizations and spies have theirs and every Western power agreed that Saddam had those weapons.
Are we supposed to believe that Saddam threw out the UNSCOM inspectors in 1998 for nothing?
And wouldn't it have been easier for him to just come clean with Hans Blix rather than risk losing his seat of power?
As Podhoretz points out, all we really knew before OIF was that Saddam had had the bad stuff and it should have been there.
What's happened to the WMDs since 1998 is anyone's guess, but I'll bet they're in another Islamist neighboring country, probably Syria.
British PM Tony Blair explained it to Parliament best this past week when he flatly stated that Saddam's WMDs "may never be found" because they were removed, hidden or destroyed.
(And Tony doesn't get his intell from the CIA or the Senate "Intelligence" Committee!)
Don't let the Left hang the blame on Chalabi or even the CIA, when it belongs on Saddam and his enablers like the French, Russians and Chinese.
I love the fact that that scumbag Joe Wilson's been totally busted, but I hate it that it took a year for the WashingtonPost to admit it.
(As if they couldn't figure out he was a partisan hack from the get go!)
The only thing that would make me more irate is if we find out that Wilson demanded the investigation of who "leaked" his spook wife's name for no good reason, also, pointing his finger at the White House in general and Karl Rove in particular.
He has tried to besmirch the Bush Administration's reputation for integrity and honesty, tied up the White House in useless testifying in wartime and for a reason noone gives a hoot about, and carried the water for the planet's thug régimes that traffic in nuclear materials like Niger and Saddam's Iraq.
If I have anything to say about it, Wilson's gonna be the one to be frog-marched in handcuffs to jail for treason and perjury!

July 09, 2004

James has been doing some outstanding writing, as always, but today's Bleat is particularly good (as was yesterday's on Michael Moore) on the solution to the problem of Iranian nuclear saber rattling:
LILEKS (James) The Bleat

[...]

Related note: I wonder what’s keeping Israel from taking out Iran’s nuclear bomb-making plants. Either they know it’s too late, or they know the facilities can’t be destroyed by the conventional means, or they have good enough intel to know there’s still some time and they can wait until after the election. And then they’ll go no matter who wins. If they attack now, and Bush gives them the thumbs-up, it could cut either way domestically. Kerry would have to approve or disapprove, for example. I would guess the latter, lest he want to make the UN and the IAEA look like the dithering fools they are. If Kerry approves, then he’s thrown his lot in with the cowboy-unilateralist axis, and if people want that they’ll vote for the genuine article. The far-left fringe will howl that this is all a Zionist plot to influence the election. The far-right fringe will howl that this is all a Zionist plot to influence the election. Most Americans would look at satellite photos of demolished nuke-bomb factories and think: good thing.

I know *this American* would, but I don't think we should depend on the Israelis to take care of those Iranian nuke bomb factories for us if for no other reason than that this is everyone's problem and also because the Iranians are thought to have at least 3 nuclear plants with most of the structures hidden underground, it may not be possible for Israel to pull an "Osirak" type hit on Iran and end the problem all by themselves.
Lileks then goes on to opine in a "wish it away" kind of fashion:

We’ll see. When it comes to Iran, I fear that either the bombs get bombed or the bombs get used. The latter is what I always thought would be the end result of the forces set in motion by 9/11, and I still hope I am wrong. I’ve been wrong enough to be hopeful.

I'm afraid he's right about the "bomb them or get bombed" opinion and it very well may come to that.
Our only other alternatives are a military invasion to effect régime change as we did with Iraq or in the apparently least likely, but cheeriest, scenario, the people of Iran will overthrow the mullahs in a popular uprising and voluntarily dismantle the nukes.
Let's follow James, then and hope and pray for that.

EDWARDS ASKS KERRY TO STOP GRABBING HIS ASS

Public Displays of Affection ‘Distracting,’ Says Kerry’s No. 2

After a mere two days on the campaign trail, the first signs of tension between John Kerry and running mate John Edwards emerged today as Sen. Edwards requested, firmly and unequivocally, that Mr. Kerry stop grabbing his ass.
“I think Sen. Kerry has made it very clear in our joint appearances that he is happy to have me on the ticket,” Mr. Edwards told reporters. “He really doesn’t have to prove it by repeatedly grabbing my ass.”
At a campaign stop in Pennsylvania today, Mr. Edwards was in the middle of a speech when he emitted a high-pitched yelp, apparently in response to yet another unexpected display of affection from Sen. Kerry.
“Jesus, John,” a visibly annoyed Mr. Edwards said to Mr. Kerry, who merely stood behind him smiling mischievously.
In a sign that Mr. Kerry’s unwanted embraces may be taking their toll on the newly-minted vice-presidential candidate, Mr. Edwards departed from his prepared remarks, telling hs audience, “There are two Americas – one that gets to grab ass, and one that gets its ass grabbed.”
Intriguingly, a source confirmed that Mr. Kerry’s penchant for ass-grabbing was the principal reason Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri) did not make the Democratic ticket: “The whole idea of it grossed Dick out.”

