Petrified Truth

Vacation - II

Made it to the Rockies via Amarillo, a bit of scenic New Mexico, and up into Colorado through Trinidad, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver. Total of about 1200 miles. Stopped in Denver to visit The Tattered Cover -- worldclass bookstore. Good stuff to read now by the rushing river outside our door. Our host says we should watch out for chipmunks, elk, and the occasional mountain lion.

Vacation

Goin' on vacation today, heading west. Updates will be sporadic for a while, depending on connections for the laptop... and competing interests. Ciao!

UPDATE: Drove as far as Abilene today, about 400 miles. Via Texas Hill Country -- lovely terrain. Colorado tomorrow; lots more elevation.

Quote of the Day

"To win the War on Terror, we must win also win a war of ideas by appealing to the decent hopes of people throughout the world . . . giving them cause to hope for a better life and brighter future . . . and reason to reject the false and destructive comforts of bitterness, grievance, and hate. Terror grows in the absence of progress and development. It thrives in the airless space where new ideas, new hopes and new aspirations are forbidden. Terror lives when freedom dies."

- National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleeza Rice, speaking to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London

via the White House

"An Army of Lots More Than One"

The Left has been wringing its sensitive hands for months about the lack of "sacrifice" called for by President Bush for the global war on terror. For the most part, it's been bunk since the Left only wants a justification for higher taxes and more government spending across the board. However, there is one area that's getting renewed attention and is a legitimate concern. But it isn't what the Left wants to hear: our military needs to be dramatically larger.

The armed forces of the United States are too small to support the missions required of them in the post-9/11 world. In many of the situations we now face, using troops on the ground is nonnegotiable, and America has too few of them. If that assertion seems counterintuitive given the impressive performance of the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, two numbers may help drive it home: Of the 495,000 troops in the U.S. Army, 370,000 are already deployed around the world.

via The Weekly Standard

Ceasefire?

Hamas has supposedly agreed to a cease-fire with the Israelis. I'll believe it when I see it, and it could all come to naught. But maybe, just maybe, it's an opening for the Palestinians who want to co-exist with the Jews, not just exterminate them.

Hamas, the Islamic extremist group, said yesterday it had decided to suspend attacks against Israel, opening the way for a delayed American-backed peace plan to swing into action. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, said in Gaza that, "having studied all the developments", the organisation had reached a decision to call "a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities".

The truce is likely to be for three months and comes with conditions - particularly that Israel stops killing Palestinians, demolishing their homes and starts freeing prisoners - and still has to be finalised with other militant groups. The decision was taken despite continuing actions by the Israeli army to kill Hamas operatives, which in the past would have been enough to provoke it into a new wave of attacks. But American pressure has been so strong, and the Hamas infrastructure so weakened by Israeli strikes, that it has decided to agree to a pause.

via The Telegraph (UK)

This might be why.

Something radical has changed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The change is not the views of the Israeli top brass, who still believe in using an iron fist. It is not in the minds of the Palestinian extremists who send young men to blow themselves up inside Israel; they still believe in eternal struggle. How then to explain the fact that Hamas, the Islamic extremist movement, is preparing to sign a three-month truce, obliging it to stop attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians?

In return for accepting what Palestinians widely see as a "surrender document", Hamas will get almost nothing from the Israelis, not even a promise that the lives of its leadership will be secure. The change is not on the ground, but 5,900 miles away, in the mind of President George W Bush. He told the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, earlier this month that bringing peace to the Middle East was a "divine mission" for him. The Palestinians were astonished at these words - the last they expected to hear from a US president.

Mr Bush's divine mission is gathering strength, and all the Arab leaders are scrambling to avoid being trampled by the diplomatic and military juggernaut. The most scared of all are the Syrians, whose capital, Damascus, has been the home of the exiled leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

With American troops in Iraq on its eastern frontier, Syria is coming under intolerable pressure to heed American wishes and send radical Palestinian leaders away. The fact Washington has offered no explanation - let alone an apology - for a raid on June 19 in which five border guards were wounded and taken away is the clearest indication that the US is no respecter of Syrian sovereignty.

The exiled leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Khaled Mashal and Ramadan Shallah, have been moved from their Damascus offices to a Palestinian refugee camp. Their next stop would most likely be Beirut - within range of the Israeli air force and Mossad hit squads. Even the compliant Lebanese might want to move them on but where to? No Arab country dares provide a haven.

That is why, according to Palestinian officials, the exiled leadership has all but signed the ceasefire proposal. The local leadership in Gaza is resisting this decision, which they see as a surrender of fundamental principles. If God has decreed there should be no Jewish state in the Middle East, they argue, who has the right to declare a truce?

"The exiled leadership sees the regional picture, which is not at all favourable," said a diplomat. "The local leadership sees things differently."

via The Telegraph (UK)

Euro-nannies give ground

Crisis averted, for now. Whew!

Millions of European men who buy tabloid newspapers for a daily dose of topless women can relax. The European Union said that proposed EU sex discrimination laws won't ban the "page-three girls" from The Sun of London or their scantily clad counterparts on the front page of Bild, Germany's biggest circulation daily.

"To talk about banning certain aspects of certain publications is not possible," explained EU spokeswoman Antonia Mochan. "The European Union does not have the legal tools to intervene." The measured words from EU head office contrast with a media uproar this week after reports of a clampdown on gender stereotyping filtered out of Brussels.

"I'm supposed to be gotten rid of," proclaimed Bild, pointing to a topless blonde, wearing a tiara and a rhinestone G-string, who appeared Thursday on the newspaper's front page. "The EU wants to outlaw the beautiful girls from the front page," bemoaned the German daily.

via the Sydney Morning Herald

Mansoor on Pakistan

Mansoor Ijaz is back from South Asia and has checked in with an interview on Fox News as well as a new article at NRO. He has a lot of advice for the U.S. and for Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Mansoor's a smart guy and he bases his statements on firsthand knowledge -- worth reading the whole thing.

Musharraf may still be the best bet for stabilizing a very dangerous region, but he's not invincible and no U.S. president should ever again rely on a single man to represent the alliance between two nations.

Asking Musharraf to settle his self-manufactured domestic political crisis, in which Islamist parties demand his overly broad powers of governance be curtailed, must be at the top of the Bush agenda whether bilateral protocols allow for it or not. Its resolution alone will define the manner in which the general can move on matters of most concern to ordinary Americans.

For the U.S., ending the operations of Osama bin Laden's terror franchises on Pakistani soil is a vital first step. It is no longer acceptable for Pakistan to deem itself a key ally in the war on terror while terrorist plotting against the U.S. and its allies continues and bin Laden maintains refuge in Pakistan's northern tribal regions. Neither is it acceptable that the American people be extorted over a few al Qaeda arrests every time Pakistan's bank balances need replenishing, or hawkish generals run to Musharraf to demand more funding for the next generation of nuclear-capable missiles.

Pakistani intelligence has had a pretty good idea of bin Laden's whereabouts for some time. President Bush must tell his guest that Pakistan's babysitting services are no longer needed. The Iraq campaign is over. Al Qaeda cells in Europe and the Middle East have been largely dismantled or are at least under surveillance. And so the time has come to bring the Saudi fugitive to justice before new cells can regenerate and attempt another major terrorist attack.

via National Review Online

Pas de Joan d'Arc

There is a counter-revolution going on in France as well -- they're not all a bunch of Euro-sissies. Their new, charismatic leader is Sabine Herold and she's on fire. Wish my French skills were still good. Zut!

