Cato The Youngest

2003-10-31T11:02:00.000-06:00

If you were looking for Cato the Youngest, and Google or some other search engine sent you here, you really want to go here. The move to catotheyoungest.com is complete, and the only new posts you'll see here are ones related to the status of the new site.

2003-10-23T00:48:00.000-05:00

I think my ISP has finally gotten things sorted out, and my new hosting company seems to have things sorted out. Google seems to have slowed googlebot's crawling of the new site. The first couple of times they tried to crawl it, they took the site down-town.

If you are still getting the old site (it has a "search" box in the sidebar), please click the e-mail link at the top of this page and drop me a line.

2003-10-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

I'm still getting the old web host company for catotheyoungest.com. I put up a new post there. The top story on the old "new" site is titled "This is Al Gore's Fault". I guess this is what I get, for using an internet that he invented.

2003-10-21T20:02:00.000-05:00

Moved my "new" site catotheyoungest.com to a new web host. I don't know how far along the DNS propagation is, but my traffic is way down. If you're still getting the old host (the top article is about the DNS migration), drop me a line. Leave a comment here, or use the e-mail link on the version of catotheyoungest.com you're getting. One way or another, the e-mail address should work, because they're both autoforwards.

2003-08-15T14:42:00.000-05:00

New site's back up. catotheyoungest.com

2003-07-09T09:59:00.000-05:00

On Hiatus

My regular website, www.catotheyoungest.com is having host problems. The host company I signed up with, and a company that bought them out are in a pissing contest, and the sites are down. I can't even download my archives from the site to move the site to another provider.

I was hoping they would get things straightened out, but it looks like that's not happening anytime soon. If and when I get things straightened out, I'll try to let people know.

2002-10-25T10:13:00.000-05:00

Letters from San Francisco

Bill Quick whacks a local idiot. The doofus accuses the Bush administration of a "new McCarthyism". Here's what Bill had to say about it.

Gosh, Paul H. Taylor, the left is so tired. And stupid. It's nice to see that some things never change. Get it through your extremely numb skull: Criticism is not censorship. Disagreement is not destruction. Which, exactly, of your "civil liberties" have been dismantled? Certainly not your ability to bray like a witless ass in the public square without reprisal. As far as "assaults on the Constitution" go, I'm more worried about the assault your ilk has been waging on the 2nd Amendment for the past seventy years, and on the first by your PC legions as well

He also agreed with a writer who thought the San Francisco Giants organization should have played the national anthem, instead of "God Bless America", before Tuesday's World Series game.

2002-10-25T09:36:00.000-05:00

Steven Den Beste on Iraqi Debt

Steven thinks we must repudiate Iraq's debts to France and Russia.

On a purely practical level, it is necessary now for us to punish both nations for their support of Saddam during the last ten years. Both must suffer, because we must establish the precedent that this kind of behavior can lead to ruin. If we were to honor those debts and retain those deals, then it would encourage them further, and others as well, to try to shaft us, secure in the knowledge that there's much to be gained and nothing to lose by doing so.
It would also mean that the French and Russian companies who violated the sanctions (at least in spirit) by getting in early to make lucrative deals in Iraq would be rewarded, and the companies in other nations who played straight and honored the sanctions would not be.
***
The Europeans are already beginning to learn that lesson in how the Bush administration is treating Schröder, and if the French economy crashes because of their equivalent behavior then the message will become impossible to ignore: Gratuitously lambasting America can be very expensive.
Because France must suffer for this, Russia will have to appear to suffer, too, but it looks as if what's going to happen is that we'll make some compensating deals with Russia. The situation isn't really the same, and there hasn't been anything like as much Russian commercial dealings in the last ten years. (Most of the Iraqi debt to Russia is left over from the 1980's when the USSR sold a lot of arms to Iraq on credit.)

Steven also draws an interesting paralell with the post-WWII Marshall Plan. We didn't just give Germany money to pay for reconstruction. We forgave all of Germany's pre-war debts. If Germany had been forced to pay her old debts, plus reparations for WWII damages, it's doubtful that she could ever have recovered from the devastation of the war.

France is Saddam's chief enabler. If anyone deserves to bear the financial hardship associated with his removal, it is France.

2002-10-25T01:39:00.000-05:00

A Tiny Gulf Kingdom Bets Its Stability on Support for U.S.

The NY Times has this story.

Thanks to an enlightened emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who took over from his father in a bloodless palace coup seven years ago, Qatar is now one of the most liberal, democratic countries in the traditionally tribal-ruled neighborhood.
The country has already held municipal elections, in which women both voted and ran for office (though none of them won). It has drafted a Constitution that provides for an elected Parliament. It has even broken ranks with its Arab neighbors by establishing ties with Israel.
Alcohol is available, and many women walk in public without head scarves. The government not only encourages a free press, it also sponsors the satellite television station Al Jazeera, a flagship of free speech so uncontrolled that even the United States wants it toned down.
All of that is unsettling for Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam's holiest shrines and the long-established patriarch of the Arabian peninsula. Last month, the Saudis recalled their ambassador to Qatar, ostensibly for a slight made against the royal family by a guest on Al Jazeera.
***
As a sort of insurance policy against the hostility of his neighbors, the emir years ago began building a billion-dollar air base on a scale clearly too large for his own small air force. That was a tacit invitation to the United States, and it did not take long before America was at his door.
Qatar's pro-Western atmosphere and the carte blanche offered the American military have proved irresistible to Washington, particularly when compared with Saudi Arabia.

A huge air base in Qatar, and a government willing to let us use it. Once Saddam's gone, we'll have all the bases in the region that we could possibly want. Once Iraq's oil fields are back to full production, oil prices will drop to a point where we no longer have to kiss the Saudis' butts. We'll need the House of Sods about as much as we need a toothache. I'm going to enjoy it, when we finally tell them to shove it.

2002-10-24T20:59:00.000-05:00

Voting closes in Bahrain election

BBC News has this story.

Voting has finished in Bahrain's first parliamentary elections in 30 years.
There were long queues at many polling stations, and turnout was reportedly high despite the election being boycotted by Islamic parties.
***
This election is also the first time that women in Bahrain have been able to vote and stand as candidates in a national poll.
Of 177 candidates, eight are women.
No women are expected to be elected but the mere fact that women are standing in a national poll at all will eclipse arguments about turnout, our correspondent says.

Half of the members are appointed by the king, so it's not exactly a textbook example of Jeffersonian democracy, but for an Arab state, it's a good start. The high turnout is a good sign, too.

2002-10-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

Fallaci goes on trial for anti-Muslim book

United Press International has this article.

PARIS, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A second author Wednesday went to trial in Paris in as many months on charges of inciting racial hatred for a book that has denigrating passages on Islam.
The latest case involves "Rage and Pride," a best-selling novel by Italian writer Oriana Fallaci.
One plaintiff, the anti-racist group MRAP, wants the book banned from France altogether. Two others, including the Human Rights League, simply want disclaimers that its disparaging passages on Islam don't accurately reflect the Muslim religion.
***
"When one finishes reading the book, one recognizes the right to kill any Muslim on the street," argued Hacen Taleb, the lawyer representing MRAP, in a statement to the court.

So when will the English edition be available? Faster, please.

2002-10-24T10:40:00.000-05:00

Two arrests in sniper hunt

BBC News has this story.

US police believe that two men arrested in Maryland could be responsible for sniper shootings in the Washington DC area, American media reports say.
The two men were detained in a car at a highway rest stop on Thursday morning.
Reports also say a rifle was found in the car, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice.
A senior official in President George W Bush's administration said that the FBI was "reasonably sure" that the case had been solved.
***
Reports suggested that a fingerprint of one of the two arrested men had been found on police evidence at the scene.

If the bit about the fingerprint is true, at least one of these guys has a lot of explaining to do. Of course, they'll probably blame it on the Mossad and the Zionist Media Conspiracy. That's what Muslims do, when confronted with evidence of their crimes.

2002-10-24T02:01:00.000-05:00

Islamists row over beardless nominee

BBC News has this report.

Divisions have emerged in Pakistan's hardline Islamic alliance following its unprecedented success in recent general elections.
One of the parties in the group has attacked the choice of Akram Khan Durrani as nominee for chief minister of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) because he lacks a beard.
A statement issued by the Jamaat-e-Islami said the central council of the alliance had not been consulted, and stressed that the chief minister's appearance should comply with Islamic Shariah law.

And folks wonder why the Muslim world lags centuries behind the civilized world. Less than two weeks after a stunning election victory, and they're at each others' throats - over a freakin' beard. If Pakistan didn't have nuclear weapons, the thought of these guys trying to run the country would be hilarious.

2002-10-23T23:44:00.000-05:00

Rice rules out major changes to UN resolution on Iraq

VOA News has this report.

White House officials say work on a U.N. resolution on Iraq appears to be nearing an end. They indicate they will accept some minor changes in the draft resolution circulated by the United States, but the core must remain the same.
White House national security advisor Condoleezza Rice says the diplomatic process takes time, but there are limits.
***
"The United States is very committed to having a resolution that will this time really deal with the problem of Saddam Hussein," she said.

Tell'em, Condi. Our patience with French cowardice and corruption is not infinite. The French need to understand that if they don't get with the program on Iraq, they're out, post-Saddam. Their Iraqi investments are bye-bye. Ditto, the Russians.

2002-10-23T22:49:00.000-05:00

Bush Signs $355 Billion Military Spending Bill

The NY Times has this story.

With the president contemplating war against Iraq, and U.S. troops involved in an anti-terror campaign across the globe, the law increases Pentagon spending in almost every area for the budget year that began Oct. 1 by a total of more than $34 billion, or 11 percent, over the previous year. It was the biggest increase in 20 years.
"Since September 11, Americans have been reminded that the safety of many depends on the courage and skill of a few,'' Bush told a Rose Garden audience filled with uniformed military personnel and lawmakers from both parties. "The bill today says America is determined and resolute to not only defend our freedom but to defend freedom around the world, that we're determined and resolute to answer the call to history and that we will defeat terror.''