Elsewhere, indicted former Enron CEO Ken Lay today announced that he would seek amnesty by applying for a position as an Iraqi insurgent.
[I loved this and could see the Media going for it in a big way!--Jen]

And in Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft told all Americans to be on the lookout for a terror suspect disguised as an obese man wearing glasses and a baseball cap, accompanied by a documentary film crew.

I heard about the hilarious Mr. Borowitz from my friends in NRO's The Corner.
This cracked me up, so I had to share it!

A View from the Eye of the Storm

A View from the Eye of the Storm

Talk delivered by Haim Harari at a meeting of the International Advisory Board of a large multi-national corporation, April, 2004

As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological "entertainment" in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman suggested that I present my own personal view on events in the part of the world from which I come.

I have never been and I will never be a Government official and I have no privileged information. My perspective is entirely based on what I see, on what I read and on the fact that my family has lived in this region for almost 200 years. You may regard my views as those of the proverbial taxi driver, which you are supposed to question, when you visit a country.

I could have shared with you some fascinating facts and some personal thoughts about the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, I will touch upon it only in passing. I prefer to devote most of my remarks to the broader picture of the region and its place in world events. I refer to the entire area between Pakistan and Morocco, which is predominantly Arab, predominantly Moslem, but includes many non-Arab and also significant non-Moslem minorities.

Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood? Because Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region.

Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main show is.

* The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do with Israel.
* The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel.
* The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilian in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel.
* Saddam Hussein did not invade Kuwait, endangered Saudi Arabia and butchered his own people because of Israel.
* Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60’s because of Israel.
* Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel.
* The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel.
* The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel,
* and I could go on and on and on.

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel had joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine had existed for 100 years.

* The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 millions, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion.
* They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe.
* These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone.
* Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being corrupt rulers.
* The social status of women is far below what it was in the Western World 150 years ago.
* Human rights are below any reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights commission.
* According to a report prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller than what little Greece alone translates.
* The total number of scientific publications of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6 million Israelis.
* Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and the cultural decline.
* And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30 years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world, and in a Moslem area, which developed, at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world.

It is fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders and general decline. It is also a fact that almost everybody in the region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and anything, except themselves.

A word about the millions of decent, honest, good people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in Moslem families: They are double victims of an outside world, which now develops Islamophobia and of their own environment, which breaks their heart by being totally dysfunctional.

The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement, but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others. Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views.

The events of the last few years have amplified four issues, which have always existed, but have never been as rampant as in the present upheaval in the region.

These are the four main pillars of the current World Conflict, or perhaps we should already refer to it as "the undeclared World War III".
[Actually, it's WWIV, if you count the Cold War as WWIII.--Jen]

A few more years may pass before everybody acknowledges that it is a World War, but we are already well into it.

 

1. The first element is the suicide murder.

Suicide murders are not a new invention but they have been made popular, if I may use this expression, only lately. Even after September 11, it seems that most of the Western World does not yet understand this weapon. It is a very potent psychological weapon. Its real direct impact is relatively minor. The total number of casualties from hundreds of suicide murders within Israel in the last three years is much smaller than those due to car accidents. September 11 was quantitatively much less lethal than many earthquakes. More people die from AIDS in one day in Africa than all the Russians who died in the hands of Chechnya-based Moslem suicide murderers since that conflict started. Saddam killed every month more people than all those who died from suicide murders since the Coalition occupation of Iraq.

So what is all the fuss about suicide killings? It creates headlines. It is spectacular. It is frightening. It is a very cruel death with bodies dismembered and horrible severe lifelong injuries to many of the wounded. It is always shown on television in great detail. One such murder, with the help of hysterical media coverage, can destroy the tourism industry of a country for quite a while, as it did in Bali and in Turkey.

But the real fear comes from the undisputed fact that no defense and no preventive measures can succeed against a determined suicide murderer. This has not yet penetrated the thinking of the Western World. The U.S. and Europe are constantly improving their defense against the last murder, not the next one. We may arrange for the best airport security in the world. But if you want to murder by suicide, you do not have to board a plane in order to explode yourself and kill many people. Who could stop a suicide murder in the midst of the crowded line waiting to be checked by the airport metal detector? How about the lines to the check-in counters in a busy travel period? Put a metal detector in front of every train station in Spain and the terrorists will get the buses. Protect the buses and they will explode in movie theaters, concert halls, supermarkets, shopping malls, schools and hospitals. Put guards in front of every concert hall and there will always be a line of people to be checked by the guards and this line will be the target, not to speak of killing the guards themselves. You can somewhat reduce your vulnerability by preventive and defensive measures and by strict border controls but not eliminate it and definitely not win the war in a defensive way. And it is a war!

