I’ve been to Bali, with my old friend Max Kennedy, almost fifteen years ago. It’s a blessed little place – about as quiet and secluded and out of it as any place on earth. A mixture of Hindu culture, ancient animism, stoners from Australia, and skinny, pale Euro-hikers, it was a little bohemia all its own. Now these monsters have struck again, incinerating innocents in their murderous religious rage. There is no good here. And although Mike Kinsley will scoff at me for saying it, there is much evil. The target is not accidental. Having fun, mixing cultures, partying till dawn are all wonderful human activities that these dour murderers loathe. They hope that by targeting the “sinful,” they might even be excused by less extreme Muslims. The only good news is that Indonesia may now better understand what it’s up against; and the full inclusion of a moderate Muslim country against these Islamofascists will help greatly. The Brits and Australians, who were again among the dead, have already been spectacular in the war on terror. But perhaps now that more Germans have been murdered, Chancellor Schroder will rethink his hostility to confronting Saddam and his terrorist allies.
THE ANTI-WAR SPIN: Yes, the spin from the anti-war crowd will be that this event means we have to forget about pressuring Saddam. We’re losing “focus,” they’ll cry. Hooey. The administration has been urging Indonesia to crack down for months. Even the Guardian conceded this morning that “there was no immediate evidence that the Bush administration’s current concentration on Iraq had diminished its efforts against al-Qaida and its supporters in Indonesia. During a visit to Jakarta in August, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, announced the renewal of US military assistance, a $50m package over three years.” More may well be needed. In fact, I think the “focus on al Qaeda” argument gets it exactly the wrong way round. It’s partly because we’re aiming at Iraq that the Islamists will try to wrest our attention away. They tried in Israel in the spring. They will throw more at us in the coming weeks and months. They know that a nuclear Iraq could be their safe and inviolable haven for decades in waging a terror war on the West; and they therefore understand the long-term stakes in the next few months. So, mercifully, does president Bush.
A FATHER’S LAMENT: The chicken-hawk argument – this time a defensible form, from the Palestinian father of a boy who killed himself under the influence of the terrorist death cult. It’s not an easy piece to read:
I ask, on my behalf and on behalf of every father and mother informed that their son has blown himself up: ‘By what right do these leaders send the young people, even young boys in the flower of their youth, to their deaths?’ Who gave them religious or any other legitimacy to tempt our children and urge them to their deaths?”
Yes, I say ‘death,’ not ‘martyrdom.’ Changing and beautifying the term, or paying a few thousand dollars to the family of the young man who has gone and will never return, does not ease the shock or alter the irrevocable end. The sums of money [paid] to the martyrs’ families cause pain more than they heal; they make the families feel that they are being rewarded for the lives of their children.
Do the children’s lives have a price? Has death become the only way to restore the rights and liberate the land? And if this be the case, why doesn’t a single one of all the sheikhs who compete amongst themselves in issuing fiery religious rulings, send his son?
Wrenching. There is and will be a silent majority of Palestinians and Arabs who will eventually turn against their manipulative despots and terrorist mob-bosses. Iraq will be the first opportunity to prove this. Others will surely follow.
FRIEDMAN’S PANDERING: Just what was Tom Friedman trying to say yesterday? Here’s his peroration: “Frankly, I don’t want to hear another word about Iraq right now. I want to hear that my president and my Congress are taking the real steps needed in this country – starting with sane gun control and sane economic policy – to stop this slide into over here becoming like over there.” Huh? Has he suddenly morphed into Bill O’Reilly? Does Friedman really think that gun control would have stopped the DC sniper – a man so skilled he could easily have gotten a license in any state, and killed in a state, Maryland, with some of the strictest gun laws in the country? Does he really think we should stop discussing Iraq? And what does he mean by a “sane” economic policy? This is just populist grandstanding. That’s the thing with Tom’s columns. He makes so much sense and then he plays to the Upper East Side choir. How disappointing.