The president also signed a $10.5 billion bill financing construction and upgrading of military facilities. This bill is a resounding statement of America's determination to fight both terrorist gangs and terrorist states.

2002-10-23T22:39:00.000-05:00

John Bono on the Washington Sniper

John Bono at Big S Blog has this information on the sniper case.

While the sniper thing was going on, I initially thought it was a terrorist attack, then I thought it was a lone nut.
I take that all back. I just heard saw on fox news that they are searching a property in Tacoma, and they are looking for suspects in Washington State and Alabama. I am now convinced that it is definitely, and I mean definitely al Qaeda. Here is why. Some of this you have heard before, and some you haven't.

He lists 6 reasons, and has some updates on his original post, including a description of a suspect car. Definitely worth a look.

2002-10-23T16:02:00.000-05:00

Guerrillas seize Moscow theatre

BBC News has this story.

Up to 100 armed guerrillas have stormed a Moscow theatre, taking up to 1,000 members of the audience, theatre staff and actors hostage.
Chechen separatists contacted the BBC to say the hostage-takers had planted explosives in the theatre and were led by a nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev.
They demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, and said they were prepared to die for their cause.
They also reportedly said that if Russian security forces tried to attack, they would blow up the theatre.
***
Reports say children and Muslim members of the audience have been released.

First, office buildings, then pizza parlors and nightclubs, now theaters. The civilized world needs to quit bickering, unite, and wipe these murderous thugs from the face of the earth. We need to realize that this is war to the death. They will destroy us, unless we destroy them first.

When Russia began its war with the Chechen rebels, I thought the US government should pressure Russia to respond in a restrained, measured way. I have since changed my mind. Get'em, Vlad! Crush them like the pestilential vermin that they are. Make them weep until they die of dehydration. I am absolutely, and utterly sick of these brothel-born baboons' bastards.

2002-10-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

Den Beste on NATO Modernization

Steven Den Beste has this article on Lord Robertson's efforts to promote NATO modernization.

He skirts around an important issue: we'd be glad to sell that kind of communications equipment to Europe if they want to buy it. But that's not what they want.
What they want is for us to give them the technology to make it possible for them to create such things themselves. Not to put too fine a point on it, what they want to do is to use this as an excuse for wholesale industrial espionage.
Once we teach them to make this stuff, will they actually then commit the money to do it? Or will they just hijack that knowledge to compete better with us in other markets without actually upgrading?
***
Which means Robertson is asking us to buy a pig-in-a-poke. We'll give Europe a major technological boost, and then hope that somehow or other the continental Europeans will suddenly decide that they don't hate us after all and will start acting more like, well, the UK. Sadly, the chance of that is too low to take seriously.

Lord Robertson is one of Britain's most respected diplomats, and Britain has been one of our very best allies. Therefore, America should not tell him to go fuck himself. That would be rude, and uncalled for. America should tell NATO to go fuck itself, instead. The notion that America should give premium-grade military technology to countries that would not only not use it to assist us in time of crisis, but probably sell the technology to our enemies, is absurd. Lord Robertson is a good man, trying to do an impossible job - convince America that France and Germany are worth the urine to piss on. He deserves our sympathy. NATO, on the other hand, deserves only our contempt.

2002-10-22T22:48:00.000-05:00

Blair Talks to Australian TV and Radio About Bali Attacks

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office News has this interview.

INTERVIEWER Do you think it raises Britain's profile as a target, your strong support for George Bush? PRIME MINISTER I think that they will target anyone anywhere. People forget that before the 11 September attack in America they tried attacks in France and Germany. Some of the attacks that they have mounted have been in different countries around the world, some of whom haven't had a particularly high profile. Now in my view I think it is common to our tradition, the Australian tradition, the British tradition, that where there is a threat we go out there and face it. And it is difficult, of course it is difficult because we are taking a high profile on these issues, but I have no doubt at all we are right to, and there is no escape for us if we don't. And what happened on 11 September, what happened in Bali, what has been happening in these different terrorist incidents around the world is that as I say they don't care what nationality you are, they don't care what religion you are, they don't care what race you are. They want to do the maximum amount of damage. And part of the reason for this, this is what is so important, you see we are familiar with terrorism in Britain over a long period of time, so we have had a chance to study it, and I can't say this strongly enough, the purpose of terrorism is not just the act of destruction itself, the purpose of terrorism is as its name applies - to cause terror, to produce chaos, to produce division, to stop people coming together but actually dividing them up into different groups, different religions, different sex, different races and creeds, and to cause economic chaos that then has a huge effect on people's living standards and their perception of their own economic prosperity and interest. So it is not just about the act of terrorism itself, and that is why the only way of dealing with it is for people to come together, to unite, to be absolutely clear that just as there is no hiding place for us from their extremism, there is going to be no hiding place for them from our action in order to root them out.

We cannot run from them. We cannot hide from them. We cannot bargain with them. What can we do? We can fight them. We can seek, in the words of another great British Prime Minister, "Victory -- victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival".

2002-10-22T20:36:00.000-05:00

Israel holds off on military strikes

BBC News has this story.

Israel is planning a "harsh, precise response" to Monday's deadly bomb attack on a bus by Palestinian militants which killed 14 people, Interior Minister Eli Yishai has said.
But according to Mr Yishai, the strength of the response will be limited to take into account America's interests as it gears up for a possible war with Iraq.
***
Mr Yishai said that if the Israeli Government retaliated immediately with great force, "we could cause difficulties for the Americans".

Thank you, Mr. Sharon, for your understanding, and your restraint. It is difficult to watch the murder of your countrymen, and do nothing. If I were in your position, I would want to scour the Palestinian lands with fire and steel. I would want to teach them, in the only language they understand, what an Israeli's life is worth. But your restraint may help end a greater threat, both to Israel, and the United States, and this American is grateful. The day will come when you can freely hunt down the animals who planned this slaughter, and it will not be long, "because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice".

2002-10-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

State Department Listing Islamic Extremist Group as Terror Organization

Fox News has this story.

The Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, due to be cited Wednesday, has cells operating throughout Southeast Asia. It seeks to create an Islamic state comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines, according to report in May by the State Department's counterterrorism office.
Listing the group as a terrorist organization will make it a crime to contribute funds to it and will bar its members from receiving visas to enter the United States.

It's about time. However, I don't expect the State Department to actually deny visas to any Jemaah Islamiyah members. State Department has been notoriously and inexcusably lax in its policies regarding visa issuance. Contact your Senators and Congressperson, and demand that they pass a Homeland Security bill that strips State Department of all visa issuance authority.

2002-10-22T19:32:00.000-05:00

French author cleared of race hate

BBC News has this story.

French writer Michel Houellebecq has been cleared of inciting racial hatred by saying Islam was "the stupidest religion".
A panel of three judges in Paris declared that the author was not guilty after he was sued by four Muslim groups.
He made the comments in an interview with the literary magazine Lire in 2001.
***
The court ruled that although the author's comments were "without a doubt characterised by neither a particularly noble outlook nor by the subtlety of their phrasing," they did not constitute a punishable offence.

Apparently, under the French law Houellebecq was charged with violating, there is a difference between criticizing a religion, and criticizing its followers. Houellebecq's criticism of Islam was judged to be permissible, under the law, where criticism of Muslims would probably not be. While the court's ruling was not exactly a ringing defense of freedom of expression, it beats a conviction. I frankly expected the court to stick it to Houellebecq, so the ruling is a pleasant surprise. Too bad Houellebecq couldn't use the Zenger defense.

2002-10-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

The State Department rewards officials responsible for terror visas

National Review has this article by Joel Mobray.

Senior officials at State have rewarded some 200 senior members of the foreign service with bonuses of $10,000-$15,000 each — including four of the five top officials at Consular Affairs (CA), the agency within the State Department that oversees consulates and visa issuance, as well as the person who helped implement the Visa Express program in Saudi Arabia.
***
More than one year after 9/11, State is still fighting the Justice Department on behalf of suspected terrorists. According to the GAO, the State Department wants to issue visas to individuals on watch lists if there isn't enough hard evidence to prove the applicant is actually a terrorist. In fact, State did issue visas last year to 79 people whose names were in the FBI's TIPOFF terrorist database, "because [State] determined there was insufficient information linking [the 79 applicants] to terrorism," according to the GAO report.

State Department has shown itself to be utterly incapable of, or even concerned with, preventing terrorists from obtaining visas. State Department must be stripped of all visa issuance authority, because they just don't get it.

2002-10-22T10:22:00.000-05:00

Qantas cuts capacity to Indonesia; customers changing to Fiji, Queensland

AFXpress has this story.

SYDNEY (AFX-ASIA) - Qantas Airways Ltd said it will reduce its flights to Indonesia from next month as it seeks to redirect capacity to holiday destinations where demand is increasing such as Fiji and the northeast Australian state of Queensland.
***
Borghetti said many customers who had booked holidays to Bali were changing to destinations such as Fiji and Queensland, and that Qantas would direct additional capacity to these routes to cater for the increased demand during Australia's Dec-Jan school holiday period. "We are planning to add capacity to our Cairns, Gold Coast, Hamilton Island, Rockhampton, Maroochydore and Perth routes, as well as Nadi and Singapore," he said.

This looks like bad news for Bali, but my sympathy is reserved for the victims of the Bali bombing. If the Indonesian government had cracked down sooner, it might not have happened, and Indonesia wouldn't be facing the collapse of its tourist industry.

2002-10-22T00:07:00.000-05:00

Are the Saudis the Enemy?

That's the question Nicholas D. Kristof asks in this NY Times Op-Ed. This piece isn't quite dumb or evil enough to justify the use of the Iron Fisk Technique, but I am going to see if I can't poke a few holes in Nicky's arguments.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Osama bin Laden succeeded magnificently, it seems, in at least one of his goals: creating a rift between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

That wasn't a very difficult task. The only thing we have in common with them is oil. They have it, we want it, and for too many years, we've put up with their shit.