What is behind the suicide murders? Money, power and cold-blooded murderous incitement, nothing else. It has nothing to do with true fanatic religious beliefs. No Moslem preacher has ever blown himself up. No son of an Arab politician or religious leader has ever blown himself.

No relative of anyone influential has done it. Wouldn’t you expect some of the religious leaders to do it themselves, or to talk their sons into doing it, if this is truly a supreme act of religious fervor? Aren’t they interested in the benefits of going to Heaven? Instead, they send outcast women, naïve children, retarded people and young incited hotheads. They promise them the delights, mostly sexual, of the next world, and pay their families handsomely after the supreme act is performed and enough innocent people are dead.

Suicide murders also have nothing to do with poverty and despair.

The poorest region in the world, by far, is Africa. It never happens there. There are numerous desperate people in the world, in different cultures, countries and continents. Desperation does not provide anyone with explosives, reconnaissance and transportation. There was certainly more despair in Saddam’s Iraq then in Paul Bremmer’s Iraq, and no one exploded himself. A suicide murder is simply a horrible, vicious weapon of cruel, inhuman, cynical, well-funded terrorists, with no regard to human life, including the life of their fellow countrymen, but with very high regard to their own affluent well-being and their hunger for power.

The only way to fight this new “popular” weapon is identical to the only way in which you fight organized crime or pirates on the high seas: the offensive way.

Like in the case of organized crime, it is crucial that the forces on the offensive be united and it is crucial to reach the top of the crime pyramid. You cannot eliminate organized crime by arresting the little drug dealer in the street corner. You must go after the head of the "Family".

If part of the public supports it, others tolerate it, many are afraid of it and some try to explain it away by poverty or by a miserable childhood, organized crime will thrive and so will terrorism.

The United States understands this now, after September 11. Russia is beginning to understand it. Turkey understands it well. I am very much afraid that most of Europe still does not understand it. Unfortunately, it seems that Europe will understand it only after suicide murders arrive in Europe in a big way. In my humble opinion, this will definitely happen. The Spanish trains and the Istanbul bombings are only the beginning. The unity of the Civilized World in fighting this horror is absolutely indispensable. Until Europe wakes up, this unity will not be achieved.
[Or, worst case scenario, it may never happen if France (along with Spain and Germany) line themselves up with the Islamist killers.--J.T.]

 

2. The second ingredient is words, more precisely lies.

Words can be lethal. They kill people. It is often said that politicians, diplomats and perhaps also lawyers and business people must sometimes lie, as part of their professional life. But the norms of politics and diplomacy are childish, in comparison with the level of incitement and total absolute deliberate fabrications, which have reached new heights in the region we are talking about. An incredible number of people in the Arab world believe that September 11 never happened, or was an American provocation or, even better, a Jewish plot.

You all remember the Iraqi Minister of Information, Mr. Mouhamad Said al-Sahaf and his press conferences when the US forces were already inside Baghdad. Disinformation at time of war is an accepted tactic. But to stand, day after day, and to make such preposterous statements, known to everybody to be lies, without even being ridiculed in your own milieu, can only happen in this region. Mr. Sahaf eventually became a popular icon as a court jester, but this did not stop some allegedly respectable newspapers from giving him equal time. It also does not prevent the Western press from giving credence, every day, even now, to similar liars. After all, if you want to be an anti-Semite, there are subtle ways of doing it. You do not have to claim that the holocaust never happened, and that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem never existed. But millions of Moslems are told by their leaders that this is the case. When these same leaders make other statements, the Western media report them as if they could be true.

It is a daily occurrence that the same people, who finance, arm and dispatch suicide murderers, condemn the act in English in front of western TV cameras, talking to a world audience, which even partly believes them. It is a daily routine to hear the same leader making opposite statements in Arabic to his people and in English to the rest of the world. Incitement by Arab TV, accompanied by horror pictures of mutilated bodies, has become a powerful weapon of those who lie, distort and want to destroy everything.

Little children are raised on deep hatred and on admiration of so-called martyrs, and the Western World does not notice it because its own TV sets are mostly tuned to soap operas and game shows. I recommend to you, even though most of you do not understand Arabic, to watch Al Jazeera, from time to time. You will not believe your own eyes.

