Year: 2003

From a story on UPI:

A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip ‘had shocked me back to reality.’ Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera ‘told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn’t start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam’s bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head.’

Maybe when we liberate the place, others will finally get to realize the same things.

Let’s leave the attempt to spin overwhelming support for the war and Bush’s handling of it. Look at the photos. Even the Guardian led with the joy of some in Safwan to see U.S. troops. You have to go deep into Rainesian territory before we’re allowed to see that. The two lead photographs (in the dead tree version) for the “Nation at War” section, are a marine seemingly wounded (although he looks unscathed) by a land mine and an Iraqi child also wounded in the head. Neither is a fatality. I’m not saying these pictures don’t belong in the paper. I’m saying that on a day of extraordinary military advances, their placement tells you a lot. And it will get a lot worse before too long.

That’s what the Saddamites are claiming from the Baghdad raids. If true, an astonishing result after a night of “Biblical” destruction. Then there’s this from Burns:

[W]hat has added mystery to the story since Thursday is that Mr. Hussein, normally inclined to issue long, discursive, grandiose philippics at times of crisis, has simply disappeared. All he has left to Iraq’s 24 million people at a time of crisis is Thursday’s five-minute, disjointed, hand-lettered denunciation of the “criminal little Bush,” and his vow to Iraqis that “these days will add to your glorious history.”

Either he’s fighting for life or he’s dead.

“You’re late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious… I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave.” – the words of a liberated Iraqi, reported by the Guardian. Sorry, guys, you see, twelve years ago, we got cold feet and abandoned you, and then there are these people called the French, and you see, they … oh never mind. Welcome back to humanity. Welcome back from the grave.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY II: “The U.S. is the only ally providing Tokyo with deterrent power against any foreign country that could threaten regional security, such as North Korea, and the Japanese people should never forget it.” – Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi.

THE PALESTINIANS: Getting it wrong – again and again and again.

A highly intelligent piece in the Catholic newspaper, the Tablet, on how American Catholics (mostly pro-war) manage to side-step the Vatican’s position (more pro-Saddam than the French). Yes, it has to do with the slide in papal authority since Humanae vitae, the papal letter that condemned contraception. And then there’s the child abuse crisis, which hasn’t exactly increased the hierarchy’s moral standing. Then there’s this:

It is easier for the Roman Catholic Right to shrug off Rome because, as it happens, Rome is being shifty. During his mission to Washington, Cardinal Laghi declared: “We have always insisted on the framework of the United Nations. Without it, I’d say war is illegal.’ But Americans have not forgotten their first bout of warfare with Iraq, in 1991. That conflict had fervent UN approval; Providence had apparently crafted it to meet Aquinas’ standards for a just war; yet it was still condemned by the Pope and Vatican. People also remember that the UN sanctions designed since then to contain Saddam and enforce inspections have also been steadily damned by Rome. Thus John Paul, despite his approval of forcible intervention in East Timor and Bosnia, is widely perceived as a pacifist, and therefore not a serious commentator. “It’s the Pope’s job to shake his head over the wicked way of the world”, I was told by another white-haired, loyal worshipper at another parish, forthright and cheerful in sensible shoes and medal of Lourdes. “And it’s our job to do something about it.”

Beautifully put.

Critically good news:

The seizure of oil and port facilities in southern Iraq deprived Hussein of some of his most prized assets and appeared to prevent any serious sabotage of the sort envisioned by many analysts in recent weeks. Marine officers said as many as nine oil wells were burning in Rumaila, but civilian firefighters will be sent in a few days to put them out and no important facilities suffered major damage. By preserving the oil industry and using the port to bring in humanitarian aid, the U.S.-British coalition hopes to demonstrate positive intentions to the Iraqi people.
“The ability to recover in a post-Saddam world will be greatly enhanced by keeping the oil infrastructure,” said Col. Christopher Gunther, chief war planner for the Marines. “It won’t be like Afghanistan where they’re really hat in hand.”

Some major possible disasters haven’t happened yet. Which is cause enough for relief.

AND YOU THOUGHT I WAS TOUGH: “The New York Times is a hyper-capitalist vacuum which sucks in high commodity advertising targeted to its wealthy readers, covering it with a pathetic, neosocialist editorial slant, designed to disguise its plutocratic raison d’etre: handbags for the rich and editorials for the poor.” – Charlie Finch, lambasting the Times’ fine arts coverage, artnet.

WHAT DISMAYS THE “PEACE” MOVEMENT: Pictures like this one.

The Sun newspaper ups the ante.

No use yet of any biological or chemical weapons; and only relatively “minuscule” sabotaging of the oil wells. Early days yet – but these tactics were expected early on as well.

Yes, the “peace” protestors are defecating in the streets:

At 7th & Mish, by the U.S. Court House, I sat in a van driven by Nathaniel Shelton, who transports patients to and from Saint Francis Memorial Hospital. We were stuck, along with a fleet of Fed Ex drivers, just after 9 a.m., as demonstrators rode bikes in a circle in the intersection, closed it off with colored string, and berated the truck drivers. “It’s almost as if they were protesting us,” said Shelton. Indeed, the enmity and ridicule of the protesters was directed at working people trying to get their work done. The massive Court House, a seat of government power, was ignored. At the Civic Center, a group of demonstrators defecated. Then they left, leaving the mess to be cleaned up by others. Not only disgusting, but this idiocy belittles the proud tradition of civic protest in our national history … Sigh …

And this is in the San Francisco Examiner. If these Saddam-enablers are ticking off Bay Area liberals, can you imagine what the rest of the country thinks?

An old friend, Boris Johnson, whom I remember as a young turk in the Oxford Union, is now a very grand personage in British culture. He’s a Tory MP and editor of the Spectator, one of the house organs of London’s chattering conservative classes. So I was thrilled to see him turn up on the New York Times’ op-ed page last Sunday, with a peppy, funny piece about Mr Tony Blair. Yesterday, in the Spectator, however, he unloaded on the experience of being edited under the p.c. auspices of 43rd Street. A quip about throwing money at the president of Guinea had to be changed to the president of Chile. Why? “Uh, Boris,” said Tobin, the editor of his piece, “it’s just easier in principle if we don’t say anything deprecatory about a black African country, and since Guinea and Chile are both members of the UN Security Council, and since it doesn’t affect your point, we would like to say Chile.” Tom Wolfe couldn’t make this stuff up. Then there was the problem of Boris’ lead sentence, which was a sarcastic reference to Donald Rumsfeld’s ham-fisted dis of the British military effort in Iraq. The piece began: “Gee, thanks, guys.” After some too-ing and fro-ing, Tobin

revealed the true concerns of his multitudinous line-editors and page-editors. ‘OK, Booris, I’ll tell you what the problem is. Our problem is that “Gee” is an abbreviation for Jesus. For a century this has been a Jewish-owned paper, and we have to be extremely sensitive about anything that might offend Christian sensibilities. ‘We can say “God”, “God” is fine, but we have to be very careful about anything that involves the name of the Lord and Saviour.’ ‘Jesus H. Christ,’ I said, ‘this is insane. This is utterly insane.’

No it isn’t, old chum. It’s the New York Times.