Odds are that Osama shrewdly sought to create discord by deliberately choosing Saudis to be the grunts of 9/11, picking them to fill 15 of the 19 hijacker positions, even though the teams were led by an Egyptian, Mohamed Atta, and other key players were from Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Al Qaeda had plenty of Yemenis, Kuwaitis and north Africans whom it could have tapped, but it apparently went out of its way to choose Saudis to be the foot soldiers.

All Bin Laden did, was wake us up, and cause us to look at what kind of society Saudi Arabia really is. Nothing more was needed.

The plan, if that's what it was, worked perfectly. The 60-year friendship between Saudi Arabia and the United States is now in tatters, and it will probably get even more poisonous in the coming months if we invade Iraq. It turns out that Saudis have as much animosity for us as we have for them.

Why shouldn't they? Our peoples have nothing in common. Saudi Arabia is a trading partner, and an ally of convenience, never, never, never, a friend.

"Our people very much hate the U.S.," said Soliman Al-Buthy, a Saudi engineer with flowing white robes and even more flowing black beard. "The No. 1 reason is that it supports Israel with no limits. Then there's homeland security measures, and now we hear that all Saudis in America will be fingerprinted."

Likewise, Soliman, but the US doesn't support Israel without limits. If we ever did, there wouldn't be an Arab government left, and damnned few Arabs. Israel could annihilate Egypt in a day or two, if it chose to do so. All it would have to do, is wait for the Nile flood season, break the Aswan Dams, and when everyone runs for high ground, nuke'em.

Mr. Buthy has plenty of company: A poll released this month by Zogby International found that 87 percent of Saudis have an unfavorable view of the United States.

And Americans don't like Saudi Arabia much, if any, better.

Even among the many Saudis who lived for years in America, there is a deep sense of betrayal that matches our own. Everywhere I go, I run into American-educated Saudis whose eyes light up as they recall how they lived in Kansas City or Chicago or Portland, how their children were born there, how their neighbors were the nicest people in the world. Then, bitterly, they complain that Americans now slander them as terrorists, deny them visas and vilify their country.

Betrayal? You want to talk about betrayal? What about 15 Saudi citizens who lied their way into this country, obtained technical training under false pretenses, and used that training to murder thousands of Americans, and do billions of dollars in property damage? Arabs allegedly believe in hospitality. Do they not believe that a guest has any obligation to his host?

"Now all Saudis are guilty, are unwelcome," complained Fahad Aslimy of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. "Most Saudis were educated in the U.S., and it is our second home. So this is very frustrating."

Unfortunately, we haven't figured out how to recognize all the terrorists, just by looking at them. So we've had to be more cautious about all Saudis. And as for the US being a "second home" to Saudis, even a dog treats his bed with more respect than Saudis have the US.

Indeed, it's become fashionable in America to see Saudi Arabia as "the most dangerous, the most fanatic regime on the entire planet," as a reader e-mailed me recently. Richard Perle's influential Defense Policy Board convened a hatchet-job hearing in July in which Saudi Arabia was described as America's "most dangerous opponent."

The reason some Americans see Saudi Arabia as "the most dangerous, the most fanatic regime on the entire planet", is that it is. Money, and the willingness to spend it on terrorism, is what makes the Arab regimes dangerous. Saudi Arabia has more money, and spends more of that money supporting terrorism, and other forms of religious extremism, than any other Muslim state.

There's plenty to criticize about Saudi Arabia, but this vision of it as a dangerous enemy is way over the top.

Not really. Wars are won by logistics, the ability to train, supply, and transport troops. The Saudis pay for the recruiting, the training, and the travel of terrorist operatives, and have, since long before 9/11.

Sure, the Saudi monarchy bears some responsibility for fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. King Faisal, together with the United States, deliberately nurtured fundamentalist Islam in the 1960's as a counterweight to Nasserists and leftists. It was Saudi Arabia that, at America's request, backed the jihad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, thus forming the basis for Al Qaeda.

And they encouraged them to embrace an anti-American agenda, as a means of diverting their anger from the House of Saud.

Later, prestige-seeking Saudi businessmen wrote checks to radical Islamic charities, financing the spread of radical Islam in much of the Islamic world ? in the same way that zealous but misguided Americans helped underwrite I.R.A. terrorism in the 1970's and 1980's, as our own government pretended not to notice. Read Margaret Thatcher's memoirs and you find the same kind of outrage at American financing of Irish terrorism that we feel at Saudi complicity in Islamic terrorism.

Certainly, NORAID should have been shut down sooner. But NORAID's American supporters weren't giving US tax dollars to the IRA. In Saudi Arabia, it was more than just idiot businessmen's ego-tripping. Government money was spent to encourage the spread of Wahabi extremism.

Saudi Arabia's responsibility, in other words, arises more from stupidity than venality. It's absurd to imagine the Saudi government intentionally promoting people like Osama bin Laden when Osama's first target was the Saudi royal family itself.

If OBL's first target is the Saudi royal family, and not America, why are there thousands of dead Americans, and no assassinated Saudi princes? I'll tell you why, Nick. Americans are doing the dying, because the House of Saud is doing the buying.

The Saudi royals can fairly be criticized for fecklessly looking the other way as clerics commandeered schools and preached poisonous nonsense about foreigners. More broadly, America and the kingdom have almost no values in common; Saudi Arabia is a corrupt monarchy that stands for religious intolerance and the repression of women.

You don't say! The way you've been going on, I'm surprised you noticed.

But we also need a bit of common sense in the discussion. To my ear the harsh denunciations of Saudi Arabia as a terrorist state sound as unbalanced as the conspiratorial ravings of Saudi fundamentalists themselves.

Then you need to get the wax out of your ears. Or maybe, just your hand out of the Saudis' pockets.

2002-10-21T23:33:00.000-05:00

Diplomacy 'could resolve Iraq crisis'

BBC News has this story.

US President George W Bush has said he believes that Iraq can be disarmed peacefully and that he is willing to give diplomacy one more try.
***
"The stated policy of our government, the previous administration and this administration, is regime change, because we don't believe he is going to change," Mr Bush said following talks with Nato Secretary General George Robertson.
"However, if he were to meet all the conditions of the UN, the conditions that I've described very clearly in terms that everybody can understand, that in itself will signal the regime has changed."
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington says that Mr Bush's remarks sound like a dramatic shift in US policy, however in practice it is more likely to be a tactical change of emphasis designed to reassure other members of the Security Council while still pursuing a tough new resolution on Iraq.

Of course, its a tactical change. Anyone who thinks George W. Bush expects Saddam's compliance, or desires Saddam's survival, is down to their last functioning neuron, and it's not working too well. In fact, if Saddam misinterprets this statement as a capitulation on our part, it could lead him to reject the compliance that might save his sorry ass. What a tragedy that would be - NOT!

2002-10-21T23:17:00.000-05:00

US aims to soothe Turkish fears

BBC News has this story.

Military action against Iraq is expected to top the agenda as US Chief of Central Command General Tommy Franks visits Turkey.
General Franks and Nato's supreme allied commander, Joseph Ralston, have arrived in a country obsessed with the prospect of military action against its south-eastern neighbour.
As the only Nato member with a border with Iraq, Turkey fully expects to be called upon to assist in any operation.
***
Turkey's politicians are worried that the US has done a deal with the Kurds who control northern Iraq - some sort of autonomy in exchange for Kurdish help in toppling Saddam Hussein.
Over and over again, Turkey has told anyone that will listen that it will not tolerate an autonomous Kurdish state.

Turkey has historically been one of our better allies. If they are willing to cooperate in the removal of Saddam, they deserve to have their concerns addressed. The protection we have given the Kurds, in the past, through the no-fly zone, plus guarantees that their civil rights will be protected, post-Saddam, should be enough reward for their support. The fact is that Turkey's cooperation is more valuable to us in this operation than anything the Kurds could be expected to do.

2002-10-21T18:27:00.000-05:00

Some get Iraq wrong all the time

The International Herald Tribune has this column by Jim Hoagland.

WASHINGTON Imagine that Saddam Hussein has been offering terrorist training and other lethal support to Al Qaeda for years. You can't imagine that? Sign up over there. You can be a Middle East analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Or at least you could have been until recently. As President George W. Bush's determination to overthrow the Iraqi dictator has become evident to all, a cultural change has come over the world's most expensive intelligence agency: Some CIA analysts are now willing to evaluate incriminating evidence against the Iraqis and call it just that. That development has triggered a fierce struggle, pitting officials whose careers and reputations were built on the old analysis of the Iraqis as a feckless, inert and inward-looking bunch of thugs against those willing to take a fresh, untilted look at all the evidence.
***
The upstarts who are challenging the agency's long-standing and deeply flawed analysis of Iraq are being accused of "politicizing intelligence," a label that is a reputation-killer in the intelligence world. It is also a protective shield for analysts who do not want to acknowledge that they have been profoundly and damagingly mistaken.
The "politicization" accusation suggests that those who find Iraqi links to Al Qaeda are primarily interested in currying favor with the Bush White House. It comes primarily from those who won favor in the Clinton years with an analysis based on the proposition that an Arab nationalist like Saddam would never cooperate with the Islamic fanatics of Al Qaeda. They are now out in the cold in the Bush-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz era. Their work is only one part of a monumental record of failure on Iraq by the CIA, which has at different moments sought to understand, support, co-opt and then overthrow Saddam.

Hoagland goes on to say that the evidence, including old, previously classified information, suggests that the "politicizers" were the ones who downplayed the Iraqi threat. A good housecleaning at CIA is in order. The "ostritches" who told Bill Clinton and Bush the Elder what they wanted to hear should not let the doorknob hit them in the ass.

2002-10-21T11:21:00.000-05:00

Inspections Are the Key?