But words also work in other ways, more subtle. A demonstration in Berlin, carrying banners supporting Saddam’s regime and featuring three-year old babies dressed as suicide murderers, is defined by the press and by political leaders as a “peace demonstration”. You may support or oppose the Iraq war, but to refer to fans of Saddam, Arafat or Bin Laden as peace activists is a bit too much. A woman walks into an Israeli restaurant in mid-day, eats, observes families with old people and children eating their lunch in the adjacent tables and pays the bill. She then blows herself up, killing 20 people, including many children, with heads and arms rolling around in the restaurant. She is called “martyr” by several Arab leaders and “activist” by the European press. Dignitaries condemn the act but visit her bereaved family and the money flows.

There is a new game in town: The actual murderer is called “the military wing”, the one who pays him, equips him and sends him is now called “the political wing” and the head of the operation is called the “spiritual leader”. There are numerous other examples of such Orwellian nomenclature, used every day not only by terror chiefs but also by Western media. These words are much more dangerous than many people realize. They provide an emotional infrastructure for atrocities. It was Joseph Goebels who said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. He is now being outperformed by his successors.

 

3. The third aspect is money.

Huge amounts of money, which could have solved many social problems in this dysfunctional part of the world, are channeled into three concentric spheres supporting death and murder.

In the inner circle are the terrorists themselves. The money funds their travel, explosives, hideouts and permanent search for soft vulnerable targets. The inner circles are primarily financed by terrorist states like Iran and Syria, until recently also by Iraq and Libya and earlier also by some of the Communist regimes. These states, as well as the Palestinian Authority, are the safe havens of the wholesale murder vendors.

They are surrounded by a second wider circle of direct supporters, planners, commanders, preachers, all of whom make a living, usually a very comfortable living, by serving as terror infrastructure.

Finally, we find the third circle of so-called religious, educational and welfare organizations, which actually do some good, feed the hungry and provide some schooling, but brainwash a new generation with hatred, lies and ignorance. This circle operates mostly through mosques, madrasas and other religious establishments but also through inciting electronic and printed media. It is this circle that makes sure that women remain inferior, that democracy is unthinkable and that exposure to the outside world is minimal. It is also that circle that leads the way in blaming every-body outside the Moslem world, for the miseries of the region. The outer circle is largely financed by Saudi Arabia, but also by donations from certain Moslem communities in the United States and Europe and, to a smaller extent, by donations of European Governments to various NGO's and by certain United Nations organizations, whose goals may be noble, but they are infested and exploited by agents of the outer circle. The Saudi regime, of course, will be the next victim of major terror, when the inner circle will explode into the outer circle. The Saudis are beginning to understand it, but they fight the inner circles, while still financing the infrastructure at the outer circle.

 

Figuratively speaking, this outer circle is the guardian, which makes sure that the people look and listen inwards to the inner circle of terror and incitement, rather than to the world outside. Some parts of this same outer circle actually operate as a result of fear from, or blackmail by, the inner circles. The horrifying added factor is the high birth rate. Half of the population of the Arab world is under the age of 20, the most receptive age to incitement, guaranteeing two more generations of blind hatred.

Some of the leaders of these various circles live very comfortably on their loot. You meet their children in the best private schools in Europe, not in the training camps of suicide murderers. The Jihad "soldiers" join packaged death tours to Iraq and other hotspots, while some of their leaders ski in Switzerland. Mrs. Arafat, who lives in Paris with her daughter, receives tens of thousands of dollars per month from the allegedly bankrupt Palestinian Authority, while a typical local ringleader of the Al-Aksa brigade, reporting to Arafat, receives only a cash payment of a couple of hundred dollars, for performing murders at the retail level.

 

4. The fourth element of the current world conflict is the total breaking of all laws.

The civilized world believes in democracy, the rule of law, including international law, human rights, free speech and free press, among other liberties. There are naïve old-fashioned habits such as respecting religious sites and symbols, not using ambulances and hospitals for acts of war, avoiding the mutilation of dead bodies and not using children as human shields or human bombs. Never in history, not even in the Nazi period, was there such total disregard of all of the above as we observe now. Every student of political science debates how you prevent an anti-democratic force from winning a democratic election and abolishing democracy. Other aspects of a civilized society must also have limitations. Can a policeman open fire on someone trying to kill him? Can a government listen to phone conversations of terrorists and drug dealers? Does free speech protects you when you shout “fire” in a crowded theater? Should there be death penalty, for deliberate multiple murders? These are the old-fashioned dilemmas. But now we have an entire new set.

