It’s too much to hope for, I know. But I can’t help feeling that this mass amnesty is a truly epochal event. John Burns, living proof that greatness still exists in the New York Times, has been writing riveting accounts of what’s going on. This passage staggered me:
Iraqis said they knew of no previous occasion, in Baghdad, when people had taken to the streets to march on a government building, and then had persisted in protests even after secret police fired automatic rifles into the air, as they did today.
Some who attended a protest at a secret police headquarters on the outskirts of Baghdad on Monday said there were at least 700 people taking part who for some time defied orders that they disperse.
“Where is my son? I demand to know where is my son!” one middle-aged woman in a black cloak cried, as she huddled with a group of women at the head of 150 protesters who staged a noisy rally today outside the Ministry of Information beside the Tigris River in central Baghdad.Similar cries went up from other women desperate to know what had become of long-lost husbands and sons and brothers, in some cases sisters and daughters, who disappeared into the vast network of prisons and detention centers as long as 20 years ago. The details that stuttered out as the women told their tales were like episodes from the nightmares of Soviet Russia: Men and women, and even teenage children, picked up by anonymous enforcers, usually in unmarked cars, and never heard from again. As officials pushed reporters back, ordered security guards to fire warning shots into the air, and pleaded with the women to still their cries, the women’s accounts of their wrenching doorstep partings, and of the dates198019871991199219971999 rang out like the tolling of a sexton’s bell.
The Journal yesterday wondered whether we have another Ceausescu on our hands. Right now, it’s wishful thinking. The deeper point, though, is that once this kind of regime relaxes its grip even slightly, the unraveling could come quickly. Remember the last evil empire? The main fear is that chaos would follow and terrorist elements might loot or use some of the most lethal weapons in Saddam’s arsenal. Which means we must be ready to go in sooner rather than later. But all of this must, broadly speaking, be an encouraging sign. Bush’s hard line is already paying dividends. We can only pray we can disarm Saddam and liberate Iraq without war.
WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE: The Koreans, North and South, understand what the current administration is all about. I loved this quote in the Financial Times:
Paik Jin-hyun, professor of international relations at Seoul National University, said the North was using nuclear weapons to “blackmail” the US into supporting its crumbling economy. “North Korea seems to misunderstand the nature of the Bush administration,” Mr Paik said. “What may have worked with [President Bill] Clinton will not work with [President George W.] Bush. Trying to use nuclear weapons to blackmail this US government. .. is the worst possible tactic.”
Telling, isn’t it? Claudia Rosett sees the bigger picture today as well.
YES, I KNOW: This Dilbert poll of the weaseliest people, institutions, religions, countries, etc. is highly unscientific. But I also thought it was dead on. Enjoy, if you haven’t already.
HE’S BACK: If you live in Montana, and care about fighting back against the kind of sleaze that Max Baucus has engaged in for years, for goodness’ sake, vote for him.
CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM WATCH: Please send me pieces in college newspapers equating Israelis with Nazis and the like. Here’s a recent piece in the University of Cincinnati News Record. A sample paragraph:
These inhumane acts of violence are justified as God’s Divine law. Moses received the Ten Commandments to guide the Jews in their new freedom. The first divine commandment is “You shall not kill,” although it has been changed to, “You shall not kill a Jew.”
As I said, keep me posted.
AT LAST, MODERATE MUSLIMS: Good news from Indonesia.
WHAT GAY IS: I tend to concur with this analysis by Julie Burchill, denigrating all those too-easy magazine Most Powerful Men in America lists and the like:
The Power Lists are really gay, but in a bad way. They’re not gay like most of my male friends are, which means they read loads of books, take loads of drugs, make great jokes and have nice boyfriends. No, Power List strivers fit the teen-slang meaning of gay, which is “tragic straight” – that is, they spend more on a suit than a family of four would on a holiday, use moisturiser and carry handbags but still demand the right to call the sexes “equal but different”.
I don’t buy into all of Burchill’s definition of feminism. But I like her celebration of gayness. In fact, it’s one of the first short descriptions of the current gay male world that makes it sound like something you’d want to be a part of.
The Dish 