The Washington post has this op-ed by Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

After four years, the door to inspections has finally reopened, and we should be taking advantage of that opportunity. The success of inspections in Iraq -- in eliminating not only nuclear weapons, but also biological and chemical ones -- will depend on five interrelated prerequisites:
1. Full and explicit authority for inspection, which means immediate and unfettered access to any location in Iraq -- including presidential sites -- and practical working arrangements for communication, transportation and other logistics to ensure that inspectors can operate safely and effectively. 2. Ready access to all sources of information, including the freedom to interview relevant Iraqi personnel without intimidation or threat of retribution to those individuals, and access to information from other states as well as information gained through aerial monitoring and other inspection activity. 3. Unified and robust support from the U.N. Security Council, with the affirmed resolve to deal promptly and energetically with any noncompliance or lack of cooperation on the part of Iraq. This is the best deterrence to ensure Iraq's compliance. 4. Preservation of integrity and objectivity in the inspection process. There must be a fair and impartial inspection regime, free of outside interference, to ensure that our conclusions are accepted as credible by all parties. 5. Active cooperation by Iraq, including a sustained demonstration by the government of its stated willingness to be transparent and to allow inspectors full access to carry out their mission. This effort could be further facilitated (and the inspection process shortened) if Iraq were to take the initiative -- not only with passive compliance, but also with active cooperation -- by, for example, coming forward with a full and "final" declaration of its weapons-related equipment and activities.

Mr. Baradei's conditions for a successful inspection regime in Iraq are probably sufficient, but are so unlikely to be implimented in our lifetimes, that they should be categorized as "science fiction", not "political commentary". Point one ain't gonna happen. The only thing that would convince Saddam to comply with point one's demands is a certainty that refusal would inevitably lead to his doom. Saddam doesn't believe that, and isn't going to. Even now, he believes that he can brazen it out. He believes that the younger Bush will do what the elder Bush did - flinch from actually removing him from power.

Point two is only slightly less likely. For decades, Saddam has lived by intimidation and retribution. He is not going to stop, now. Only the belief that non-compliance means death would secure Saddam's compliance. Saddam is not capable of such a belief.

Point three will not happen, as long as France has a seat on the Security Council. Which is why points one and two won't happen. What the US should do, after removing Saddam, is install a US military occupation government that would, among other things, systematically exclude the French from any significant role in post-Saddam Iraq. France needs to learn the cost of backing the wrong side. Indeed, this would be the best of all possible worlds. The French would lose both their investments in Iraq, and their precious UN's relevance.

Point four isn't going to happen, as long as France, Germany, and Russia are concerned with hiding evidence of their involvement in Iraq's weapons programs.

Iraqi active cooperation with inspectors? Bubba, Iraqi non-cooperation is what got us in this mess. If you think Saddam will ever actively cooperate with inspectors, you need a new tinfoil hat.

2002-10-20T23:45:00.000-05:00

From Its Palaces, Iraq's View Is of a World Filled With Allies

The NY Times has this story.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 19 ? As Iraq confronts the possibility of a new war with the United States, its leaders appear to have concluded that they have one decisive advantage that they lacked during the countdown to the Persian Gulf war 12 years ago: this time, they seem convinced, the world is on their side and against the United States.
***
But amid the speeches, news conferences and newspaper headlines boasting Iraq's defiance, there was also a sense that Baghdad's aging leaders, a tight circle of men that has changed hardly at all since the gulf war, were busy trying to persuade themselves that they could somehow ride out the most serious threat yet to their power. In this, there were strong echoes of the months before American bombs started falling in 1991, when Baghdad seemed to think it could bluff and maneuver its way into hanging on to Kuwait.

Keep on dreamin', Saddam. The less rational your foreign policy is, the easier for President Bush to sell our allies on the need to remove you. If you think we can't get Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to provide at least minimal, grudging support, you're nuts. The fact of the matter is, if we had to, we could go through any resistance they could muster. We know it, and they know it, and they know that they cannot afford a rupture in their relationships with the US. When the time comes, we will have their support, and you will be up Shit Creek without a paddle.

2002-10-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

Two Shot Dead at Australia University

Reuters has this story.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Two people were shot dead and at least seven people wounded at a university in the Australian city of Melbourne on Monday and a suspected gunman was taken into custody, emergency authorities said.
***
A police spokeswoman said a man had been taken into custody but added there was no indication yet of a possible motive.

The police have not released the identity of the gunman, so we don't know anything about his motives. If the gunman turns out to be some sort of jihadist, it will only strengthen the resolve of the Australians to fight back. But whatever the motive, this shocking crime must be punished to the full extent of the law. May God grant healing to the injured, strength and comfort to the families of the victims, and justice to the gunman. UPDATE: Steven Den Beste has a link to a report that says the gunman was tackled by several bystanders, not stopped by the police. Three cheers for the gutsy bastards who charged a man with a shotgun. If Australia produces that sort in any quantity, the Muslims are really screwed. UDATE: The Sidney Morning Herald reports that the gunman was an Asian student, a loner, who was having difficulty in school. Apparently, the shootings were not politically motivated. Also, one of the bystanders who subdued the gunman was a lecturer in the class. They've got a good bit of detail and background coverage. Check their main page for more info.

2002-10-20T17:47:00.000-05:00

Saddam's Economy of War

OpinionJournal has this column on the international industry of weapons technology proliferation Saddam has created.

There is no doubt that Saddam, with his oil billions, has single-handedly called into being a world-wide industry devoted to brokering illegal weapons technologies. It begins with Syria, which agreed to reopen a long-dormant pipeline and channel $3 billion a year in illegal Iraqi oil exports whose proceeds the regime can use for any purpose it wants, free of U.N. constraints. As to suppliers, the German case was discovered by accident--a routine inspection--so the suspicion has to be that more Western business people, knowingly or not, are aiding in Saddam's rearmament.
***
Saddam's whole official life has been devoted to the pursuit of exotic weapons of every kind. This must mean something.
What's more, there are reasons at least to evaluate the possibility that something did change after Sept. 11: that the risk posed by Saddam actually increased. He saw what we have been keen not to dwell on: The Sept. 11 plot was largely a failure but contained the seeds of a much more devastating blow against the U.S., had the hijackers succeeded in decapitating the political system by taking out the White House and Congress.
***
Various peacemongers have called for sending inspectors back to a country that has spent 10 years learning how to hide its weapons labs and stockpiles from inspectors. It's no longer possible to treat this as anything but a fig leaf for surrender. The worm finally turned last week, when the CIA chief sent a letter to Capitol Hill implying to some that we dare not move against Iraq lest Saddam strike back with a catastrophic terrorist attack.

The United States will not be deterred by Saddam. Nor will we accept a situation where our cities live at the sufferance of this manman. Preparations for war continue apace, and our UN diplomatic efforts have brought the Russians on board. Of the five veto powers, only France still opposes the US position, which requires only UN consultation, not approval, for military action against Saddam.

2002-10-20T17:11:00.000-05:00

US weighing Israeli plan to disarm Iraq

ArabNews has this story story.

WASHINGTON, 20 October — The Bush administration is weighing an Israeli proposal for a joint operation in the western Iraqi desert to disarm missiles before they could be launched against Israel.
If successful, the operation might not only protect Israeli civilians from an Iraqi attack like the one they weathered in the 1991 Gulf War but also eliminate the prospect of an Israeli retaliatory attack on Iraq.
***
This time, however, Prime Minister Sharon has declared Israel "will take the proper steps to defend its citizens" if Iraq launches a missile attack. And while there are fewer Arab states lined up with the United States there still could be a risk of defection if Israel attacked Iraq.

Two things are interesting about this story. First, is that a major Arab news outlet published it, and the tone of the article. The story doesn't contain any the usual apocalyptic hysteria that would normally accompany a report about US-Israeli cooperation in a military attack on an Arab state. It looks like the Saudi press, or at least ArabNews, has accepted the fact that Saddam is a goner. Since there's nothing to be done for Saddam, they are trying to distance themselves from him.

The other thing, is that the US is apparentely no longer concerned about Arab support. The first Bush administration let Saddam off, in the Gulf War, at the behest of our Arab allies, and pressured Israel not to respond to Saddam's attacks. This Bush administration apparently believes that it has all the Arab support it can get, and that that support is solid enough that even Israeli involvement is acceptable.

2002-10-20T00:09:00.000-05:00

Australia and EU countries advise nationals to leave

DW-World has this story.

The Australian Government said on Saturday that it had received intelligence that parts of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta may be bombed in attacks aimed at Westerners and urged its citizens to leave. Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that "on the basis of the intelligence we have received, it is very important we draw people's attention to the risk." Meanwhile the governments of Britain, Germany and Denmark have advised their nationals to leave Indonesia, with Britain also saying it is pulling out its non-essential diplomats. The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, says Britons should not travel to the country and those who must remain should take extra precautions in public places. The German and Danish authorities have issued similar advice.

If the Australian and EU nationals and companies take this advice, Indonesia is in a world of hurt. They need tourist, and foreign investment dollars, pounds, francs, etc. If the developed world cuts them off, it's going to do more damage to Indonesia's economy than anything short of all-out war against the Muslim whackos would have. I'll bet the Indonesian government wishes it had paid attention to US and other warnings of terrorist activity.

2002-10-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

U.S. to Withdraw From Arms Accord With North Korea

NY Times has this story.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 — The Bush administration has decided to scrap the 1994 arms control accord with North Korea that has provided Western energy aid in return for the North's promise to freeze the development of nuclear weapons, senior administration officials said today.
North Korea admitted two weeks ago that it was pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, and accused the United States of taking steps that forced Pyongyang to nullify the accord. The White House has since debated whether to end the accord, with some aides warning such a step could lead North Korea to even greater nuclear violations.
***
The immediate practical effect of the decision to scrap the agreement is the halting of the annual shipments of 500,000 tons of fuel oil from the United States to North Korea.
Even if the clandestine North Korean program effectively suspended the accord, the administration's decision to formally abandon it sends a clear message: it signifies an American effort to pose a stark choice for North Korea, between abandoning all of its nuclear weapons programs and facing near-total economic isolation.
***
The senior administration official interviewed about the White House's strategy said that North Korea must end the highly enriched uranium program "in a verifiable way," a major task in a country known for its skills at digging deep caves. The official added: "This time we must also address other problems — missile transfer, the conventional forces the North has, and the abominable way it treats its people." None of those issues were covered in the 1994 framework accord.
"You can't have re-entry into the international community of states and brandish a nuclear weapon," said the official.