Do you raid a mosque, which serves as a terrorist ammunition storage?
[Yep. Our Marines have been forced to do this in Iraq just last month.]
Do you return fire, if you are attacked from a hospital?
[Our guys had to do this, too, when they were engaged in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.]
Do you storm a church taken over by terrorists who took the priests hostages?
[I wish they had when the "Palestinians" took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and completely trashed the place of Christ's birth.]
Do you search every ambulance after a few suicide murderers use ambulances to reach their targets? Do you strip every woman because one pretended to be pregnant and carried a suicide bomb on her belly? Do you shoot back at someone trying to kill you, standing deliberately behind a group of children? Do you raid terrorist headquarters, hidden in a mental hospital? Do you shoot an arch-murderer who deliberately moves from one location to another, always surrounded by children? All of these happen daily in Iraq and in the Palestinian areas. What do you do? Well, you do not want to face the dilemma. But it cannot be avoided.
[I would add the whining and whinging about the treatment of Iraqi POWs at Abu Ghraib in this grouping, also.--Jen]

Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that someone would openly stay in a well-known address in Teheran, hosted by the Iranian Government and financed by it, executing one atrocity after another in Spain or in France, killing hundreds of innocent people, accepting responsibility for the crimes, promising in public TV interviews to do more of the same, while the Government of Iran issues public condemnations of his acts but continues to host him, invite him to official functions and treat him as a great dignitary. I leave it to you as homework to figure out what Spain or France would have done, in such a situation.

The problem is that the civilized world is still having illusions about the rule of law in a totally lawless environment. It is trying to play ice hockey by sending a ballerina ice-skater into the rink or to knock out a heavyweight boxer by a chess player. In the same way that no country has a law against cannibals eating its prime minister, because such an act is unthinkable, international law does not address killers shooting from hospitals, mosques and ambulances, while being protected by their Government or society. International law does not know how to handle someone who sends children to throw stones, stands behind them and shoots with immunity and cannot be arrested because he is sheltered by a Government. International law does not know how to deal with a leader of murderers who is royally and comfortably hosted by a country, which pretends to condemn his acts or just claims to be too weak to arrest him. The amazing thing is that all of these crooks demand protection under international law, and define all those who attack them as "war criminals," with some Western media repeating the allegations.

The good news is that all of this is temporary, because the evolution of international law has always adapted itself to reality. The punishment for suicide murder should be death or arrest before the murder, not during and not after. After every world war, the rules of international law have changed, and the same will happen after the present one. But during the twilight zone, a lot of harm can be done.

The picture I described here is not pretty. What can we do about it? In the short run, only fight and win. In the long run – only educate the next generation and open it to the world. The inner circles can and must be destroyed by force.

The outer circle cannot be eliminated by force. Here we need financial starvation of the organizing elite, more power to women, more education, counter propaganda, boycott whenever feasible and access to Western media, internet and the international scene. Above all, we need a total absolute unity and determination of the civilized world against all three circles of evil.

Allow me, for a moment, to depart from my alleged role as a taxi driver and return to science. When you have a malignant tumor, you may remove the tumor itself surgically. You may also starve it by preventing new blood from reaching it from other parts of the body, thereby preventing new "supplies" from expanding the tumor. If you want to be sure, it is best to do both.

But before you fight and win, by force or otherwise, you have to realize that you are in a war, and this may take Europe a few more years.

In order to win, it is necessary to first eliminate the terrorist regimes, so that no Government in the world will serve as a safe haven for these people.

I do not want to comment here on whether the American-led attack on Iraq was justified from the point of view of weapons of mass destruction or any other pre-war argument, but I can look at the post-war map of Western Asia. Now that Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain: Iran, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony. Perhaps Sudan should be added to the list. As a result of the conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq, both Iran and Syria are now totally surrounded by territories unfriendly to them. Iran is encircled by Afghanistan, by the Gulf States, Iraq and the Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union. Syria is surrounded by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. This is a significant strategic change and it applies strong pressure on the terrorist countries. It is not surprising that Iran is so active in trying to incite a Shiite uprising in Iraq. I do not know if the American plan was actually to encircle both Iran and Syria, but that is the resulting situation.

In my humble opinion, the number one danger to the world today is Iran and its regime. It definitely has ambitions to rule vast areas and to expand in all directions. It has an ideology, which claims supremacy over Western culture. It is ruthless. It has proven that it can execute elaborate terrorist acts without leaving too many traces, using Iranian Embassies.
[Right now, Iran is trying to pressure Britain to let it "bury its Iran-Iraq war dead" at its embassy in London. It should escape noone's attention that plenty of weapons can be stashed in "coffins."]
It is clearly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Its so-called moderates and conservatives play their own virtuoso version of the “good-cop versus bad-cop” game. Iran sponsors Syrian terrorism, it is certainly behind much of the action in Iraq, it is fully funding the Hizbulla and, through it, the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it performed acts of terror at least in Europe and in South America and probably also in Uzbekhistan and Saudi Arabia and it truly leads a multi-national terror consortium, which includes, as minor players, Syria, Lebanon and certain Shiite elements in Iraq. Nevertheless, most European countries still trade with Iran, try to appease it and refuse to read the clear signals.
[Mark Steyn aptly points out that Britain crumbled and did not give the appropriate response when Iran capture 8 Brit soldiers and committed an act of war/piracy, as I noted on this blog.--Jen]