She is a political science student, very beautiful and speaks perfect English. She has also just become the most famous 21-year-old in France.

Dubbed France's Lady Thatcher by the newspapers, Mademoiselle Herold has been leading the rallies against the unions who have been crippling her country. Standing on a telephone box in her pearl earrings and high heels, she addresses crowds of 80,000, urging them to rise up against the striking teachers, Metro workers, rubbish collectors and air traffic controllers who are ruining people's lives. With her student friends, she has set up an organisation: Liberte J'Ecris Ton Nom, which has thousands of members, demanding that France reforms.

Now, she wants to come to Britain. Her email is simple: "I would like to spend my time meeting politicians. I don't wear jeans; I like red meat; please could I bring a camera crew?"

Here, she has been called Joan of Arc. "That is stupid," she says. "I love Britain. I love Margaret Thatcher. I love the way you have overcome the unions and are not afraid to privatise. I love the way you work so hard. In France, we have become lazy and staid. We think only of weekends, holidays and how great we once were. We need a dose of Thatcherism."

via The Telegraph (UK)

"The War Isn't Over"

In a tough editorial today the WSJ addresses the nature of ongoing conflict in Iraq and calls for much more aggressive de-Baathification, including public trials for past atrocities. Makes absolute sense to me.

Large elements of Saddam's regime are still around, pursuing almost daily attacks of sabotage. Foreign jihadis are joining them, some of whom may well be allied with al Qaeda. This is the reason GIs continue to die, and it means the U.S. will have to make a much more forceful, systematic effort to kill and punish them if stability is going to be restored.

The first step is to stop underestimating the nature of the threat. The CIA keeps telling U.S. officials that there is no "organized" resistance, as if it needs to find some headquarters in a basement to prove it. When oil pipelines are being blown up, Iraqis who work with Americans are assassinated, and GIs are routinely ambushed, the prudent conclusion is that the attacks are organized until proven otherwise.

It's possible that this guerrilla strategy was part of Saddam's plan all along. Retired Marine Colonel Gary Anderson predicted much of what is now unfolding in the April 2 Washington Post. Saddam admires Ho Chi Minh and has studied the U.S. debacles in Lebanon and Somalia. Rather than confront the U.S. in a conventional fight they'd lose, the Baathists "seeded the urban and semi-urban population centers of the country with cadres designed to lead such a guerrilla movement."

This strategy would explain why the Baathists didn't use chemical weapons; the act would have turned the world irreparably against them. The major fighting also ended before U.S. troops swept into the Sunni areas north of Baghdad, where two Republican Guard divisions were able to blend into the population. Now the Baathists can maintain hope of outlasting the Americans, who they assume will grow tired of taking casualties and turn Iraq over to the U.N.

Most Iraqis believe Saddam is still alive, and may well return. His allies are spreading leaflets and word about "the party of return," further scaring Iraqis from assisting any new government. They know that the Yanks can always go home, leaving them to cope with any Baathist revival.

via The Wall Street Journal (subscribers only)

Intelligence City

With DEBKA one never knows, but this report is really good news if true. We're settling in to establish permanent operations in Iraq, which is perfectly positioned as a strategic location in the Middle East.

The Americans are secretly building two giant intelligence facilities in Iraq at a cost of some half a billion dollars, according to an exclusive report received from DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources. US engineering and construction units are setting up what amounts to an “intelligence city” on a site north of the oil city of Mosul in Kurdistan and a second facility in Baghdad’s Saadun district on the east bank of the Tigris. Our military experts infer from the vast dimensions of the two projects and their colossal expense that it is Washington’s intention to retain a large US military presence in Iraq in the long term, for a decade at least.

The new installations will greatly enhance America’s military, intelligence and electronic command and control over Iraq and its neighbors, notably Iran and Syria. The Mosul facility will guard northern Iraq’s oilfields and the pipelines carrying Iraqi gas and oil to Mediterranean terminals. Its instruments will reach into every corner of Iran and Syria, replacing America’s electronic eyes and ears in southern Turkey. This facility will be activated a section at a time according to need. Upon completion at the end of 2005, it will employ an operating staff of around 4,000 American intelligence personnel and electronic engineers.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Middle East sources report that the intelligence center going up near Mosul is causing much nervousness in Damascus and Tehran. Both governments understand that when the first sections are activated in three months time, not a single military or intelligence move of theirs will go unseen by America’s electronic spies – and that goes for terrorist activity as well.

via DEBKA

Quote of the Day

"The best protection that we can give our soldiers is an offensive spirit in a tough place."

- Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, saying that coalition forces in Iraq need to seek out the enemy and bring the fight to them, during his Senate confirmation hearing to be the next commander of U.S. Central Command

via DefenseLink

Maureen's futility

Documented prevaricator Maureen Dowd is still filling the pages of the NYT with her screeds. Today her target is Clarence Thomas, who apparently will never be forgiven by the Left for forgetting his place and hewing to the conservative side of the law. Unfortunately for poor Maureen, her diatribes have no credibility and no effect, no matter how much huffery and puffery accompanies the delivery. Her barbs are now pre-Tefloned.

The dissent is a clinical study of a man who has been driven barking mad by the beneficial treatment he has received. It's poignant, really. It makes him crazy that people think he is where he is because of his race, but he is where he is because of his race. Other justices rely on clerks and legal footnotes to help with their opinions; Justice Thomas relies on his id, turning an opinion on race into a therapeutic outburst.

via the New York Times

Comical Ali

One loose end in Baghdad has been tied up now, according to The Mirror in the UK.

Comical Ali, Saddam Hussein's ludicrous spin doctor, has been arrested in Baghdad, it was claimed last night. Information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf had been hiding out at a relative's house since April watching satellite TV - banned under Saddam. US troops set up a road block in the Baghdad suburb and caught him in his car on Monday night.

The Americans hope that Sahaf, who did not appear in their deck of cards of Iraq's most wanted, will tell them where Saddam is hiding. A senior coalition source said: "He has some serious talking to do ... this time." Relatives said Sahaf has been in a state of shock since the regime collapsed.

via The Mirror (UK)

Quote of the Day

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling said she killed off one of the characters in her book, and today Hillary Clinton said, "You can do that?"

- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

Utopia a-borning?

The march of the Euro-nannies goes on. Surely they could also do something about the problem of the British and their longheld belief that there is nothing funnier than men in women's clothes.

Advertisements that affront "human dignity" by demeaning women would be prohibited under proposals being drafted by the European Commission. Television programmes would also be censored to ensure there was no promotion of gender stereotypes. The plans, still in their infancy, are already provoking bitter dispute in Brussels and were described by one commission official yesterday as "lunatic".

Tabloid newspaper "Page Three" pictures would also be threatened. Most forms of gender discrimination - either for or against women - would become illegal, affecting welfare benefits, education and health insurance. But plans to ban London gentlemen's clubs have been abandoned as a step too far.