North Korea must disarm, if it wants to receive help from the rest of the world. Any nation providing aid to North Korea prior to the verified dismantling of North Korea's nuclear arms programs should be barred from the US market. That would hurt either South Korea or China, the two nations whose cooperation is most vital to the isolation of North Korea.

2002-10-19T23:20:00.000-05:00

USS Constellation to Deploy Early for Iraq

KFMB-TV (San Diego) has this story.

(10-16-2002) - The USS Constellation is set to leave San Diego earlier than planned to prepare for a possible war with Iraq. It's regular deployment was scheduled for early next year, but now it will leave port next month for the Persian Gulf.
Before the Constellation leaves for the Persian Gulf, it will spend about two weeks off the Southern California coast, participating in training exercises, which are scheduled to begin Thursday. The Constellation carries about 5,000 sailors and marines, and about 70 aircrafts.

Things are heating up. Planning a major military operation is a little like preparing dinner orders for a large party at a restaurant - you want all the dishes to be ready at the right time, and you want all the troops to be ready at the right time. If they stick to the published timetable, Constellation could be on station in the Persian Gulf region by Thanksgiving. We could see action by early December, if the rest of the pieces are in place.

2002-10-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

Top Abu Sayyaf rebel 'arrested'

BBC News has this story.

Police in Manila have captured a man say is a senior member of the Muslim extremist group, Abu Sayyaf.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo joined her national police chief at a news conference to parade Mark Bolkerin Gumbahale and three other bombing suspects.
***
National Police Chief Hermogenes Ebdane said Mr Gumbahale would be charged with the kidnapping of 21 mostly foreign tourists and workers from Malaysia's Sipadan dive resort in 2000 and with the kidnapping of schoolteachers and students in Basilan island in 1999.

More good news! Maybe they can convince this asshole to sell out some of his buddies. Abu Sayyaf has historically been little more than a criminal gang, in it for the money. They don't have anywhere near the ideological conviction of a Hamas or Al-Qaeda. It should be possible to find something that will appeal to this bastard's sense of self-interest.

2002-10-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

Saudi students in US to be fingerprinted

ArabNews has this story.

RIYADH, 20 October — Saudi students already residing in the United States have been informed by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia that they need to visit immigration centers in their state to be fingerprinted and interviewed, a source told Arab News yesterday.
***
They were also told that they needed to update officials on their current study programs and their expected graduation date, as well as other related information. The circular added that the deadline for visiting immigration centers is the end of October.

It's about time! The next step is to prohibit students from hostile countries from enrolling in courses of study with direct military application. Courses which should be prohibited include pilot training, microbiology, chemical engineering, and of course, any type of military training.

2002-10-19T12:25:00.000-05:00

A New Front, but it's Still One War

The NY Times has this story.

WASHINGTON — HOW many battles can the United States take on at one time?
Even before North Korea's stunning admission last week that it had been cheating for years on its commitment to freeze its nuclear weapons program, that question was heard all over Washington.
***
Mr. Bush's team sees this moment in history as a rip in time, a chance to re-order the world on American terms. It said as much in the national security strategy published last month, which talked not only of pre-emptive strikes to prevent future attacks, but of a global campaign to "defend the peace by fighting terrorists and tyrants." This strategy finds opportunity even in simultaneous crises.
Even a political opponent like Samuel R. Berger, the national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, agrees with at least part of the Bush logic. "The lesson you always learn in these jobs is that the world doesn't deal cards one at a time," he said. But the cards make up a hand that can be played.
Speaking of the twin crises in Iraq and North Korea, he said: "These could play off one another. If you get a strong Security Council resolution on Iraq, it conveys to North Korea that the international community will find a nuclear program unacceptable."

I've said it before nobody deals with chaos, and the weirdness that goes with it, better than the US. The Bush administration will deal with these problems. They will use the oportunities created by success on one front to create new opportunites on the others.

2002-10-19T01:19:00.000-05:00

Bush Authorizes Training of Iraqi Opposition

The Washington Post has this story.

President Bush has authorized U.S. combat training for Iraqi opponents of Saddam Hussein, and the Pentagon has identified as many as 5,000 recruits for an initial training phase to begin next month, according to administration and military officials.
... Defense and State Department officials intend to brief Congress next week on plans to instruct the Iraqis in basic combat as well as specialized skills to serve as battlefield advisers, scouts and interpreters with U.S. ground troops in an invasion force.
***
The Pentagon began serious consideration of an opposition training plan early last month. But long-standing uncertainty about the abilities and cohesion of the often-bickering exile groups had limited discussions to an initial phase of only about 1,000 recruits and a far smaller amount of money.
Bush's new directive appears to have ended that uncertainty. "It's a big deal," said a senior administration official.

An occupation government is going to need a sizable number of Iraqis who can serve as interpreters, low-level bureaucrats, and law enforcement officers. Recruiting them now, so they can help during the invasion, as well, is an excellent idea.

Not all of the opposition groups are happy with the decision. They think it gives Iraqi National Congress head Ahmed Chalabi too much influence, but somebody has to run the program, and if the other factions had been more cooperative, they might have had more influence.

2002-10-18T22:34:00.000-05:00

Venezuela says no to Arab oil blockade

BBC News has this story.

Venezuela, the world's fifth biggest oil producer and major supplier to the US, will not support an Arab oil blockade in response to military action against Iraq.
***
"We cannot endorse any oil embargo, we cannot use oil as a political weapon and Opec should be fully aware of this," Mr Chavez said.
"Oil is a strategic resource so you cannot use it so people won't have heating, electricity, air transportation because then we will be damaging people, the economy and society as a whole," he said.

This is good news. Good for both Venezuela, and the rest of the civilized world. Saudi Arabia has also declined to participate in an oil embargo, so it looks as though oil prices will remain reasonably stable, even if we must depose Saddam.

2002-10-18T15:29:00.000-05:00

McCain misses defense spending vote

azcentral.com has this story (link via DrudgeReport).

WASHINGTON - Arizona's Sen. John McCain, busy preparing this week to guest-host Saturday Night Live while conducting his nationwide book tour and making other TV appearances, did not show up for a vote on a $355 billion defense spending bill.
***
Though he did not vote on the defense bill, McCain, a member of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, inserted a statement into the official Congressional Record criticizing the bill's "wasteful spending" on items added by members of Congress.
***
On Wednesday morning, McCain's schedule had him in New York on the Don Imus radio show. He then flew to Washington to attend a ceremony where President Bush signed the Iraqi war resolution into law. Bush began his remarks at that ceremony at 11:17 a.m.
Afterward, McCain showed up for the election-reform bill vote, listed on Senate records as taking place at 12:07 p.m.
But he then missed the vote on the defense bill at 2:32 p.m.
At some point in the afternoon, McCain returned to New York for Saturday Night Live rehearsals. By 9 p.m., he was appearing on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews.

It seems to me that Sen. McCain needs to sort out his priorities. If he wants to be a comedian, and be paid to be laughed at, he should leave the Senate, and pursue his career change full time. If he wants to be taken seriously as a Senator, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he needs to get his butt into Washington, and stay there long enough to take care of business. I realize that his vote would not have affected the bill's passage, but if you are willing to go on the record criticizing a bill, you ought to go on the record voting against it, too.

2002-10-18T14:07:00.000-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson on War & Appeasement

Victor Davis Hanson has this column on National Review Online (link via Little Green Footballs).

Like Demosthenes, Don Juan and Churchill — and President Bush today — struggled to make a complacent audience grasp the nature of a distant and still theoretical threat, one that could only grow through appeasement and would end with confrontation and defeat. Would most educated and sophisticated citizens prefer the utopian refrain, "Let the arms-reduction accords of the League of Nations work," and "Let the inspectors investigate the rumors of an oversize German battleship and unlawful aircraft construction" — or the simplistic "You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, and with all our might. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival!"

The villification that President Bush has received, particularly from European quarters, is the wages of truth-speaking in wartime. 9/11 has muted domestic criticism somewhat, and has made Americans realize that Muslims are not our friends, but there are too many in Europe who think the Muslims should be bought off. Some genuinely think they can be bought off, by dismantling Israel, or by other means. Some are merely cowards, who would surrender their freedom, their cultural heritage, and everything else, just to save their miserable lives. I leave them with this quote, from American patriot Samuel Adams.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

2002-10-17T22:05:00.000-05:00

US Senate approves defence increase

BBC News has this story.

The United States Senate has given final approval to the biggest increase of military spending in two decades.
The $355.1bn military spending bill - an increase of $37.5bn from last year - comes as the US prepares for war against Iraq.
The defence allowance will enable the US:
to buy more transport planes needed to move troops to any part of the world, as well as new fast-deploying tanks, fighter aircraft, and intelligence-gathering systems.
about $770m will be spent on satellite-guided precision weapons.
another $247m will go to buy Tomahawk cruise missiles.
the theatre missile defence programme will get $7.4bn.
$9bn goes to shipbuilding - $842 million more than Mr Bush sought - including $2.3bn for two AEGIS destroyers.
The bill also funds a 4.1% pay rise for all US military personnel.

If anybody thinks that the UN "compromise" is a significant reprieve for Saddam, this budget should be sufficient evidence to correct any misunderstandings. This is not a defensive budget. This is not a special-ops-heavy, anti-terror, budget. This is a power-projection, war-fighting, budget. This is a budget to permit conventional armed forces to go anywhere, kick ass, and take names. This is a budget whose emphasis on improved intelligence and precision-guided weapons will allow smaller, lighter, more easily deployed forces to defeat heavier forces, and track down and kill lighter ones.