In order to win the war it is also necessary to dry the financial resources of the terror conglomerate.
[I was happy to see that just this week, a U.S. court convicted the head of the Holy Land Foundation here in Dallas, along with 4 of his "brothers" in jihad, which was another terrorist front that was posing as a Muslim "charity.]
It is pointless to try to understand the subtle differences between the Sunni terror of Al Qaida and Hamas and the Shiite terror of Hizbulla, Sadr and other Iranian inspired enterprises. When it serves their business needs, all of them collaborate beautifully.

It is crucial to stop Saudi and other financial support of the outer circle, which is the fertile breeding ground of terror. It is important to monitor all donations from the Western World to Islamic organizations, to monitor the finances of international relief organizations and to react with forceful economic measures to any small sign of financial aid to any of the three circles of terrorism.

It is also important to act decisively against the campaign of lies and fabrications and to monitor those Western media who collaborate with it out of naivety, financial interests or ignorance.

Above all, never surrender to terror. No one will ever know whether the recent elections in Spain would have yielded a different result, if not for the train bombings a few days earlier. But it really does not matter. What matters is that the terrorists believe that they caused the result and that they won by driving Spain out of Iraq.
[And now the threat looms that the jihadis are definitely going to try to do the same here in America for our election.]
The Spanish story will surely end up being extremely costly to other European countries, including France, who is now expelling inciting preachers and forbidding veils and including others who sent troops to Iraq. In the long run, Spain itself will pay even more.

Is the solution a democratic Arab world?

If by democracy we mean free elections but also free press, free speech, a functioning judicial system, civil liberties, equality to women, free international travel, exposure to international media and ideas, laws against racial incitement and against defamation, and avoidance of lawless behavior regarding hospitals, places of worship and children, then yes, democracy is the solution.

If democracy is just free elections, it is likely that the most fanatic regime will be elected, the one whose incitement and fabrications are the most inflammatory. We have seen it already in Algeria and, to a certain extent, in Turkey. It will happen again, if the ground is not prepared very carefully. On the other hand, a certain transition democracy, as in Jordan, may be a better temporary solution, paving the way for the real thing, perhaps in the same way that an immediate sudden democracy did not work in Russia and would not have worked in China.

I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail. But the longer it takes us to understand the new landscape of this war, the more costly and painful the victory will be. Europe, more than any other region, is the key. Its understandable recoil from wars, following the horrors of World War II, may cost thousands of additional innocent lives, before the tide will turn.

I found this important speech at Steven Den Beste's via Rantburg and had to quote the whole thing.
I believe that Mr. Harari (or whomever is indeed the author) meant this speech primarily for his EU friends, but he could also be addressing the Global Left everywhere, including this country.
It's a cold, hard dose of Truth, but the only thing that gives me consolation is that the Bush Administration is leading the war effort and doing everything he said to do to fight this evil.

July 08, 2004

ABCNEWS.com : Gunbattle Near U.S. Marine Hassoun's Lebanon Home
The truth really is stranger than fiction!
You couldn't make this up if you had to.
I don't what the real scoop is on this Hassoun guy is, but as far as I can figure out, he is AWOL from the U.S. military and has no business in Lebanon, even if his father lives there!
Nice to hear that he turned up OK in Lebanon, but it's now turned into a gunfight in the streets of Beirut (which used to be a daily happening there 20 years ago, but isn't anymore until today!) with at least 2 dead because they called his family "American collaborators."
Given this incident and the one at the beginning of OIF when the Muslim soldier threw the grenade into his CO's tent and killed him for "Islam," we need to screen our Muslim/Arab soldiers upon enlistment to determine if they have a higher allegiance to Allah than they do to defending this country.

July 07, 2004

Hassoun May Be in Lebanon

The brother of a Marine captured in Iraq denied reports Wednesday that he had been released and contacted family members, but a U.S. official said there was reason to believe the corporal was in his native Lebanon.