The proposals were drafted by the European Union's employment and social affairs directorate, known in Brussels as one of the last outposts of "unreconstructed" 1970s Leftists.

via The Telegraph (UK)

NATO is helping... by sea

The threat of terrorists moving by sea is a possible weak point that doesn't get the same visibility as air transport. Glad to see this news.

NATO naval forces, which tipped off Greece to a ship in its waters carrying 680 tonnes of explosive, are hunting a list of 20 "suspect" vessels that intelligence trackers say could be used by terrorists. Lieutenant Commander Harvey Burwin said "Operation Active Endeavour" began in October 2001 and covers the Mediterranean. Its activities have recently been stepped up, with suspicious vessels boarded and searched. "We look for ships that have had frequent changes of flag and ownership," he said.

Asked if the ships on the list were suspected of being operated by militant groups like al-Qaeda, he replied: "Yes at the extreme."

via the Sydney Morning Herald

Oliver Kamm

Oliver Kamm in the UK says he is a British liberal who nevertheless finds himself supporting President Bush and having some difficulty disagreeing with Baroness Margaret Thatcher's recent book. If he lived here, he'd be a great "swing voter."

I stand on the Left and I'd certainly vote for Bush.... The single most pressing question for those who believe in democratic politics is the threat to liberal values - indeed to the lives of our own citizens and the very survival of western civilisation - from Islamofascist totalitarianism. President Bush, who campaigned in 2000 with an ominous aversion to what he called 'nation-building' amid hints that he would reduce US overseas commitments, has shown that he is squarely in the tradition of liberal internationalism exemplified by Harry Truman. Rather than treat terrorist attacks on American soil as an isolated criminal act, he has rightly regarded them instead as an act of war. He has prosecuted that war with due regard to America's allies (in fact, with far more than due regard in the case of some of them) but a determination to defend a civilisation that separates religious and civil authority, defends women's rights, upholds the rule of law and constitutionally enshrines the right to political dissent.

via Oliver Kamm

Is al Qaeda transmogrifying?

Even more reminders today about the ongoing threat from al Qaeda. I hope the people were listening when GWB said this war is going to take years.

A third generation of an estimated 800 to 1,000 Al Qaeda terrorists -- mainly suicide attackers based on several continents -- is preparing strikes against tourist and economic targets worldwide, a French terrorism expert said Tuesday. Roland Jacquard, a French consultant to the United Nations, said the new generation of terrorists is unpredictable, hard to track and ready to strike.

Jacquard took part in preparing a report for a U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In a telephone interview, he said the estimate of 800 to 1,000 terrorists in the new generation was his figure and would not appear in the U.N. report scheduled for release next week.

Jacquard said, the first generation of Al Qaeda was the original group based in Afghanistan. It spawned the second generation -- those who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. "Today, Al Qaeda has become a terrorist organization that no longer reacts in pyramid fashion," Jacquard said, referring to the highly structured organization headed by Usama bin Laden that handed out orders from the top and followed a strategy.

Now, he said, it works "in concentric circles," with each layer acting independently of the other. "It is more dangerous as each group chooses its target."

via Fox News

And even a local angle to the threats emerged today.

U.S. intelligence agencies early this month eavesdropped on two suspected al-Qaida operatives discussing potential terrorism in Texas timed for the July Fourth weekend, raising the specter of an attack on energy facilities in the Houston area, officials here said Monday. That information, which did not specify a target, an exact time or a type of terrorist attack, was passed along to state officials.

With Texas as the target, officials are especially concerned about oil or gas facilities and pipelines because al-Qaida terrorists in the past have talked about attacking the energy sector as a way of damaging America's economy, officials said.

A federal official confirmed an account first published in Newsweek magazine that a possible al-Qaida operative known as "Sakr" told another person during an Internet chat room conversation that an attack had been planned for a long time, and that terrorists inside the United States were only waiting for approval from a man dubbed "the Sheik" before striking in early July.

The information was more intriguing to intelligence analysts than much of the avalanche of vaguely suspicious electronic intercepts because Sakr had sent a message predicting "good news" coming from Morocco shortly before a successful terrorist strike in that country.

via the Houston Chronicle

Int'l Bank of Osama?

Jonathan Stevenson from London's International Institute for Strategic Studies is worried about al Qaeda's ability to adapt to the global war on terror. I don't think he would disagree that one key to success is a continued aggressive campaign to find them first -- wherever they are. Offense is better than defense.

al Qaeda operatives may be harder to track than before the Afghanistan intervention, as they now have no substantial physical presence to defend. Experienced al Qaeda "middle managers," either virtually or actually roaming the world, provide planning and logistical advice, materiel and financing to smaller groups that are inspired by al Qaeda but only loosely connected with it. The Moroccans involved in Casablanca's recent suicide bombings, for example, have been linked to a local outfit called Salafist Jihad; yet they received $50,000 in financial assistance from an al Qaeda source and possessed al Qaeda training manuals.

In short, the new al Qaeda remains a terrorist "network of networks" with unequaled global leverage. Rather than the holding company to which it has often been likened, al Qaeda is now a multinational full-service investment bank -- available to assist any number of sympathetic terrorist groups or insurgencies.

via the Wall Street Journal Europe (subscribers only)

ALA's shame - IV

The Cuban government showed its true colors again, using its "high court" to reaffirm repression and tyranny. This is the government about which the American Library Association, supposed advocate of a fundamental "Freedom to Read," is silent. OK with tyranny; OK with obscenity -- that's ALA today.

Cuba's high court has upheld the 20-year sentence of independent journalist Raul Rivero, who was among 75 Cubans sentenced to prison in a crackdown on the opposition this year, Rivero's wife said Monday.

The prison terms ranged from six to 28 years and have been condemned by governments and human rights organization around the globe. The Cuban government has defended the crackdown as a necessary defence against U.S. attempts to change the island's socialist system. Blanca Reyes said her husband's defence lawyer told her Monday that her husband's appeal had been rejected by the Supreme Tribunal, the island's court of last resort.

"I always thought that this would be the unfair decision," Reyes said. The tribunal also upheld the 20-year sentence of fellow independent journalist Ricardo Gonzalez, who was tried with Rivero.

Fifty of the sentences have now been upheld, said Carlos Menendez of the non-governmental Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

via Canada.com

An ALA defeat

Amidst today's hoopla over the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion upholding racial discrimination in college admissions, another decision has been under-noticed: the Supremes also ruled against the American Library Association.

ALA has resolutely opposed the Children's Internet Protection Act and its requirement for Internet filtering in the areas of public libraries where kids use computers. This is while the library profession as a whole declines to offer a realistic alternative that would shield kids from porn and other offensive materials. Like most of the educrats who oppose standardized testing, they only point out the flaws in the mandated approach but can't seem to use their brainpower to design a better solution -- whining, not thinking.

Congress may use its spending power to encourage public libraries to install filtering software on their computers to protect children from pornography on the Internet. In a major 6-to-3 decision Monday, the US Supreme Court upheld a federal law that conditioned the receipt of federal aid to libraries upon the use of such content-blocking software.