2002-10-17T21:46:00.000-05:00

US resolution sidesteps opposition to Iraq war

The Guardian Unlimited has this story.

The US bowed to almost unanimous international opposition yesterday and offered to soften its stance on UN weapons inspections by removing language specifically threatening Iraq with invasion.
***
If Baghdad failed to comply, the US would consult the UN security council again before going to war, but it would not necessarily seek a second resolution, as the French have demanded.
***
France was under pressure last night to agree to the compromise after Russia signalled it would accept the proposals put forward by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell. Until yesterday, Paris had insisted on a second security council resolution authorising the use of force.
***
Under the new US proposal, President Saddam would still have to make a declaration giving an inventory of his arsenal.
Western officials with knowledge of the security council discussions said that if that declaration fell far short of the US estimate of Iraq's stockpile of biological and chemical weapons, and its nuclear programme, the US could declare the Baghdad regime in "material breach" of its obligations and demand UN backing for an attack even before inspectors went to Iraq.
On the other hand, if the Iraqi leader admitted to a significant number of weapons of mass destruction, he would undermine his own credibility and strengthen Washington's hand in pushing for tough inspections.
***
The new US proposal received a significant boost yesterday with the apparent approval of the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, who said he had discussed it with the US secretary of state, Colin Powell.

Damn, the Bushies are good! This "compromise", leaves Saddam caught in the mother of all catch-22s, and has isolated the French. The UN's private parts are now stuck in a meat grinder, and the switch is in Chirac's hands. He has the unenviable choice of selling out his pal, Saddam, or turning the UN's "sausage" into hamburger.

Saddam is not in much better shape. If he comes clean about the size of his arsenal, he'll have UN inspectors crawling in and out of his bodily orifices. If he tries to fudge his figures, he's a cheat. At that point, the US need only "consult" with the Security Council before attacking. Bush to the Security Council - "A massive air strike is 10 minutes out of Iraqi airspace, thought you'd want to know".

Schadenfreude is such a delicious feeling. The opportunity to enjoy it at the expense of two of the biggest assholes on the planet makes it even more so.

2002-10-17T18:23:00.000-05:00

Iran may recognise the existence of Israel

khilafah.com has this story.

TEHRAN, 16 Oct. (IPS) In a dramatic U-turn that could have important implications for the whole of the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran indicated Wednesday that it might recognise the existence of the State of Israel.
***
Mr. Habibollah Asgaroladi, the leader of the powerful Islamic Coalition Society, Iran's oldest and most influential conservative party also opened a window, stating that talks with the United States were not "absolutely forbidden, neither is hostility towards the US a duty", he said, adding that Iran would negotiate with the US "if our national interests deem it necessary".

Isn't it amazing what a difference the prospect of a restless and disaffected population, plus the impending presence of 100,000 American troops on one's border can make. Even an Iranian mullah can read the writing on the wall, when it's this plain. If the American and British governments remain resolute in their determination to remove Saddam, we will have an opportunity to make tremendous strides toward a more open, tolerant, and peaceful Middle East.

No, the Iranian government has not suddenly had a change of heart where Israel and the United States are concerned, but that is the important thing about this statement. A government that despises the United States, and doesn't like Israel is suddenly interested in talking to us, and hinting at recognition of Israel. The Middle East is a region of the world where force is respected more that appeals to ethics or morality. Even the imminent threat of force to a hated neighbor has had a beneficial effect.

2002-10-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

Strain shows on Saudi

BBC News has this story.

These are not easy times for Saudi Arabia. Being the world's biggest oil producer and exporter is small comfort when you are faced with a soaring population, falling per-capita income, and creeping unemployment. And that was before 11 September 2001.
Since the attacks on America last autumn, Saudi Arabia's ruling princes have had to come to terms with some uncomfortable facts.
***
The strain on US-Saudi ties has been enormous, especially as it is coupled with deep differences over how to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli dispute.
***
So how has Saudi Arabia changed since 11 September? In several ways. Its people have grown further apart from America and the West for a start. Saudis used to like going to the US for business and to Florida for their holidays, but not any more.
***
Secondly, the Saudi authorities have become much more co-operative in tracking down al-Qaeda.
***
Washington is not getting everything it wants - the Saudis still insist on doing all the interrogations themselves.
***
Even if this is the last we hear of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, the country looks set to go through another difficult period when preparations begin for a US-led war on Iraq.

The Saudis have sown the wind, and they are reaping the whirlwind. For years they have encouraged their Wahabi nutsos to vent their hatred at the West, in general, and the US, in particular. We could afford to ignore the problem, prior to 9/11, but soon, there must, and will, be a reckoning.

The alliance between the US and the Kingdom is dead, and the House of Saud poisoned it. America no longer views the Saudis as allies, but as enemies. Once Iraq is is in the American camp, their position will be utterly untenable. With Iraq's oil fields back in production, oil prices will drop, squeezing the Saudis economically, and 100,000 or more American troops on their border will squeeze them militarily.

2002-10-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

30 pieces of silver

Steven Den Beste has this article.

With apologies to my Christian friends, think of it as the "30 pieces of silver" scenario. One of the serious problems with Donald's scenario is that the actual process of killing Saddam will be extremely difficult. Saddam trusts no one. Either someone would have to try to smuggle in a gun and kill him directly, and then hope that his bodyguard doesn't retaliate on the spot, or else it would be necessary to find a sufficient cadre of men to command and send in to defeat the bodyguard more or less as a military operation. That would be difficult because the kind of facility where Saddam is likely to be holed up will be specifically designed to easily defend against attack by light infantry. So even if members of the inner circle were willing to betray Saddam, they might not easily have the ability to kill him.
One of Saddam's personal defenses, as Donald points out, is that he'll try to be somewhere we don't suspect, and the possibility is that he's got a secret bunker, or ridiculous number of known ones. It occurred to me as I was reading that someone in his inner circle might proffer us a deal: he would tell us when Saddam had gone to ground, and tell us where Saddam was, and we'd hit the place with bunker busters and kill Saddam ourselves. In exchange, the traitor's own location would not be bombed, and after we'd won the traitor would be given amnesty, permitted to keep his Swiss bank account, and allowed to retire to wealthy and obscure exile.

Steven makes an interesting point. Saddam rules by fear, and that only works when your people are more afraid of you than they are of the enemy. That dynamic will soon change, as American forces tighten the noose. There will come a point when Saddam's key people know that this time, he's finished. When that happens, someone will drop a dime on him.

2002-10-17T01:05:00.000-05:00

Report Decries Saudi Laxity

The Washington Post has this story.

The Bush administration's efforts to cut off funds for international terrorism are destined to fail until it confronts Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have tolerated some of its wealthy citizens raising millions of dollars a year for al Qaeda, according to a new report from an influential foreign policy organization.
The report from the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, scheduled for release today, contends that the administration must pressure the Saudis—as well as other governments—to crack down on terror financing, even at the risk of sparking a public backlash that could jeopardize the Saudi government.
***
The report was especially harsh on the Bush administration's relationship with Saudi Arabia. The administration "appears to have made a policy decision not to use the full power of U.S. influence and legal authorities to pressure or compel other governments to combat terrorist financing more effectively."
***
The report acknowledged that criticizing Saudi Arabia publicly and demanding a crackdown on Islamic banks, charities and wealthy sponsors of al Qaeda could create a backlash that would jeopardize the survival of the Saudi government.

The report is correct, that we will never shut down Al-Qaeda's funding while the Saudis are willing to support them. But, I think we will be in a much better position to lean on the Saudis, once we have Saddam in the (body) bag. President Bush's patience with the Saudis is not infinite, and once Saddam is removed from power, and 100,000, or more, first-rate troops are settled in Iraq, the Saudis will be caught between Iraq and a wet place.

2002-10-16T23:44:00.000-05:00

European anti-Americanism reflects a deeper malaise

Historian Paul Johnson has this column in the Wall Street Journal.

We have to remember that twice in the 20th century, Europe came close to committing suicide by wars that in retrospect seem senseless. These were followed by a Cold War that imprisoned much of Europe in a cage of fear. In this process, Europe, a collection of vigorous peoples who pushed forward the frontiers of civilization for a thousand years and created the modern world, learned to opt for a safety-first existence in which comforts and short-term security became the object of policy. They sought a cozy Utopia, with risk and pain eliminated.
***
France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the big four of Continental Europe, did exceptionally well in the third and much of the final quarter of the 20th century, while the global economy was expanding steadily. But we are now discovering that Europe cannot cope with recession. In its quest for comfort and assurance, it has forgotten that capitalism is Janus-faced--it brings astonishing growth and prosperity but at the cost of periodic and often violent adjustments when sufferings must be borne and profited from in order for the advance to be resumed. Risk, ruthlessness and fortitude are inescapable requirements of successful capitalism. There is no such thing as "Safety First" in a dynamic market.
***
Against this background of nervous depression and debility, can anyone wonder that Europe's response to Mr. Bush's war on terrorism has been spitefully critical? It is worth recalling that the dispirited democratic societies of the 1930s were similarly reluctant to take arms against the growing dictators of the period. They behaved like ostriches, and the mentality prevails today in countries emotionally drained by lack of economic dynamism.
But Europe must realize it has much to lose. The destruction of the French supertanker off Yemen shows that France has as much to fear from large-scale terrorist acts as the U.S., probably more. Germany is a peculiarly vulnerable target with its lax security procedures. The armed forces of both are in a lamentable state. And the viciousness with which Mr. Bush has been attacked reflects their powerlessness.
It is no accident that Britain, which is semi-detached from the EU and whose economy is aligned more with the American than the European model, has been prepared to take the war on terrorism seriously. We in Britain have comparatively high growth, low unemployment, attract high investment and enjoy economic dynamism. Our armed forces, though small, are well-equipped, experienced and confident.
All these things go together. America can fight and master terrorism alone, if need be, but the support of Britain is important, materially and psychologically. As for the Continental European, we can only hope that they have lost their self-respect as great nations only temporarily.

