Category: Old Dish

We now have a new general commanding forces in Fallujah. This one isn’t a reincarnation of Saddam. But check the time stamp on this post. The news could be stale within hours. Hey, the Bushies know what they’re doing. Don’t they? Don’t they??

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “In our blessed and mostly peaceful society we’re not as familiar with courage as we once were. We ascribe the virtue to all manner of endeavors that only really require skill, fortitude and a little daring, the qualities Pat Tillman showed on the football field. Pat’s best service to his country was to remind us all what courage really looks like, and that the purpose of all good courage is love.
He loved his country, and the values that make us exceptional among nations, and good. And he worried after the terrible blow we were struck on September 11th, 2001, that he had ‘never done a damn thing’ to serve her. Love and honor oblige us. We are obliged to value our blessings, and to pay our debts to those who sacrificed to secure them for us. They are blood debts we owe to the policemen and firemen who raced into the burning towers that others fled; to the men and women who left for dangerous, distant lands to take the war to our enemies and away from us, and to those who fought in all the wars of our history.” – Senator John McCain, at Pat Tillman’s memorial service yesterday.

WERE SOME PHOTOS FAKED? A debate begins in Britain about the provenance of some of the photographs of prisoner abuse by the British military. There’s apparently good reason to believe that some may have been faked. Money quote from the Guardian:

[A] former commander of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment dismissed the photographs as having “too many inconsistencies”.
Colonel David Black argued that the images were probably not even taken in Iraq. He told BBC1’s Breakfast that the vehicle shown had never been sent to the war zone and the uniforms were not the same as those worn by the regiment.
Col Black said: “[From] the evidence we have seen so far looking at the photographs, there are too many inconsistencies.”
He said the vehicle, the Bedford MK, which appears in the photographs, was “not deployed by the army to Iraq at all because of difficulties with local fuel.
“That vehicle can’t operate with fuel that was available in Iraq. So obviously the photograph was probably not even taken in Iraq.”
Col Black said the soldiers would have been wearing helmets or berets, not floppy hats as in the photographs. They would have had a regiment identification flash and a brigade flash on their sleeves and the rifle should have had a sling and an attached radio button.

See for yourself. This does not mean that other photos were faked or that there isn’t a real story here. But some of it may be fishy.

I cited an article yesterday which quoted an al Sadr supporter saying he would rather have been shot between the eyes than subjected to what appears to be a strip search. The full quote was truncated in the piece. Here is the rest of it:

Mr Shweiri said that while jailed by Saddam’s regime he was electrocuted, beaten and suspended from the ceiling with his hands tied behind his back. “But that’s better than the humiliation of being stripped naked,” he said. “Shoot me here,” he added, pointing between his eyes, “but don’t do this to us… They made us stand in a way that I am ashamed to describe. They came to look at us as we stood there. They knew this would humiliate us. We are men. It’s OK if they beat me. Beating don’t hurt us, it’s just a blow. But no one would want their manhood to be shattered. They wanted us to feel as though we were women, the way women feel, and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman.”

I am in no way attempting to minimize the horror of what appears to have gone on in Abu Ghraib prison under U.S. command. But it’s worth realizing that the nakedness and the sexual humiliation might be far more potent in a sexist, homophobic and patriarchal culture than in less sexually repressed societies. One of the most important things to remember about today’s Muslim extremism is that it has taken what is the submission of women under Islam and turned it into a political pathology. Like most variants of fascism, it is deeply troubled by women’s equality and by homosexuality. Hence the impact of these images could be psychologically devastating to many Iraqis – and far worse to those in countries where Islamism has made even deeper inroads. This was not simply a p.r. debacle; it was a p.r. catastrophe. And that in itself shows the enormous cultural gulf between where the West is now headed and where Islamism wants to take the Middle East.

“By showing the true nature of the US occupation, the photos may have broken the rush to wider war and the return to military conscription. Polls released at the end of April show that a majority of Americans had soured on the war prior to the torture story. The photographic evidence that US troops are committing atrocities will further reduce support for the war. The impact on the Muslim world will be different. For decades extremists have called the US “the Great Satan.” The US invasion and violent occupation of Iraq have given credibility to this characterization of America.” – conservative anti-war polemicist, Paul Craig Roberts.