Free-speech advocates had attacked the law as an unconstitutional form of government censorship. But the court disagreed, ruling instead that the law, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), did not violate the First Amendment rights of library patrons. In addition, the justices said the law was a valid use by Congress of its spending power.

via the Christian Science Monitor

The ALA's response was typical:

The American Library Association (ALA) today expressed disappointment in today’s very narrow decision from the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the Children’s Internet Protection Act.

The American Library Association again calls for full disclosure of what sites filtering companies are blocking, who is deciding what is filtered and what criteria are being used. Findings of fact clearly show that filtering companies are not following legal definitions of “harmful to minors” and “obscenity.” Their practices must change.

To assist local libraries in their decision process, the ALA will seek this information from filtering companies, then evaluate and share the information with the thousands of libraries now being forced to forego funds or choose faulty filters. The American Library Association also will explain how various products work, criteria to consider in selecting a products and how to best use a given product in a public setting. Library users must be able to see what sites are being blocked and, if needed, be able to request the filter be disabled with the least intrusion into their privacy and the least burden on library service.

via ALA

Read the full Supreme Court opinion in PDF format.

Where is Aung San Suu Kyi?

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is being held in primitive conditions by the dictators who run Burma.

The Washington Post has noticed:

Since government-sponsored goons attacked Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters on a provincial road May 30, the Nobel Peace laureate has been in confinement and virtually cut off from the world. In editorials earlier this month urging that Aung San Suu Kyi be freed, we asked, "Where is she?" Now we know -- and the answer could hardly be more discouraging. According to the British Foreign Office, the corrupt generals who rule Burma moved her from a "guesthouse," where she had been held ostensibly for her own protection, to the notorious Insein Prison, a colonial-era monstrosity where old dog kennels have been converted to torture cells. The disclosure of the move came on Aung San Suu Kyi's 58th birthday -- a nice touch, and well in keeping with the usual mode of operation of Burma's ruling thugs, who a few years back refused to allow Aung San Suu Kyi's husband to visit her even when he was dying of cancer.

via Washington Post

So has Kofi Annan.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being kept in "deplorable" conditions and should be released immediately. Mr Annan said through a spokesman he "considers the conditions under which she is being held - incommunicado and without charge - to be truly deplorable".

via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Robert's New Rules

Robert Kaplan has been researching and pondering how America can run its new world empire (the one we never wanted but must have if we're going to survive). Along the way he's formulated some Rules.

Kaplan has spent much of his time over the past several years traveling with the U.S. military, observing the implementation of American power on a day to day basis by Special Forces troops who work on the ground in countries around the globe. Based partly on these extensive travels, Kaplan has come up with a list of "Rules for Managing the World":

1. Produce More Joppolos
2. Stay on the Move
3. Emulate Second-Century Rome
4. Use the Military to Promote Democracy
5. Be Light and Lethal
6. Bring Back the Old Rules
7. Remember the Philippines
8. The Mission is Everything
9. Fight on Every Front
10. Speak Victorian, Think Pagan

In essence, these rules are an articulation of power on a global scale. Have the best men possible on the ground; be everywhere; use American citizens—foreign and native born; use the military to further democracy; do a lot with a little; covert means and dabbling in moral ambiguity are sometimes necessary; a country united under one name may need more than one policy; the mission cannot be forgotten or compromised; sell the product; be idealistic, but know that realism wins the day.

via The Atlantic Online

Wingardium leviosa

Well, this is certainly good news.

A 14-year-old Philadelphia boy was treated and released from a hospital this morning after being shot in the chest by a friend who wanted his new copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, according to a news release from Bloomsbury, the publisher of the book. Physicians say the boy would be dead but the bullet struck the 870-page book first, leaving the child with only minor injuries.

In related news, the publisher also reports that....

-- A New Jersey woman has petitioned a state court for permission to marry a copy of the book. "If loving Harry Potter is wrong," she said, "I don't want to be right."

-- Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group, agreed to a 72-hour cease fire with Israel to allow its young homicide bombers time to read the new J.K. Rowling offering.

via Scrappleface

Quote of the Day

"Our purpose is not to manage terrorism, or just to arrest and prosecute terrorists after they have attacked us. Our goal is to destroy and delegitimize it – the way slavery and piracy were delegitimized in the 19th century."

- Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, commencement remarks at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island

via DefenseLink

Cuba's Independent Libraries

As opposed to the American Library Association, which apparently only gives lipservice to the "freedom to read" when that freedom is threatened by the Left's favorite dictator, Fidel Castro, several organizations are trying to support Cuban dissident librarians.

Amnesty International monitors political prisoners around the world, including Cuba. Héctor Palacios Ruiz is prisoner #51 in their recent report:

51. Héctor Palacios Ruiz, aged 61, is director of the unofficial Centro de Estudios Sociales, Centre of Social Studies, and secretary of the reporting committee of the "Todos Unidos," "All United," coalition.

Héctor Palacios is a well-known and longstanding figure among Cuban dissidents, and has been considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience following arrests in 1994, 1997 and 1999. In August 1994, he was among a group of activists targeted for arrest in the wake of violent clashes between police and protesters who had gathered on the Havana shore following a spate of attempted armed hijackings of local ferries.(189) In January 1997, when he was president of the unofficial Partido Solidaridad Democrático (PSD), Democratic Solidarity Party, and member of Concilio Cubano, Cuban Council, he was detained and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for "disrespect, "desacato," following an interview with a German television station in which he criticised the Cuban government. He was released in February 1998 following Pope John Paul IIs visit to Cuba.(190)

Héctor Palacios was detained on 20 March 2003 and subsequently tried in Havana. He was convicted under article 91 of the Penal Code and articles 4.1, 4.2a-b, 6.1, 6.2a-b, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.1, 8.2, 9.1, 9.2, 10 and 11 of Law 88 to 25 years in prison.(191) The prosecution had called for life imprisonment.(192)

Hector Palacios was accused, among other activities, of

having in his home one of the so-called independent libraries, a program created at the request of the already mentioned organisations based in Miami that financed this project with money received by USAID, in other words the United States government, the majority of the books sent being subversive and counterrevolutionary. (193)

Héctor Palacios is currently imprisoned in Kilo 5 1/2 prison in Pinar del Río province. His wife, Gisela Delgado Sablón, was reportedly refused permission to visit him in May and threatened with imprisonment if she participated in public demonstrations on his behalf.

via Amnesty International

ALA's shame - III

The American Library Association's annual convention is starting to resemble the U.N. General Assembly. Representatives of tinhorn dictators are given legitimacy and a speaking platform, while dissidents are being imprisoned or worse back home. ALA is supposedly a staunch advocate for intellectual freedom but its members make value judgements based on credentialing -- like discussing cosmetology licenses -- not moral legitimacy. Again, shame.

Cuba's national libraries director accused the United States on Saturday of bankrolling small, independent book lenders in the island nation to undermine its communist government.

Fourteen people who ran small libraries from their homes in Cuba were arrested in March and given hefty prison terms in a major government crackdown on dissidents in the country. A total of 75 activists were sentenced to prison terms in April ranging from six to 28 years on charges of being mercenaries working with American diplomats to subvert the island's socialist system.

Cuba says the dissidents were arrested for accepting U.S. government money, a charge U.S. officials and the dissidents deny. "The independent libraries have ... demonstrated they are receiving money to subvert the institutional order of Cuba,'' Eliades Acosta said Saturday at a book convention in Toronto.