Britain is one of the few nations on earth whose support, or opposition, means a damn to Americans. We may be a blending of many cultures, but Britain, more than any other, is our mother. The men who founded the United States were Englishmen long before they ever dreamed of independence. Much of what we are, as Americans, we owe to British tutelage.

As a nation, America is an adult, able to manage its affairs on its own. But that does not prevent us from appreciating the vigor of a parent who is willing, and still able, to lend a hand with difficult tasks. It would grieve America, should Britain ever lose the will, or the ability, to take a hand in the affairs of the world.

2002-10-16T23:11:00.000-05:00

Bush: Israel can respond to Iraq

BBC News has this story.

President George W Bush has said that he would expect Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to respond appropriately if Iraq launched a missile attack on his country.
"If Iraq attacks Israel tomorrow, I would assume the prime minister would respond ." - George W Bush
Mr Bush was speaking after a meeting with Mr Sharon at the White House, at which he had been expected to press for restraint from the Israeli leader.
***
Ahead of the talks, US officials were reported to have said that ground rules for Israeli behaviour and action if the US strikes Iraq were expected to be agreed.
Mr Sharon was expected to come under pressure to show restraint in dealing with the Palestinians and not retaliate if his country comes under Iraqi missile attack.

If we had any worthwhile Arab allies, it might be worth the effort to pressure Israel not to respond to an attack by Saddam. The Arab states are not going to give us any significant degree of cooperation, anyway, so why should we give a damn what they think about Israeli retaliation? If the Arab states want us to pressure Israel, they need to provide us with sufficient assistance and cooperation to make it a reasonably even trade-off.

2002-10-16T18:08:00.000-05:00

Britain modifying battle tanks for desert warfare, senior officer says

nj.com has this story.

LONDON (AP) -- Britain plans to modify more than 200 of its tanks for desert warfare, a senior defense officials said Wednesday -- raising speculation Britain will follow the United States into war against Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Rob Fulton, a senior equipment specialist at the Ministry of Defense, said plans were being considered for the limited modification of two armored brigades, a total of 234 tanks.
***
Fulton told lawmakers that proposed modifications to the tanks would include "skirts" to keep out the desert dust and improved oil and air filters as well as some changes to the tanks' engines.
During exercises in Oman last year, the army's Challenger 2 tanks lasted just four hours before their air filters became clogged by the fine desert dust. Almost half the tanks had broken down by the end of the exercise.

Aside from the obvious implication that a couple of British armored brigades are preparing to join us in Iraq, this story illustrates one of the West's advantages in dealing with the Muslims.

When Westerners encounter a problem, we set about diagnosing the problem, and fixing it. Muslims, on the other hand, tend to blame their failures on their own impiety. They are operating by divine decree, therefore their policies can't be wrong. Since criticizing policy is tantamount to criticizing God, policy mistakes and misjudgements are not questioned, or corrected. They assume that Allah has withheld His blessing because of impiety on their part.

In other words, when confronted by a problem, Westerners think harder, and Muslims pray harder. The history of the last 300-500 years suggests that thinking works better.

2002-10-15T22:59:00.000-05:00

US hawks target Middle East

BBC News has this story

Some of the president's most senior advisors believe that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein is just the first stage in a long-term vision of change for the Middle East.
***
"There's not a single democracy in the 22 nations of the Arab League," a senior administration official recently observed. "Why should that be the case?"
Democracy would reduce the frustration of ordinary Arabs, reduce their appetite for radical Islam, improve relations with the United States and add a new element to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
***
Once Saddam has gone, there would be less requirement for American troops in Saudi Arabia.
That would remove another major source of anti-Americanism, and undercut support for al-Qaeda.
***
This would reduce America's reliance on Saudi Arabia even further.
In fact, this administration has no qualms about upsetting the Saudis.
To the fury of the Saudi royal family, Saudi visitors to America are now routinely fingerprinted and searched.

This is exactly the sort of thing I've been talking about. The article barely touches on the benefits of removing Saddam, though. Removing Saddam and replacing his regime with a friendlier government would not merely allow us to remove our troops from Saudi Arabia. It would allow us to move them to where they could strike directly at our other enemies in the region. They would no longer be merely a defensive force, but would have the ability to take the fight to our enemies. Restoration of Iraq's oil fields to full production, would lower oil prices, which would deprive the Saudis of revenues that they currently spend to support terrorist groups.

2002-10-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

Sharp rise in favour of war on Iraq

Guardian Unlimited has this story.

There has been a spectacular surge in support among British voters for military action against Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the terror attack in Bali, according to the latest Guardian/ICM poll.
The survey, which was carried out on Monday, shows that support for a military attack on Iraq has risen 10 points in the last week from 32% to 42% of voters.
The ICM poll also shows that more voters agree with Tony Blair that it is necessary to fight on two fronts against both al-Qaida and Iraq. Only one in three voters agree that the United States and Britain "took their eye off the ball" by concentrating on Iraq.

The bastards sought to drive a wedge of fear between the English-speaking Peoples. They failed. They do not understand the depth of our friendships, the strength of the historical and cultural ties that bind us together. Through two world wars, the English-speaking Peoples stood together, and ultimately triumphed over their foes.

We are more than a mere alliance. We are a family. Though grieve over our losses, we will emerge from this terrible tragedy with a renewed determination to bring the murderers to justice. They will pay for their crimes, and so will any who aided them.

2002-10-15T13:36:00.000-05:00

Bolton says Iraq undergo "de-Nazification'

NJ.com has this story.

Alluding to what the United States and its allies did in Germany at the end of World War II, Bolton said he was prescribing a form of "de-Nazification" for post-war Iraq.
The targets besides Saddam, who other senior administration officials already have likened to Adolf Hitler, were Iraqis "who are fundamentally a part of Saddam's regime."
After World War II, the United States and its allies oversaw a major housecleaning of Germany's leadership. While Hitler disappeared and was presumed to have committed suicide, the allies prosecuted several of his top lieutenants as part of a process of converting a Nazi regime to a democratic one.

Absolutely! We need to remove, not just Saddam, but all of the Saddamites. Every last one, even if that means running the entire country with a military occupation government.

2002-10-15T11:35:00.000-05:00

Kingdom won’t help US in Iraq war: Sultan

ArabNews has this story.

“Saudi Arabia will not provide any assistance in any strikes against Iraq,” Prince Sultan said in comments published in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper.
“The Kingdom has a special status in the Arab and Muslim worlds, as it is home to the two holy mosques. It will not sacrifice this status for the sake of anyone,” the prince said.

After we settle accounts with Saddam, the House of Sods ought to move to the top of our list. They have supported our enemies both financially and diplomatically. They have done everything in their power to frustrate our efforts to destroy terrorist groups and their supporters. They have been useless, as allies.

Once Saddam is gone, there will be an opening for membership in the Axis of Evil. I hereby nominate Saudi Arabia for the position.

2002-10-14T22:42:00.000-05:00

U.S.-French Split on Iraq Deepens at the U.N

The NY Times has this story.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 14 — The impasse between the United States and France over military action in Iraq has deepened in recent days after an effort to reach a compromise stalled, with the French insisting that the Americans must come back to the United Nations Security Council before they can use force, diplomats said today.

France must be made to understand that Saddam is finished, period. The French need to understand that if they are not with us, they stand to lose their entire investment in Iraq. We will have no sympathy for those who have refused us their blessing. Note that I said blessing. We do not require France's permission to depose Saddam. Nor do we require France's blessing. We would prefer to have the blessing of France, and the UN, but not enough to jeopardize the survival of our cities.

France would prefer that we risk our cities, instead of their investments in Iraq. France must understand that America cares more for the survival of New York City than we care for the profits of TotalFinaElf. We will not be deterred from removing Saddam, and the only way they can save their investments, is to cooperate with us. If the French continue to oppose us, they should be cut completely out of the post-Saddam picture.

2002-10-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

An Australian View of Bali

Paul Wright, has this article on Australia's reaction to the Bali bombing.

Second Point: Australia is now irrevocably committed to the war on terrorism. It is as much our war as the USA’s, or anyone else’s. We have to accept the fact that there are people living close by who hate us and wish us dead, for the simple fact that we are not of their faith. There is nothing that secular, freedom-loving Australian can do, say or wish that will appease, pay off, divert, distract or in any way satisfy religious fanatics who are prepared to incinerate unidentified people to make a political point. Who will choose soft civilian targets over military options that are as readily presented, simply because it’s less risky to kill unarmed civilians. This is war to the death.

Muslims have got to be the dumbest fucks on the entire planet. Having spent the last 50 years trying to kill off 5 million Israeli Jews, with little or no success, they picked a fight with 250 million Americans. Not content with making the biggest strategic fuck-up in the history of mankind, they've just added 19 million Aussies to the list of their enemies. How do these dipshits even manage to feed themselves?

We didn't seek this war. We didn't start it. But, by God, we will finish it. The lunatic fringe of Islam commits mass murder, while the "silent majority" looks on with tacit approval. It is time that majority learned that silence equals consent. It is time that the Muslim world learned that their inaction has a cost, too. It is time we carried the war to the Muslims.

Iraq must not merely be defeated, it must be broken. We need to make an example of the most aggressive and powerful of the overtly anti-Western regimes. Saddam must be tried and punished for crimes against humanity. The Baathist elites in Iraq must be driven from power, and divested of their ill-gotten goods. A military government should be established, along the lines of what was done in Japan, after WWII.

2002-10-14T16:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome, Lucianne.com Readers!

A Lucianne.com reader quoted Cato's motto, in this discussion thread, and a number of the participants decided to drop by. Make yourselves at home, look around, come back anytime.