I haven't blogged this before because it's such a strange story...
Hassoun supposedly came to America from Lebanon after 9/11 and joined the Marines soon after.
It's still not clear how or why he went missing from his post in Iraq and some of the buzz has it that he "defected" to the Enemy side because of his Muslim and pro-Arab sympathies, although the Marines are giving him the benefit of the doubt and classifying him as "captured."
Given that's true, then his Islamofascist "brothers" apparently turned on him, instead of receiving him with open arms and that was when they threatened to execute him, probably for "collaborating" with the infidel.
The Marines sent the jihadis a letter telling them that there would be serious payback if Hassoun was harmed and after the recent beheadings of Nick Berg and Paul Johnson, the American public was fairly outraged at the possibility of another
American-affiliated man being beheaded on TV.
So, the insurgents let him go and that brings us to his possible re-appearance in his native Lebanon (Syria's satellite and a minor member of the Axis of Evil).
Can't wait to hear what all this was really about.

Update: Now Drudge and NBC want to know if the story's a hoax, too...Hmmm.

W Ketchup

Boy, did this product come along just in time!
I love Heinz ketchup, but I'm not gonna buy Heinz stuff if I think that even one penny goes to Theresa and her Left wing causes and to sKerry's campaign of evil and you don't want to either!
Along comes "W Ketchup" to fill that gap, because Hunt's ain't that great, either!
And it's made in America with American-grown ingredients, not made in 57 foreign and outsourced factories overseas like Heinz foods are!
I ordered 4 bottles--hope it's delicious!
And part of the proceeds go to a terrific cause:
the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, which is providing scholarships for the children of soldiers killed in the line of duty in the War on Terror.
Get some today, why don't you?!

U.S. Flies Radioactive Material, Suitable for Dirty Bomb, Out of Iraq

In a secret operation, the United States last month removed from Iraq nearly two tons of uranium and hundreds of highly radioactive items that could have been used in a so-called dirty bomb, the Energy Department disclosed Tuesday.

The nuclear material was secured from Iraq's former nuclear research facility and airlifted out of the country to an undisclosed Energy Department laboratory for further analysis, the department said in a statement.
[...]
Much of the material "was in powdered form, which is easily dispersed," said Wilkes.
[...]
Such a device [a dirty bomb] would not trigger a nuclear explosion, but would use conventional explosives to spread radioactive debris. While few people would probably be killed or seriously affected by the radiation, such an explosion could cause panic, make a section of a city uninhabitable for some time and require cumbersome and expensive cleanup.
[...]
A recent study by researchers at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies concluded it is "all but certain" that some kind of dirty bomb will be set off by a terrorist group in the years ahead. There are just too many radioactive sources available across the globe, the report said.
[...]
The low-enriched uranium taken from Iraq, if it is of the 3 percent to 5 percent level of enrichment common in fuel for commercial power reactors, could have been of value to a country developing enrichment technology.

"It speeds up the process," Oelrich said, adding that 1.95 tons of low-enriched uranium could be used to produce enough highly enriched uranium to make a single nuclear bomb.

Draw your own conclusions about whether or not this was part of Saddam's arsenal of WMDs...
I'm just glad that there's one less cache of nuclear materials in that part of the world because it's becoming crystal clear that they're not going to be used by the IslamoNazis for peaceful purposes!

Update: Seems the U.N. is upset with the U.S. because they didn't say it was O.K. for us to take the nuke stuff--Too bad!
I believe President Bush already covered this in his last SOTU address when he said that America wouldn't wait to "get a permission slip" from other powers before we did what was necessary to defend ourselves.

Sex claims 'bankrupt US archdiocese'
Massive church closures in Boston

I'm afraid we'll see a lot more of this before it's over...
Yes, there were a few priests who abused their positions of trust and sexually abused their parishioners, but the abuse was far from systemic (Don't like the word, but it works here.)
As the Dimocrat party puts up a trial lawyer for VP who's enriched himself through civil litigation, we should all bear in mind that most of the abuse claims against Catholic priests were about getting the money damages, not about ending the abuse.
The Church had "deep pockets" and that's all most lawyers need to know.
What a shame, a tragedy (at least one priest has committed suicide over this) and a sin!
While some may argue that the Church was "too rich" anyway, in that it's based on the worship of Christ who eschewed earthly wealth and who advocated poverty, the impoverishment of Catholic churches will impair their ministries, too.
(Also, you have to ask yourself how churches which answered previously only to Rome were subjected to the American courts' jurisdiction as "businesses."
This was the work of those clever litigators, too.)
All in all, the trial lawyers have a lot to answer for!
If sKerry and Edwards are elected (God forbid!), you can kiss tort reform goodbye for a long time!
While I am not a Catholic myself, I know many fine people who are and as fellow Christians, I support them and include them in the Body of Christ.
Please join me in praying for the Church as they go through these tempestuous times and also when we were fighting a war against the very forces of Evil.