THE MIRROR CRACKS: Remember the British tabloid that runs John Pilger on the cover, lionizes Bill Clinton and has largely given itself over to an anti-American anti-war agenda? The good news is that the Daily Mirror has seen its circulation drop 6.2 percent since last September, while its chief rival, Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun has seen a gain of 4.7 percent. The anti-war left makes a lot of noise, but that doesn’t mean it’s all that popular. Even in Europe. Even on the left.
THE CASE AGAINST WAR: It could spoil Mary McGrory’s Venice vacations. No, this column is not a parody.
THE GILMORE AWARD: I didn’t invent it, but Erin O’Connor did.
ANTI-SEMITISM WATCH: Reading through the Yale Daily News can be a truly eye-opening experience. An article by a freshman concerned about rising anti-Semitism in the world and on campus prompted some responses I honestly thought I’d never read on a college website. Yes, I know all sorts of loonies can log on and post things on a free-floating comment board, and there’s no way to know who’s behind some of the comments. But who would be reading the Yale Daily News so closely in the first place? Anyway, make your own mind up by clicking on the comment section. Here’s one response from a Lissa Russo:
I recently attended a forum focusing on the Israeli/Palestinian issue. Both sides made very valid points but there was a moment of heated exchange when the pro-Israel side initiated the “anti-semite” slur and completely ended it for me. I am sick and tired of Jewish people always smearing those that merely disagree with their views as “evil”. I never thought I’d say this but alot of what the so-called “white supremacists” are saying are proving to be more accurate than I feel comfortable admitting.
Agreement with white supremacists? At Yale? Then there’s this:
I guess so many people are anti-semitic because the charge *anti-semitism* has been used so often it’s no longer considered as horrid as it once was – I mean, even Billy Graham wasn’t safe! I think *anti-semitism* isn’t so much a term for *people who hate Jews* as much as it’s come to mean *someone whom Jews hate*.
Nice touch that. Then this:
… [E]very d
ay, more of the world is made aware of JEWISH manipulation of politics, money markets and media and deflecting criticism by shrilling about ‘anti- Semitism’ is beginning to get old. We see how influential Jews have gotten the mere criticism of the so-called ‘Holocaust’ turned into a felony crime in Europe. We see how the politician who merely HINTS at easing foreign aid to Israel losing all hope of re-election. Every nation that opens its doors to Jews invariably finds themselves wracked with a tribe that works tirelessly to legitimize homosexuality, race-mixing, the importation of Third World immigrants and similar filth inherent in the Jewish agenda. And as usual, when discovered they run behind their Star of David and screech that we don’t like them because of their RELIGION!!! HAH!! It’s not working anymore, James!
These are posted on the Yale Daily news site. They should be. They tell us what’s out there – even at the most elite universities. or perhaps I should say especially at the most elite universities.
AT THE BARBER’S: Brent Staples gets the “Barber Shop” controversy exactly right.
SOUTH DAKOTA SHENANIGANS: Josh Marshall doesn’t think the Taylor ad was homophobic; and he doesn’t think that the Democrats are up to no good in South Dakota. “Absent more evidence of anything really widespread,” Josh writes, “this looks to me like a Republican effort to snuff out or throw a wet blanket over the Democrats’ effort to register a lot of new voters. They have a long history of this.” I guess he hasn’t read about the forging of voter registration cards yet. Democrats wouldn’t do anything like that, would they? They’re the good guys.
THE SAINTLY INQUISITOR: “Escriva’s motto was ‘compelle intrare’: ‘force them to enter’. In my experience, and in the experience of many others, that might just as appropriately be translated as ‘trick ’em into joining’ – and, in some cases, ‘terrify ’em into staying’. He and his followers believe that they are forcing people to be saved, pursuing the highest of motives with all the means at their disposal.” – a man who nearly got sucked into Opus Dei recounts his experiences.
The Dish 