The Dish

Austria’s far-right neo-fascist, Jorg Haider, offers asylum to Iraqi foreign minister, Naji Sabr. Jorg Haider and the anti-war far left – both hoping for allied defeat, and the destruction of Israel. Revealing, isn’t it?

Another fascinating correction from the Times, this time yesterday:

A front-page news analysis article on Sunday about the political perils faced by President Bush over the war with Iraq misattributed a comment about Saddam Hussein’s government being “a house of cards.” While some American officials had used the phrase to predict a shorter conflict and a quick collapse of the Iraqi leadership, Vice President Dick Cheney was not among them.

Amazing. Another front page Big Lie from Raines and company. Notice also the mealy-mouthed correction. Which other “American officials” are they talking about? Somehow, I suspect, if they exist at all, they’re nowhere near the senior levels – which was the point of Johnny Apple’s self-parodic piece. More and more, readers are beginning to realize that Raines’ NYT doesn’t just spin against the Bush administration on an hourly basis. It also merrily lies to keep the propaganda war going. (Thanks to Powerline.)

A jaw-dropping correction in the New York Times today:

A front-page article on Tuesday about criticism voiced by American military officers in Iraq over war plans omitted two words from an earlier comment by Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of V Corps. General Wallace had said (with the omission indicated by uppercasing), “The enemy we’re fighting is A BIT different from the one we war-gamed against.”

One simple question: why are the reporters who used that critical quote to exaggerate the difficulties of the allies still working for the NYT? The reporters in question are Bernard Weinraub, formerly of the Hollywood beat, and Thom Shanker. (Thanks to Jonah.)

Hard to beat this:

In the giddy spirit of the day, nothing could quite top the wish list bellowed out by one man in the throng of people greeting American troops from the 101st Airborne Division who marched into town today. What, the man was asked, did he hope to see now that the Baath Party had been driven from power in his town? What would the Americans bring? “Democracy,” the man said, his voice rising to lift each word to greater prominence. “Whiskey. And sexy!”

“Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy.” Not quite “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” – but a lot more reliable.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY: “Europeans are antiwar, but they are pro-commerce,” – U.S. Lt. Co. Duke Deluca, after his men had successfully rid an area near Najaf of land-mines sold to Saddam by Italy.

THE OTHER LIBERATION: Yes, we’re freeing the Kurds from some Islamofascists right now as well. I don’t know why this story hasn’t gotten more attention.

We’re an amnesiac short-attention span culture. Only three weeks ago, we were in the middle of a debate about war; now we’re in the middle of the war. In the frenetic news cycles, we scarcely find time to relate what we now know to what we once argued. But we need to make time. Here’s a short list of what we know now about Saddam, two weeks after the outbreak of war: that he runs a more horrifying police-state than some of us imagined; that he uses terroristic measures to maintain his rule; has close contact with other terrorist groups whom he has invited into his country in his defense; invokes Islamic justifications for his despotism far more often than any secular justifications; is capable of actions very few other human beings are capable of; and will not give up an ounce of real power even at the point of an actually loaded gun. In other words, the prudential justification for the war is now far stronger than it was only a couple of weeks ago: no one can plausibly now argue that this monstrous regime would have voluntarily disarmed itself at the polite and constantly negotiable behest of a mild-mannered Swede. Inspections would never have worked, if by “worked,” we actually mean succeeded in disarming Saddam. But more importantly, the moral justification for war has been deepened. More Americans today can absorb the true horror of murderous totalitarian rule, by watching its hatchet men defend themselves by all means necessary – using women and childern as shields, murdering POWs, deploying suicide bombers, and the like. Ending that kind of evil anywhere any time is always a good thing. You can argue the costs but you can’t argue the moral good of it. We will save many lives; we are rescuing many people who are oppressed in ways those who constantly talk about “oppression” do not really know or understand. These are good things to know. They are vital things to remember.

Doesn’t look too much like it:

At the Pentagon briefing, Army Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said the Medina Division has been incapacitated to nearly the same extent as the Baghdad Division, which he described as “incapable of effective maneuver or defense.” He said elements of both divisions are putting up sporadic resistance, but not enough to slow the advance of U.S. units. “The Medina and Baghdad divisions are no longer credible forces,” he said.

Two out of six divisions now “destroyed.” Four to go.

BAGHDAD BROADCASTING CORPORATION: Here’s how the BBC told the news of the rescue of Jessica Lynch. Alas, it was a brief reporter’s log and no longer online:

Washington :: Philippa Thomas :: 1403GMT
Every headline and every morning show here is talking about the rescue of Jessica Lynch. It’s a rare good news story in a week when there’s been a lot of talk of set backs.
It’s a very all-American tale of a teenage soldier who’d never left the United States before she went to the Middle East three weeks ago.
She comes from a small farming community in the state of West Virginia called Palestine where yellow ribbons were put up around her community in honour of her. She had written home before her capture to say that when she came home from the Gulf she wanted to become a teacher.
Last night they had fireworks and celebrations in her home town – this one small success story has really hit the headlines here.

“A lot of talk of setbacks … one small success story.” They just can’t help themselves, can they? Imagine how crushed they’ll be if Baghdad falls.