A MARRIAGE DEBATE: As the days tick by before civil marriage for all citizens arrives in America, here’s an audio link to a debate between me, former congressman Bob Barr, Matthew Spaulding of the Heritage Foundation, and Phil Munoz of AEI. It was hosted by the America’s Future Foundation, and it’s worth a listen, if you have time on your hands.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “I share your misgivings over the most recent developments in Falluja, namely the pullback by US Marines and the handing over of responsibility to Iraqi troops of doubtful quality and staying power.
I think this may end up being one of the key turning points of this entire struggle. I think the Bush Administration just blinked and the insurgents know it. From now on they can be assured of relatively safe havens in certain urban areas of Iraq. They will be free to rebuild, rearm and reorganize unmolested by coalition troops. The only hope that the insurgents had all along was the belief that if they could just make it bloody enough, or at least make it look bloody enough, especially in terms of civilian casualties, Bush and the coalition would eventually waver. Now that belief has been vindicated.
Whatever short-term goodwill may be earned by these actions will be far outweighed by the long-term consequences for our goals in Iraq. We’ve missed out on a chance to wipe out a major threat to the future stability of Iraq and revitalized the very opponents we needed to eliminate. Even if these insurgents don’t re-emerge to attack the coalition between now and June 30, they will certainly strike at the best moment to demolish any emerging Iraqi government and it’s police and army. That will have far worse consequences than any of the combat that has taken place in the last month.
It’s possible the new direction in Falluja will be deemed a failure and US troops will return to finish the job. But that would mean paying more blood to recapture ground that should never have been given up. And it would cause more death, destruction and anger among Iraqis than if we had just finished the job we started instead of implementing this ill-advised course change.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.

I’m somewhat staggered by the revelation that even the usually sober Ramesh Ponnuru wants all pro-choice Catholic politicians, Democrat or Republican, to be denied communion by the bishops. That means Tom Ridge, George Pataki and Arnold Shwarzenegger, for starters. This is not the same thing as formal ex-communication but it will be understood – and should be understood – as the effective form of it. Why am I stunned by how far out there the theocons now are? Cutting off people from the sacraments is a drastic step for the church to take; taking on almost all one political party and a hefty swathe of another in a democracy as large and influential as the United States would be a political Rubicon for the Catholic church. But it’s one the theo-cons eagerly want to see occur. I see every reason for the church to make a positive case loudly and often about the moral gravity of abortion. But the attempt to purge miscreants who are lay people strikes me as a truly radical move. I wonder if, under theo-conservative logic, the withholding of the sacraments should be restricted only to public officials. Why not any lay Catholic who publicly dissents from Church teaching on matters of faith and morals? Why not pundits, writers, and, er, bloggers? And why just abortion? Why not those who express enthusiastic support for the death penalty, which is clearly condemned by the Vatican in almost all cases? Why not those who oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment, which is all that keeps us from sliding into the end of civilization, according to National Review? What are the exact lines of demarcation here? I ask, because purges rarely end where they start, and it would be good to read a thorough piece detailing who should be thrown out and who would be allowed by the bishops to stay. Joe Conason has described the attitude of some of these people as reminiscent of Torquemada. As usual, de trop. But the impulse to publicly shame, purge and purify religions is one that is as theologically ancient as it is politically explosive. I never realized how deep that vein now runs among today’s theocons. But it’s useful to know.

The hate-monger is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. It’s not censorship or “McCarthyism” for people to complain about any syndicate that peddles the poison that Rall lives off. Today’s disgusting diatribe against Pat Tillman is so vile, so utterly devoid of any motive or argument but personal malice and hatred, some form of protest is surely merited. Email the vice-president for print syndication, Lee Salem, and tell him what you think of Rall’s cartoon. Please, please, be civil. His email is lsalem@amuniversal.com. He needs to hear from you.

It’s inevitable. Across the world, after the hideous pictures of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, headlines will announce that the U.S. is as bad, if not worse than Saddam. Finally, the far left will concede the evil of Saddam, but only so they can declare the U.S. worse. Here’s the Sydney Morning Herald’s version. They have one single quote to justify their headline: “US abuse worse than Saddam’s, say inmates.” Here’s the quote:

Mr Shweiri said that while jailed by Saddam’s regime he was electrocuted, beaten and suspended from the ceiling with his hands tied behind his back. “But that’s better than the humiliation of being stripped naked,” he said. “Shoot me here,” he added, pointing between his eyes, “but don’t do this to us.”

Who’s Shweiri? “Mr Shweiri, 30, is a diehard fighter in the Mehdi Army, the anti-US militia of a Shiite Muslim imam.” I want the morons and perverts who did this to be punished to the most severe extent possible because of the evil of what they did and the damage they have done to what is a noble and important cause. But even then, the equation with Saddam is grotesque and wrong. Please send in examples of the anti-war media peddling this notion. They need to be exposed.

My tribute to Pat Tillman.