The United States has given more than $20 million since 1997 to non-governmental groups supporting Cuban's opposition movement and promoting democracy, human rights and free enterprise in Cuba. The U.S. government broadcasts American propaganda into Cuba through radio and television reports, which cost about $25 million annually.

Ramon Colas and his wife founded the Independent Libraries of Cuba in 1998 after Castro said there were no forbidden books in Cuba. He left Cuba in December 2001 and now lives in Miami. Colas said he was detained 20 times for lending books, finally being sent to a military-style sugar cane farm. Authorities confiscated a large part of his library. He said the American Library Association, which organized Toronto's convention jointly with its Canadian counterpart, should do more to criticize Castro. "I'm looking for solidarity,'' he said.

He did not find it from Ann Sitkin, a librarian at the Harvard Law School and a Cuban-American. "These people are not librarians. They never went to library school,'' Sitkin said. "A lot were set up as funnels to get money from the U.S. to dissidents.''

The ALA said it would propose a resolution Wednesday that would "express concern'' to Cuba about the arrests. Almost 15,000 delegates registered for the Toronto conference, one of the few not to flee the city because of the dwindling outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Guest speakers included feminist Gloria Steinem, novelist Margaret Atwood and consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

via the Longview News-Journal

Nefarious KBR?

The NYT profiles Halliburton's KBR unit and frets mightily about the integration of contractors into military operations. Plenty to watch out for there -- no question -- but it's painful to watch the major media try to analyze things they barely seem to understand. Sample quote:

KBR/Halliburton, then, has rounded the bases when it comes to Iraq. It got rich doing business with Iraq, it got rich preparing to destroy Iraq and it's now getting rich rebuilding Iraq.

That's the bottom line? Note that while Halliburton is "getting rich," its shares closed down 5.2 percent on Friday following a "slashed" earnings estimate. Just once I'd like to see media outside Houston and Tulsa show a real grasp of the fact that there are now very, very few companies left who can do these jobs. The oil production, oil services, and engineering/construction industries underwent massive consolidations and downsizing since 1980, in large part due to government policies, and it means that the giant companies are the only game in town.

The NYT article does end up giving plenty of examples of what the private sector can do. Here's one:

A good example is Camp Arifjan, a U.S. Army base about 90 minutes southwest of Kuwait City. Six months ago, this was nothing but a small collection of buildings that was supposed to be a training base. On Oct. 11 -- the day Congress gave President Bush authority to wage war on Iraq -- someone in the Pentagon picked up a phone and told KBR it had nine weeks to turn Arifjan into a full-blown Army base for 7,000 people. The job went to Robert (Butch) Gatlin, a wizened 59-year-old Tennessean who served 32 years in the Army Corps of Engineers before coming to perform the same work, at much greater pay, for KBR.

''When we got here, there was no power or water,'' Gatlin said as we stepped from the air-conditioned trailer that is KBR's Arifjan headquarters into the blinding desert sun. Within about 72 hours of the Pentagon's call, Gatlin had a handful of KBR specialists -- electricians, carpenters, plumbers -- on planes headed here. Most of the rest were hired locally. ''I had a thousand people working here in 24 hours,'' he said. ''The Army can't do that.''

KBR essentially took an entire Army base out of containers and made it rise in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert two days ahead of schedule: air-conditioned tents complete with 110-volt outlets for the soldiers' boom boxes, male and female shower blocks, kitchens, a laundry, Pepsi machines, a Nautilus-equipped health club with an aerobics room (''Latin Dance Thurs & Sat!''), a rec center with video games and a stack of Monopoly sets, a Baskin-Robbins and a Subway sandwich shop. (No beer, though; alcohol is illegal in Kuwait.)

To conjure Camp Arifjan in a twinkling amid one of the most hostile environments on the planet was by any measure a stunning logistical achievement. And now, as at many bases in the U.S., it's KBR civilian employees, not soldiers, who cook, do the laundry, shuttle supplies and control the airspace overhead. KBR does everything but fight.

via The New York Times Magazine

Marines Special Forces

Special Forces are about to get more, well, special. This could rock.

Eighty-six men have begun a one-year trial to determine if the Marines will join Navy SEALs, Green Berets and Air Force Special Operations Forces in the military's special operations forces. The Marine Corps Special Operations Command Detachment One was activated during a ceremony Friday at Camp Pendleton, where it will begin training next week. In October, the commando force will join Naval Special Warfare Group One in Coronado, Calif., to train with the Navy. It will go overseas in April, likely for combat missions in the war on terror.

Unlike other special operations forces, the Marines unit will have a deep roster of specialists in areas including fire support, counter-intelligence, linguistics and communications. Marine Lt. Col. Robert J. Coates, a seasoned reconnaissance officer, is heading the unit.

The mix of troops "provides the type of light mobile and lethal forces critical to success in the global war on terrorism,'' said Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston, who commands all Marine Corps forces in the Pacific region.

via AP and the Longview News-Journal

ALA's shame - II

The omniscient InstaPundit has publicized today the latest developments in the American Library Association's attempt to paint a benign face on Cuban repression while it also lobbies bitterly against John Ashcroft's efforts to root out genuine terrorists here at home.

This travesty was noted here earlier in June but now the confrontation inside ALA is coming to a head at their annual meeting. Librarianship is a noble profession, but librarians who profess a foundational commitment to a non-negotiable "Freedom to Read" have no business ignoring the plight of Cubans taking a stand to do the same.

A cold war has broken out at a librarians' conference in downtown Toronto as accusations fly that pro-Castro elements within the American Library Association are trying to silence debate over Cuba's crackdown on independent libraries.

The battle has laid the groundwork for the improbable scenario of a shouting match among librarians at a meeting tomorrow.

The ALA has "secretly manoeuvered to have only pro-Cuban voices" on a discussion panel, said Robert Kent, a co-founder of the Friends of Cuban Libraries and a librarian with the New York Public Library. "And the extremists within the ALA are going to try to pack the meeting to exclude people who might be critical of the Cuban government."

Fearing the panel will ignore the plight of Cuba's independent librarians, many of whom have been imprisoned, some delegates have vowed to force their way into the debate tomorrow.

Their concern is for the 14 self-styled librarians, many of them journalists or writers, who open their private collections to the public, and who were jailed with 64 others in March for treason, while the world was preoccupied with Iraq.

via the National Post (Canada)

Vermin drawn to the exterminator?

This doesn't have to be all bad, as long as we're prepared to deal with them -- it's somewhat convenient that they will come to us. But the supply of fanatics may be large. So, now is the time to deal with the organizers decisively. Hunt 'em down, kill 'em, take their money and weapons stashes. This insurgency was long-planned and is of a piece with the hidden WMD. Saddam and his cadres think they can win over the long-term through attrition and politics -- we have to teach them otherwise.

United States military commanders say foreign fighters are being actively recruited by loyalists to Saddam Hussein to join the resistance against American forces in Iraq, posing a new challenge to efforts to stabilize the country. Military officials say that American troops in Iraq have had to contend with Syrians, Saudis, Yemenis, Algerians, Lebanese and even Chechens.