P.R. HELL: If Saddam’s thugs can’t even persuade Robert Fisk that some alleged allied bombings are for real, then they’re really in trouble.

“It’s the worst administration I’ve seen since I went there in 1951. The whole [conservative] trend is a very artificial one made up essentially of three main currents. One is the Christian current, which is isolated from the rest of the country. [But] it’s a lot of people, 70-80 million. This is George Bush’s main constituency. Second, the neo-conservative movement, which has been developing over the period since the end of the 1960s, as a reaction to the 1960s. But it is now narrower and narrower and more focused. That’s why you have people like [Richard] Perle and [Paul] Wolfowitz in positions of power, because they’ve made an alliance with the isolationist right wing within America… And the third group that feeds into this is the Washington establishment, these think tanks in Washington which have taken the intellectual class and turned them into policy salesmen who have no peer review… The opposition to the war is, I think, an opposition to all of that. It’s an opposition to the fundamentalists, who stand, for example, against the theory of evolution. And these are the people pushing for the war. And that’s why I think the movement against the war, despite the fact that it is flagging a bit because of loyalty to the boys and girls abroad, as some of the Democrats are saying now, will grow. I think that Bush will not have a second presidency. In fact, I and many others are convinced that Bush will try to negate the 2004 elections: we’re dealing with a putschist, conspiratorial, paranoid deviation that’s very anti- democratic.” – Edward Said, hallucinating with the editors of Arab News. Wolfowitz in an alliance with the isolationist right? But then, I guess, where do you start?

IN DEFENSE OF THE BEEB: “In light of all the bashing of the BBC, in which I have enthusiastically participated, please let me note a counter-example: Yesterday (Monday) there was an absolutely superb BBC interview with Amir Mousa, head of the Arab league. Mousa was wily and wanted to make only 2 points: the war in Iraq is unjust and opposed by most Arab governments and virtually all the Arab people, and give back the “occupied territories” (not clear whether this meant just the west bank or Israel proper too). The interviewer was respectfully persistent, and did an excellent job, let Mousa blather but pressed him on the hard questions, to which Mousa’s responses were pathetically flat and unconvincing. Mousa babbled development and democracy, the interviewer pointed out that very few Arabs have either. Interviewer did not allow PC notions of not offending Third World sensibilities limit his questioning. Excellent job, vastly superior to the vapidity of CNN or the cheerleading of Fox.” – more reader dissent on the Letters Page.

“How easy to forget that our own war for independence was largely fought by ‘irregulars’ condemned as terrorists by the British because they would snipe from behind scattered trees rather than fight from the tight parade formations that were the civilized form of warfare in those days. Ours is a long history of covert actions, political assassinations, special ops, anti-democratic coups and dirty tricks that are, even today, being used in Iraq. And we claim that the ends of U.S. policy are so noble that even clearly illegal means, such as a preemptive invasion, are justified.” – Robert Scheer, equating Saddam Hussein’s methods with the founding fathers’, Los Angeles Times.

DEAR SALON: I loved this letter to the editors about Anne Lamott’s recent drivel:

Dear Sir:
I force myself to get through these articles because I usually read most of what you put up on your site.
Do you get positive feedback from this kind of writing? Just curious. Knowing that someone actually likes this will make it possible for me to hug myself, buy myself a felt pen or maybe a pair of socks, and begin to love again. That is, unless it’s raining, because that scares me, all the lightning and thunder and big nasty black clouds, but then I feel better because I know someday the sun will come out and warm the earth with its tender golden rays, and then I realize that hey, life is great and if we would all just love each other like I love everyone even though they don’t love me, the world would be this great lovefest and that would be lovely, wouldn’t it?
Until then, I am going to hide out at home with a big bucket of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream until the world comes to its senses.
– Brian Asmus, Taipei, Taiwan

I smell a new as.com reader, don’t you?

If you’re a member of the Rummy screwed-it-up department, it must be a little disconcerting to read the New York Times editorial this morning. When the viscerally, uncompromisingly anti-Bush Times pooh-poohs the notion of a military miscalculation, then the media tide must surely be turning.

BAGHDAD BROADCASTING CORPORATION: Is the BBC now spewing out anti-Zionist conspiracy theories? A listener to their Arab broadcasting service thinks so.

HOME NEWS: March was another record traffic month: 1.88 million visits to the site from almost half a million separate people. 2.5 million page views. But my favorite piece of data is from Alexa.com. They rank websites, and like most such rankings, they’re fallible, so don’t put too much weight on this little piece of information. But according to Alexa, this site is now neck and neck, in traffic terms, with the Nation. In fact, the very latest data show this site just ahead of the Nation: we were ranked 6,116 Monday; they were ranked 8,728. No, I’m not putting out a full-fledged magazine, but the more you think about that simple statistic, the more remarkable it is. This site didn’t exist three years ago; the Nation has been around for a century. This site, thanks to you, is comfortably in the black with no debt. The Nation has bled money for decades, as most such magazines do. Moreover, compare the stats for last month with the same month a year ago: we had 805,000 visits in March 2002 and 1,880,000 in March 2003. Yes, the war has boosted traffic this month, and that may subside in the future. But the trend is really strong. Thanks so much for your support, your faith and your constant criticism.