Here’s what part of me also believes about Fallujah, the part that still hopes for success:

Like so many others, you seem to assume that the military commanders in Iraq are impossibly stupid, or else meek pawns that the White House just moves around on the board. I doubt either is the case. Why are you so anxious for the Marines to rush into Fallujah and kill people? The situation on the ground is obviously complex and simply using our overwhelming force has never been our prime tactic in Iraq. If it had been, we would have leveled the place from the start.
You can certainly make the case that the PR around the current events hasn’t been handled well. Fortunately, the Bush White House seems far more interested in long-term results than PR wins and we should be thankful that they are. More than likely, the situation in Fallujah is very complex and we here in the US, getting our information from prejudiced and imperfect sources simply can’t pass judgment until we see how it turns out.
Most of the things that went wrong in Vietnam went wrong because decisions were made in Washington that didn’t take into account the realities on the ground. Presidents and journalists prosecuted the war rather than the commanders who knew what they were doing. I suggest we let the people over there do their work and not second-guess them until we see the results of their efforts.

Sure. But that doesn’t mean we should not raise worries and concerns.

You cannot find Ted Rall’s typically disgusting cartoon about Pat Tillman on the MSNBC/Slate page it was once found on. Here’s what the page now displays and the previous cartoons don’t show it now either. Did someone pull it? Long ago, I said I could see no reason why any serious newspaper or magazine or website would want to publish Rall’s poison. I stand by that view. But I’m particularly struck by how someone like Tillman would offend Rall so much. Tillman was a true patriot, a quiet hero, an American to his core: of course Rall had to smear him. Tillman represents all that the far left hates about America, and fears might be true.

All I can honestly say is that I have no clue what is going on in Fallujah, the critical battle of the war in Iraq. The obvious interpretation is that the Bush White House, under political pressure at home, has decided to all-but surrender the city to the enemy. That has certainly been the message sent to (and received by) the wider terrorist world. The Marine asault we were promised has failed to materialize. Various truces were negotiated and violated by the enemy many times. Then we responded by appointing a Saddamite Baathist in charge of eradicating the terrorist elements in the city, alongside the Marines. The only problem is that the Baathist general doesn’t believe there are any foreign fighters in Fallujah. From the Washington Post:

In Fallujah, Jassim Mohammed Saleh, the former Iraqi major general entrusted by the Marines with forming a new security force in the violence-wracked city, said in an interview with the Reuters news service that “there are no foreign fighters in Fallujah.” He also insisted that onetime members of former president Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party should be allowed to return to the government and the army, saying they were “capable of administering the country in times of crisis.”

This is the man the Bush administration is now entrusting the war on terror with. Or is it? Joint Chiefs Chairman, Richard Myers, says the mini-me Saddam is not the new commander in Fallujah:

Myers, who appeared on three Sunday morning news shows, cautioned that neither of the generals had been approved by the Pentagon. “They have not been vetted. They have not been placed in command. They are not in charge,” Myers said on “Fox News Sunday.” Myers said the leadership of the Fallujah Brigade also would have to be approved by the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad and Iraq’s interim Defense Ministry. The decision to form the Fallujah Brigade and put Saleh in charge was made from “the bottom up,” the senior official said. “Now we have to have a policy to catch up with what is happening on the ground.”

I think the obvious answer to the question as to what is happening in Fallujah is that the White House doesn’t have a clue. In a critical battle, we have made sure that the enemy understands we can have overwhelming military power and not be willing to use it; we have appointed a new commander who hasn’t even been vetted; and people on the ground are making up policy that has far-reaching political and military implications, while the White House has to adjust. The only word for this is incompetence and chaos.

BLINKING?: If you want a more optimistic view of what is going on, check out the Belmont Club blog. They believe that an Iraqi force for the pacification of Fallujah was always part of the plan; and that what appears to be genuine weakness, vacillation and indecision on the part of the U.S. is in reality good tactics. I hope thyey’re right. And I guess history will judge. I also know that it’s easy to sit here in D.C. and pontificate while, on the ground, political compromises and military messes are inevitable. But last week seems to me to have reached a point where even hopeful, pro-war, Bush supporters like me have to acknowledge the epic mishandling of the post-war occupation. The U.S. is beginning to look both cruel and (a much bigger problem) weak. The huge propaganda victory handed to the enemy by the celebrations in Fallujah by Islamo-fascists shouldn’t have happened. Nor should the disgusting pictures of prisoner abuse and humiliation simply exist in a military as professional and ethical as that of the U.S. The misconduct is unforgivable, and shows simply a lack of control of the situation. The complete disarray in Fallujah – the inability of anyone from Bremer up even to expain what’s happening, let alone tell us what they’re doing about it – is a further sign of drift. It is no longer unreasonable to surmise that the administration is preparing to hand over power to any U.N.-blessed Shiite or Baathist general it can find, while indicating to the wider terrorist enemy that we will buckle under to pressure. At a critical moment when Fallujah should have been the occasion for a critical wiping out of the terrorist and insurgent infrastructure, we seem to have blinked. The consequences for our future credibility, for the lives of coalition servicemembers, for the lives of Western civilians, could not be graver.