Many of these fighters took up arms against the United States during the American thrust to Baghdad. But a significant number remain, and a new effort is under way to lure more to Iraq to join the fight against the Americans, officials say. "You have got Baath Party and regime loyalists west and northeast of the city who are calling buddies in foreign countries and getting fighters to come across the border," Maj. Gen. William Webster, deputy commander of the allied land command, said in an interview. "They are also rounding up those who are already here and issuing them weapons."

New evidence about the role of foreign fighters, including passports and other documents, was gathered after the American air and ground attack last week on a militant camp at Rawa, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. According to American military commanders, two wounded foreigners were also captured — a Saudi and a Syrian. American officials said the two captives had told them that they were offered money to come to Iraq and kill American soldiers.

What is significant now, American military officials say, is that foreign fighters continue to play an active role in Iraq and continue to be recruited for pay or to join in a new struggle against the Americans. This indicates a considerable degree of organization behind the resistance against the American presence, though officials say it does not appear to be under the central control of a single leader or group.

It also points to an emerging threat to American forces. Militants who want to strike against American targets no longer need to travel to Persian Gulf states. They can accomplish that in Iraq, where there are 145,000 American troops and a growing core of civilian administrators and experts.

The American military has been been trying to track the fighters and has been attacking them when they find them. The goal is to demonstrate that the fighters have no hope of evicting American forces from Iraq and to prevent Iraq from becoming a magnet for Islamic militants. The goal of the foreign fighters, for their part, seems to be to raise the American casualty toll and to create pressure on the Americans to withdraw.

via The New York Times

Spies that fly

PBS's NOVA program had an episode earlier this year called "Spies That Fly," focused on the past, present, and future of aerial surveillance. I missed the broadcast, but will be looking for it in reruns. PBS has built an informative web site to expand on the program. It's chock full of facts and images -- check it out.

The air war in Afghanistan showed that sometimes the hottest pilots are sitting on the ground operating the remote controls of UAVs -- or unmanned aerial vehicles. In newly declassified footage, "Spies That Fly" reveals the astounding capabilities of UAVs and the ambitious plans for future models.

As demonstrated in every aerial operation involving United States forces since the Gulf War in 1991, UAVs can fly places and perform missions that are often too dangerous for humans to risk. Among the advanced UAVs now under development are super-efficient jets that can soar halfway around the world on autopilot without refueling and six-inch flying disks with penny-sized cameras. Right now the Marines are developing their own UAV, which can be carried in a backpack and launched by small units for battlefield intelligence.

The ultimate robotic flyer could be as small as a bee, however. Because of recent breakthroughs in understanding how insects hover, the future may hold fly-sized, flapping UAVs that can infiltrate buildings as antiterrorism surveillance vehicles.

via PBS.org

Dems drive off the cliff

David Brooks examines some of the reasons that mainstream Democrats have become so virulent in their attacks on George W. Bush and the Republicans. (He doesn't even try to deal with the Far, Far Left.) The upcoming election is going to be the ugliest in modern memory. Everyone should grab an airsickness bag now.

Across the country Republicans and conservatives are asking each other the same basic question: Has the other side gone crazy? Have the Democrats totally flipped their lids? Because every day some Democrat seems to make a manic or totally over-the-top statement about George Bush, the Republican party, and the state of the nation today.

"This republic is at its greatest danger in its history because of this administration," says Democratic senator Robert Byrd.

"I think this is deliberate, intentional destruction of the United States of America," says liberal commentator Bill Moyers.

George Bush's economic policy is the "most radical and dangerous economic theory to hit our shores since socialism," says Senator John Edwards.

"The Most Dangerous President Ever" is the title of an essay in the American Prospect by Harold Meyerson, in which it is argued that the president Bush most closely resembles is Jefferson Davis.

Tom Daschle condemns the "dictatorial approach" of this administration. John Kerry says Bush "deliberately misled" America into the Iraq war. Asked what Democrats can do about the Republicans, Janet Reno recalls her visit to the Dachau concentration camp, and points out that the Holocaust happened because many Germans just stood by. "And don't you just stand by," she exhorts her Democratic audience.

When conservatives look at the newspapers, they see liberal columnists who pick out every tiny piece of evidence or pseudo-evidence of Republican vileness, and then dwell on it and obsess over it until they have lost all perspective and succumbed to fevers of incoherent rage. They see Democratic primary voters who are so filled with hatred at George Bush and John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney that they are pulling their party far from the mainstream of American life. They see candidates who, instead of trying to quell the self-destructive fury, are playing to it. "I am furious at [Bush] and I am furious at the Republicans," says Dick Gephardt, trying to sound like John Kerry who is trying to sound like Howard Dean.

It's mystifying. Fury rarely wins elections. Rage rarely appeals to suburban moderates. And there is a mountain of evidence that the Democrats are now racing away from swing voters, who do not hate George Bush, and who, despite their qualms about the economy and certain policies, do not feel that the republic is being raped by vile and illegitimate marauders.

The Democrats, indeed, look like they're turning into a domestic version of the Palestinians--a group so enraged at their perceived oppressors, and so caught up in their own victimization, that they behave in ways that are patently not in their self-interest, and that are almost guaranteed to perpetuate their suffering.

via the Weekly Standard

Heads in the sand

D.C.'s educrats are in full ostrich mode about their abject failure to provide real education to thousands of children in the nation's capital. Their unwillingness to face the truth would be unnerving if it weren't so typical.

The superintendent of D.C. public schools yesterday said he had found some good news in a new national report that ranks D.C. schoolchildren as the country's worst readers and only slightly better than some non-English-speaking children in the U.S. territories. Superintendent Paul L. Vance said the achievement gap between white, black and Hispanic students has narrowed.

D.C. public schoolchildren in all grades are falling behind their peers in other jurisdictions, even though the District spent $9,650 per pupil in 2001 — the second-highest per-pupil expenditure among the states, according to the NAEP report. Only New Jersey spent more per student — $10,145. Meanwhile, the average salary for a D.C. teacher was $48,651 in 2001 — among the highest in the nation, according to the NAEP report. The District's 16-to-1 student-teacher ratio was about the same as that of the states. Mr. Vance is paid $175,000 a year

D.C. school officials yesterday declined to provide current per-pupil expenditure, average salary and student-teacher ratio information.

via the Washington Times

The education establishment in this country remains largely in denial about their role in conducting a massive and disastrous social engineering experiment for the last 50 years whereby they have foisted bogus education theories onto the backs, and into the minds, of several generations now. Gifted and dedicated individual educators are hemmed in, prevented from doing what works, and forced to focus on test scores per se and plenty of other nonsense. In D.C. they can't even achieve that pyrrhic victory.

President Bush was right to call attention to this continuing crisis during the 2000 campaign. But he and others need to realize that leadership -- from the colleges of education to the school boards, school districts, campuses, and into the classrooms -- is the key. The idiots and incompetents need to be weeded out now and replaced with those who will lead and demand the best, without regard to social theorizing. School districts would do well to consider the kind of long-term commitment to developing leaders practiced by organizations like the U.S. Army and GE.

Quote of the Day

"Also remember that in life there is death. This is the way of the world and we should now do what our country asks of us. We must support our nation. We must avenge our brothers and sisters. To do this, we must use our very sharp claws."