July 05, 2004

'Ronnie Touched So Many of Us'

In the last 30 days I have experienced an extraordinary outpouring of sympathy and love from old friends — and new — across the country and around the world. So much has happened to warm the hearts of everyone in my family. It is not easy to find a way to express our appreciation. Ronnie would have said, "Just tell them." So, although it has been the saddest and most difficult of times, I want you to know that we are comforted by the prayers, the support and all the love.
So many people played a role in making the funeral events possible, and I wish I could thank each and every one of you individually. To those of you who honored my husband by participating, you have my deep appreciation. He would have been proud of your loyalty and humbled by the tremendous expression of affection.
From California to Washington, I've seen beautiful flowers, handwritten sentiments on cards and posters, jars of Ronnie's favorite jelly beans, Western boots and cowboy hats and a sea of American flags. I am so heartened by the depth and sincerity of your devotion to my husband. As I saw the people lining the motorcade routes and heard the special tributes in communities across this country he loved so dearly, I realized once again how Ronnie touched so many of us. I will never forget the sights and sounds at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and in the Capitol Rotunda filled with families and children, the old and the young, all wanting just once more to be in his company.
As every day passes, I am continually amazed by the kindness of strangers and the faithfulness of friends. I am so grateful for your concern and deeply touched by your support. Thank you all so very much.
As we celebrate the Fourth of July, I couldn't let the opportunity pass to reflect upon my husband's love for this great American holiday. He was so proud to have served our country as commander in chief. I know he would have wanted to send a special thank you to the men and women of our armed services. In his memory I send a personal message of gratitude to all of you who are so courageous in the pursuit of freedom.
May God bless you as he did Ronnie.
Nancy Reagan
Bel-Air

What a lovely and gracious lady she is!
Mrs. Reagan, we just wanted you to know how much we love and respect you and your husband and what you did for this country!
May God continue to comfort you in your sorrow.
(I still miss President Reagan and I guess I always will.)

Fireworks Roar As U.S. Marks Independence

I know I did...and President Bush's natal day is Tuesday and mine's Thursday!
But I can't let another day go by before I also wish Iraqis a happy independence day.
It will be a week tomorrow that Paul Bremer "took off the training wheels" of Iraqi self-government and handed over the reins of power to Allawi and his Cabinet.
Wouldn't our Founding Fathers be proud that not only do we continue to marvel at, enjoy and preserve the benefits of Liberty well over 200 years later, but that their chosen form of government--democracy--is proving to be "contagious" and liberating lives all over the planet.
I'm still so happy and proud that my country has helped make this possible for so many and for Iraqis and Afghans of late in particular!
And isn't it ironic that the head of the power we overthrew in the Revolutionary War because of their tyranny is now our greatest friend and ally in our fight to keep the planet peaceful and free from oppression?



Also, know that President Bush's acknowledging statement of "Let Freedom Reign!" on Dr. Rice's note to him that the Iraqi transfer of sovereignity was completed was most likely a deliberate quote of Sir Winston Churchill's and not a "Bushism" on the more common expression "Let Freedom Ring" as the snippy Left would have it.


I thought this note was just too cool, didn't you?

May God continue to bless this country, but I'd like to add a special prayer and thank you to all our troops serving at home and around the world, especially in Iraq, for keeping us safe and free!

July 04, 2004

Poland stands by 'poison gas' find Iraq

Political and military officials in Poland Saturday reaffirmed that missile warheads found by Polish troops in Iraq contained poison gas, despite denials by the multinational forces in Baghdad.

"In each of the missiles found, the presence of a chemical substance was found. It was cyclosarin," a spokesman for the Polish contingent in Iraq, Colonel Robert Strzelecki, told public television.

"They were missiles that were made 15 years ago, which should have been destroyed and were not. They would certainly have very dangerous had they fallen into the hands of terrorists," said deputy defense minister Janusz Zemke.

Washington announced on Thursday that Polish troops had discovered more than a dozen warheads containing mustard or sarin gas in Iraq, a report later confirmed by Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski.

The head of Poland's military intelligence service also said on Friday that "terrorist" groups were seeking to acquire the weapons.

Of course, Agence France Press, like its Leftist brethren AP, Reuters and the BBC, puts sneer quotes around the term terrorist.
Well good work, Poland and this isn't the first time you've done something terrific in Iraq for the Coalition!
And stand firm on your discovery--the Left will either deny these reports, as they've done in this case, or won't have their media organs carry it, anyway.
We know Saddam had those WMDs (and not just from poor beleaguered Chalabi, either) and they're going to turn up somewhere in or near Iraq and someday soon (probably in Syria), but I hope that again, it's the troops on our side that find them before they're used.