- Special Forces Staff Sgt. Brian C. Prosser, killed in action in Afghanistan, in an e-mail to his family sent on the day after September 11, 2001.

via the Ventura County Star

Staff Sgt. Brian Prosser

This letter was written by a retired LAFD firefighter, the father of Special Forces Staff Sgt. Brian C. Prosser, 28, of Frazier Park, Calif.

Sgt. Prosser was killed in action fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

May 2, 2003

Dear President Bush

I’ve been wanting to do this since the fifth day of December, two thousand one. That’s the day, on a hill in Afghanistan, my son and two fellow soldiers gave their all to the cause of freedom and their country, I have never spent one second thinking they died in vain, but yesterday watching you and the way you conducted yourself on the ship, I knew it was time to write. I guess the odds of this letter getting to you are about the same as winning the lottery, but I’m going to chance it anyway, because even if you don’t ever see it, I will feel better for writing it.

There have been many thoughtful and unusual things done in the name of our son. One of the first ones came from the Army by allowing us to have his body here in California, for his hometown to pay their respects...before he went to Arlington. I have no idea where the order for that came from, but based on what I learned in my tour of duty; it wasn’t from the company level.

To whoever is responsible for making that possible, I humbly say thank you and I’m grateful. His site at Arlington looks directly at the section of the Pentagon impacted on September eleven. A fitting place for a warrior, who lost his life in a battle, started that day, to rest.

When you were first elected, I was very happy and was thanking the "stupies" in Florida that made it possible. As time goes by, each day I’m more and more convinced it was divine intervention. I’ve not seen anyone more suited for his role, than you are...you are, for sure, the man for the hour. I wonder if you realize what great changes you are making possible in our country?

After my son died, I found myself doing things I never would have considered before (this letter is one). Along with this came some long hours of wondering and thought. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that what’s been missing in our country is faith: And its demise came out of the Viet Nam "experience".

When I say faith; I’m not talking about only spiritual Faith. I mean faith in your parents, faith in your teachers, faith in the police, etcetera, etcetera. What’s the first thing they teach you in the military? "Have faith in your buddy", " faith in your weapon", " faith in your commanders".

The betrayal of our troops and the rest of us created a whole new species of Americans prone to suspicion and distrust...toward anything...and it’s lasted thirty years, through multiple Presidents.

I can tell you sir, based on the literally hundreds of people that have connected with me through the mail, or talking, or the internet, our country is getting well...and you are the main reason. For the first time in many years we have a leader that says what he means and means what he says...and then does it! That really isn’t an overwhelming assignment, but for some, it’s insurmountable.

By example, you are showing not only Americans, but the world in general, "Proud to be an American" is not an idle statement. As once it was, it is again becoming a lofty goal for people to aspire to...young and old.

I’m glad I’ve lived long enough to be a witness to this transition.

One other thing I noticed about your demeanor yesterday was you seemed less stressed and definitely at ease with the folks you were surrounded by...as they were with you.

Your job, if done in a conscientious manner, includes some decisions that can carry some hefty emotional collateral effects.

I have a piece of work on a wall in my home, written by somebody much smarter than I am, entitled "The Strength of a Man". Among other things, it says: "The strength of a man is not how much he can lift, it is the burden he can carry".

You show the effects of carrying the load necessary in protecting, not only your own people but the others in need, throughout the world. But more importantly, you show, also, the grit to get it done.

I hope none of what I’ve expressed here, has offended or upset you in any way. They are just some things I’ve needed to tell you for some time...as I said previously.

In closing, I’ll share this: While you would not be considered a large man physically, the shadow you cast is as big as any in history...big enough to cover the World. I’m proud that you are representing me and the land that I love.

Respectfully,

Brian Prosser

via the Los Angeles City Fire Department Chief Officers Association

Thanks to Steve W. for the tip.

Sakharov

Elena Bonner has a tough critique of Putin's Russia and refuses to endorse a plan to erect a monument to her late husband, Andrei Sakharov, in Moscow. Bonner has seen a lot and should be heard.

Writing in "The Wall Street Journal Europe," Elena Bonner of the Andrei Sakharov foundation says over the past three years, President Vladimir Putin's Russia has seen "the systematic dismantling of democratic institutions, the suppression of independent media, and the instigation of nationalism and xenophobia. But the gravest crime perpetrated by the government is the ongoing genocidal war in Chechnya," which has resulted in 180,000 dead and 350,000 displaced persons.

Oppressive regimes like Putin's often like to "decorate themselves with fake attributes of democracy -- sham elections, a servile judiciary, manipulated media. In today's Russia," she says, "the masquerade is called 'managed democracy.'" And Moscow often stages "quasi-democratic" exercises for the benefit of world leaders. "Thus, the recent Chechen 'referendum' that was no referendum, and the 'amnesty' [for Chechen fighters] that was no amnesty."

Bonner says "another falsification of Moscow's 'managed democracy' has been unfolding in a London court," where moderate Chechen leader Akhmed Zakayev is fighting an extradition request by Russia. But she says Zakayev's innocence "was established in December when Denmark threw out [the] fake Russian charges."

Bonner writes: "I am told that the appeasement of 'managed democracy' is the necessary evil needed to keep an important ally within the coalition against terror." But "legitimizing false democracy, false justice and a make-believe war on terror [in Chechnya] casts doubt on the real things, particularly for those who, like myself, continue to value them."

Summary via Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Full article via Wall Street Journal Europe (subscribers only)

Handicapping Hillary

Michael Barone examines Hillary's presidential aspirations today. I have no doubt she will run, and that the Dems will embrace her, and that they could win -- if the Republicans do not do more to prepare candidates to follow George W. Bush. Where are the new Republican leaders? It would sure be hard to vote for the likes of Orrin Hatch and Rick Santorum.

Sen. Clinton has made no move to run for president in 2004; evidently she has calculated that she and other Democrats have little chance at beating George W. Bush. Of course she denies that she has decided to run in 2008, and she will surely say that whoever is the Democratic nominee in 2004 has a real chance of being elected. These untruths are not evidence of special mendaciousness but harmless white lies required by the conventions of American politics. Of her ambition there can be little doubt. The most sensitive and convincing (though not friendly) portrait of her, by the late Barbara Olson in "Hell to Pay," shows a woman determined to wield political power from her days in college and law school. She has been working toward this goal for 35 years now. She is not going to give up when the highest prize seems within reach.

But does the Democratic Party want to tie its fortunes to Sen. Clinton? Polling suggests she is in a strong position to win the Democratic nomination.

As a general-election candidate, she is less than a sure thing. In an ABC News poll 53% said they did not want her to run for president. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed her trailing George W. Bush 53% to 40%. Her enthusiasts might dismiss this as due to Mr. Bush's current strength, but the fact is that 100% know her and 60% are not supporting her.

Democrats would be unwise to give up entirely on their chances in 2004; as the Clintons showed in 1992, great turnabouts in politics are possible. But if 2004 turns out as most people suspect, Democrats must decide if their psychic investment in the Clintons, and in Hillary Rodham Clinton as an icon of feminist success, justifies nominating a candidate with her electoral weakness. Democrats exulted when Bill Clinton seemed to be paying no price for his personal shortcomings in the 1992 and 1996 elections, and in the impeachment controversy. But nothing in politics is free; there is only some question about when you pay the price. Democrats may end up paying the price for Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater and Travelgate, in 2008.

via the OpinionJournal

France's civil war

A French author, a judge no less, has been blocked, at least temporarily, from stating the blindingly obvious and then documenting it. There is a bit of a civil war going on in France too.

A Paris court last night halted publication of a book by a former investigating magistrate that claims France is institutionally corrupt. The book by Eva Joly, who uncovered political and financial corruption at the Elf oil company, is the first by a judge to have been blocked by the French courts.

The court ruled that publication of Is This The World We Want To Live In? might prejudice the trial of former Elf executives, now in its third month, which has already revealed the extent of political and financial corruption in France. The court ordered that publication, intended for today, must be postponed until the trial is over. Mme Joly said she would appeal.

Arnaud Montebourg, a Socialist MP, said she should be given the Legion d'Honneur rather than be attacked for her honesty. Mme Joly, 57, said the French establishment was one of the most rotten in Europe. "It is a country of networks that don't like to be challenged."

via The Telegraph (UK)

Muslim moderation

The PM of Malaysia has been getting his talking points from Ramsey Clark and Noam Chomsky. Perhaps he is listening to KPFT Pacifica radio via the Internet. Note that he is described as leading a "moderate Muslim government." Any wonder we have real trouble from "extreme" groups?

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad launched a vitriolic attack on the European race today, accusing them of warmongering, indiscriminate attacks on Muslims, greed and sexual deviancy. Europeans, including "those who migrated and set up new nations in America, Australia and New Zealand", wanted "to control the world again", he said.

Predicting that he would be condemned as a "racist", the veteran Southeast Asian leader said he was "not anti-European. I have many friends and acquaintances who are Europeans."

"They are very clever, brave and have an insatiable curiosity," he said. But "unfortunately they are also very greedy and like to take forcibly the territories and rights of other people."

via the Sydney Morning Herald

Civil wars

Austin Bay says there are four civil wars going on right now in the Middle East, and makes an especially interesting observation.

There's a case to be made -- by no means totally facile -- that the War on Terror is a Saudi civil war diverted to the rest of the globe. The Saud regime's petro-princes were always an al-Qaida target, but as long as al-Qaida was off in Afghanistan with the Taliban or in East Africa blowing up American embassies, the princes could pretend the Islamists were no threat to them.

The Saudis now say their response to last month's bombing in Riyadh demonstrates they are full participants in America's War on Terror. The civil war's come home with a vengeance. The Saudi bust of an al-Qaida cell in Mecca is a key event. Controlling Mecca is to Saudi politics what controlling the eastern oil fields is to the Saudi economy -- absolutely vital.

via the Houston Chronicle

Rudy fighting back

Rudy Giuliani is speaking out to the leaders of Europe on their responsibility to fight anti-Semitism, which has seen a resurgence in the last few years, helped in large part by prejudice from the Left as they exploit "anti-Zionism" in their bitter rhetoric.

Anti-Semitism is the Western world's oldest and most persistent species of hatred. There are larger and more widespread minority groups than Jews — at 13 million, they comprise about 0.2 percent of the world's population — but the Holocaust made clear how virulent hatred of them has been. To the extent that anti-Semitism persists, we have yet to fulfill the promise of "Never Again" to those who were martyred.

President Bush has asked me to head the United States delegation to a conference on combating anti-Semitism, held by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which begins tomorrow in Vienna. The meeting is a direct response to the worldwide surge in anti-Semitic violence. Last spring, physical attacks against Jews in France were occurring at a rate of 8 to 12 a day, with 14 arson attacks on synagogues in a two-week period. In Russia, signs reading "Death to Jews" were placed along highways and rigged to explode if anyone sought to remove them.

The conference represents a critical first step for Europeans, who have too frequently dismissed anti-Semitic violence as routine assaults and vandalism. Anti-Semitism is anything but routine. When people attack Jews, vandalize their graves, characterize them in inhumane ways, and make salacious statements in parliaments or the press, they are attacking the defining values of our societies and our international institutions.

via The New York Times

Hamilton's wisdom

Larry Miller says he was feeling kinda down the other day about the U.S. vs. the world and all, but then he called his friend Hamilton and just felt better. Hamilton said:

"President Bush is a Christian, and he stopped drinking on his own. He's tough as nails, and he knows right from wrong, and he's not going to do the politic thing, he's going to do the right thing. Every time. He's not his father, and he's not anyone else, and he's not interested in trying to make awful people like him. He's interested in fighting evil where he finds it and making the world a better place, and he will, because he's a man of his word. He knows he can't free everybody, but if it's a place that's in our national best interest, he'll make a plan, and he'll do it. Period. He's not going to turn gray or turn tail.

"We're not going to be whittled away in Iraq. Bush and Rumsfeld won't let that happen. They're going to tell their commanders to do the job, and these guys will do it. The Arabs have seen that, and they will continue to see it, and that's the only thing that will make them take notice. And they have. They're going to help this peace process and not let it die, because someone's going to force them to, and that someone is President Bush.

"Rumsfeld hasn't changed a bit, either. He did everything we love about him in Europe. They said he was annoying and impolite and undiplomatic. They hated him. It was great! Hell, every time the French or German ministers stood up to say something, the guy practically pulled out a crossword puzzle and put on a Walkman.

"Donald Rumsfeld is going to tell these wine-tasters what to do, and they're going to do it, and that's that. None of this is going to slip away, in fact it's all going to succeed, because this president decides what's right and then does it.

"Bush is ending the days of nineteenth century diplomacy, where a lie wasn't a lie, it was just a tool. Crap. He's going to listen to everything they want, then cut it off and say, 'Thanks for your valuable help. Now here's what's going to happen.'"

via the Weekly Standard

Jessica redux

The Washington Post has probably the best account of what really happened to Jessica Lynch in Iraq. It's an amazing story. Jessica is really damaged, but tough, too. She'll pull through, but it ain't gonna be easy.

It became the story of the war, boosting morale at home and among the troops. It was irresistible and cinematic, the maintenance clerk turned woman-warrior from the hollows of West Virginia who just wouldn't quit. Hollywood promised to make a movie and the media, too, were hungry for heroes. Lynch's story is far more complex and different than those initial reports. Much of the story remains shrouded in mystery, in large part because of official Army secrecy, concerns for Lynch's privacy and her limited memory.

At Walter Reed, Lynch's bones have been put back together with such a delicate and extensive network of rods and pins that it can take an hour for her to move from bed to wheelchair. "She is still struggling with pain and her recovery will be slow," said family spokesman Randy Coleman. Her mother said, "It's amazing she can walk at all -- she is a body full of pins and screws," Coleman recounted.

Still, Lynch is making progress. She recently walked more than 100 steps using a walker. "She works hard at physical therapy. She doesn't sit around and complain. She is certainly determined to get well," said Walter Reed spokeswoman Beverly Chidel.

People who have seen her said she is psychologically traumatized, and appears somewhat dazed, though she is better now than in the early weeks. Recently she has talked