2002-10-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

Naif confirms Kingdom will fingerprint Americans

ArabNews has this story.

RIYADH, 14 October — Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday confirmed that the government plans to start fingerprinting Americans entering the Kingdom in a reciprocal measure.
“Our dealings (with other countries) will be reciprocal. We’ll deal with every country in the same way as they deal with us,” the prince told reporters who asked him about the measures taken in response to US travel restrictions on Saudis.

First of all, I want to say that any American who travels to Saudi Arabia for pleasure is a fool, any American who goes there to work is trafficing with the enemy, and any American who goes there out of sympathy for the Arab cause (terrorism) is a traitor. Therefore, I'm happy to see Saudi Arabia's government place as many restrictions on American workers and visitors as it can.

The other thing I want to say about this article, is that if America dealt with Saudi Arabia the way Saudis have dealt with America, the Grand Mosque would be a hole in the ground. Do not boast, Prince Naif, of how Saudi Arabia will treat other countries as she is treated. For one day, America may treat you as you have treated us. You won't like it, when we do.

2002-10-14T15:36:00.000-05:00

Iranian cleric denounces dog owners

BBC News has this story.

A conservative Iranian cleric has denounced the "moral depravity" of owning a dog, and called for the arrest of all dogs and their owners.
Dogs are considered unclean in Islamic law and the spread of dog ownership in Westernised secular circles in Iran is frowned upon by the religious establishment.

Owning a dog is "morally depraved", and blowing up "infidels" is not? Have you ever seen such a twisted perversion of a religion in your life? The association between man and dog has existed for thousands of years, to the benefit of both species. A religion that demands the severance of such a partnership, on the one hand, and celebrates the murder of innocents, on the other, is anti-life.

The one thing in the world that I have the least tolerance for, is intolerance. Muslims are the most intolerant people that I have ever seen, and I thank every god known to man, that I am not a Muslim.

2002-10-13T22:19:00.000-05:00

Bangladesh court sentences writer

BBC News has this story.

The Bangladeshi feminist writer, Taslima Nasreen, has been given a one-year prison sentence on a charge of writing derogatory comments about Islam in several of her books.
This is the first sentence against the writer who was forced to flee the country in 1994 after receiving death threats from Muslim extremists.
Taslima Nasreen's criticism of traditional Islamic values and customs angered many hard line Islamic groups in Bangladesh.
***
The case was filed by a hard line Islamic leader, Mohammad Dabiruddin, who heads a local religious school.
Mr Dabiruddin accused Taslima Nasreen of writing offensive comments about Islam - and magistrate Shah Alam found her guilty of hurting the sentiments of the Muslims.
***
The Bangladeshi Government has already banned three of her books - "Shame", "My Childhood", and "Wild Wind".
The government said the books might hurt the people's religious sentiments.

Book-burning, woman-hating hypocrites, who whine about their feelings being hurt, while they slaughter "infidel" civilians, and hide behind their own women and children. I'm so sick of Muslims, that I wish we could amend the Constitution, to permit Muslim-Americans to be stripped of their citizenship, and deported. They come to this country, enjoy its freedoms, both political and economic, yet cheer, when Americans are slaughtered by their Muslim "brothers". Their loyalty is not to America, it is to their twisted perversion of a religion. They are the most hateful people America has seen, since the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan.

Never in the history of the world, has there been a country where it was as easy for a foreigner to become a citizen. All America asks of a would-be citizen, is that he work to support himself and his family, pay his taxes, tolerate his neighbors, and defend America against its enemies. Muslim-Americans have defaulted on that bargain, and the rest of us owe them nothing but contempt.

2002-10-13T21:33:00.000-05:00

The Rottweiler Speaks

Misha has this to say about the Bali bombing, and President Bush's statement.

God Bless Australia and New Zealand.
(And, to put it very bluntly: You Islamofascist Pigfuckers went after our friends and I can personally guaranFUCKINGDAMNtee you that you're going to regret it. I can't WAIT to see the pictures of you assholes splattered all over the countryside! Shredded turbans and intestines draped over the branches of the trees... Make me SMILE, Fuckheads!)

I couldn't have put it better myself, Misha. We're going to hunt these bastards down, without remorse, and kill them, like the mad dogs they are. We're going to kill them, and we're going to kill anyone who stands in our way.

2002-10-13T02:32:00.000-05:00

Suicide bomber thwarted in Tel Aviv

BBC News has this story.

Sharp-eyed security guards near the US embassy in Tel Aviv have foiled a suicide bomb attack after a cafe guard spotted a would-be bomber and chased him away.
The incident occurred at the Hatayelet cafe about 20 metres from the embassy on the city's beachfront at 2100 (1900 GMT).
Shlomit Herzberg, chief spokeswoman for Tel Aviv police said a security guard stopped the man as he tried to enter the cafe.

Three cheers for the security guard who spotted the bomber, and the embassy guards who helped catch him! It takes a pair of large ones, to chase a guy carrying a bomb. Vigilance and valor - a combination that's tough to beat.

2002-10-13T02:13:00.000-05:00

Bombing at Resort in Indonesia Kills 150 and Hurts Scores More

The NY Times has this story.

A powerful car bomb detonated in front of a discothèque on the popular Indonesian resort island of Bali late last night, killing at least 150 people and wounding more than 200 others, Indonesian and Western officials said.
A hospital official in Bali said today that 75 percent of the dead were foreigners. It was one of the worst attacks on civilians in Southeast Asia in many years.
***
No group took responsibility for the attacks but suspicions immediately fell on a radical Islamic organization based in Indonesia, Jemaah Islamiyah. The group and its leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, have been linked to plots against Americans by an operative of Al Qaeda who was seized in Indonesia and turned over to the Central Intelligence Agency several months ago.

The Indonesian government has been reluctant to admit it has a terrorist problem. Perhaps they will take terrorism seriously, now. If they don't, they can kiss their tourism industry goodbye.

2002-10-12T23:08:00.000-05:00

Rumsfeld Orders War Plans Redone for Faster Action

The NY Times has this story.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that he had ordered the military's regional commanders to rewrite all of their war plans to capitalize on precision weapons, better intelligence and speedier deployment. That way, he said, the military could begin combat operations on less notice and with far fewer troops than thought possible — or even wise — before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The approach, driven by the defense secretary and his ranking military advisers, is already shaping the work of Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the United States Central Command, in his planning for a possible war against Iraq, senior Defense Department officials said.
***
Through a combination of pre-deployments, faster cargo ships and a larger fleet of transport aircraft, the military would be able to deliver "fewer troops but in a faster time that would allow you to have concentrated power that would have the same effect as waiting longer with what a bigger force might have," General Pace said.
In a new wave of such pre-deployments to the Iraqi front, Pentagon officials said on Friday that planning staffs from the headquarters of the Army's V Corps, based at Heidelberg, Germany, and from the First Marine Expeditionary Force, from Camp Pendleton, Calif., have been ordered to Kuwait.

V Corps has these units currently attached to it. Presumably, 13th Panzer Division would not go along, but that still leaves 1st Infantry Division, 1st Armored Division, and several brigade-strength specialty units.

First Marine Expeditionary Force has 1st Marine Division, a Marine Aircraft Wing, and support units.

With enough air support, three divisions, plus corps assets, are probably enough to do the job. I wouldn't be surprised if at least some elements of the 101st Air Assault Division find their way to Iraq, too.

2002-10-12T22:05:00.000-05:00

Iraqis to attend British arms demo

The Guardian Observer has this story.

A British Minister will lead a major sales drive by UK weapons and military technology firms at an exhibition attended by high-ranking Iraqi military officials this week.
The news has sparked outrage among arms control campaigners and groups opposed to military action against Iraq. 'It is absurd that we are gearing up to fight a war against these people and simultaneously rubbing shoulders with them at an arms bazaar,' said Martin Hogbin of the Campaign Against Arms Trade.

Let'em look. It'll be the last chance they have to get a good look at what's coming for them.

UPDATE: His Most Rottweilerian Majesty, Misha I, has a few choice comments on this story, too.

2002-10-12T13:35:00.000-05:00

Why the Euros Support Saddam

Steven Den Beste has this take on Saddam's last-minute trade deals.

The entire article seems to assume that either Saddam wins, or the Iraqi expatriates do. It discounts the third possibility: that Iraq is run by an American military government for five to ten years before any new Iraqi government is established. In that case, all these European countries will be dealing not with junior bureaucrats left over from the previous regime, but with the staff of someone like General Franks (who may be that governor), who would clearly have not even the faintest interest in maintaining continuity with the policies and agreements established by Saddam.

I think that if France and Russia don't get with the program, they're out. And they should be out. If you go to the track and bet on the wrong horse, you lose your money. Betting on Saddam's survival now, is a sucker bet, and no one, who makes such a bet, should bitch when he loses his money.

I hope the US does set up, and keep, a military occupation government in Iraq long enough to clean out all of the Baathists. It would be foolish to leave any traces of the old regime intact. After WWII, we cleaned out the German and Japanese governments, and it turned out to be a good policy.

2002-10-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

A World Without Borders

Sgt. Stryker has this article on why Borders is better than Barnes & Noble (link via Bargarz).

My biggest gripe is reserved for the customer assistance. At Borders, I could walk right up to a computer terminal, punch in my search requirements, and get all the information I wanted. If I didn't have anything specific in mind, I could just type in a general keyword and see what came up as I scrolled through the search results. I could be in, on the computer, getting my book and out of the store in 12-15 minutes.

Amen, Sarge.

2002-10-12T09:41:00.000-05:00

Iran leadership representative issues call to kill three US ministers

ABC News has this story.

The three are Jerry Falwell, who has called the prophet Mohammed "a terrorist"; Pat Roberston, who claims Islam is a religion of violence seeking to "dominate and destroy"; and Franklin Graham, the son of televangelist Billy Graham, who says Islam is "a very evil and wicked religion".

So when do I get on the list? I called Mo a perv in this post, and I called Islam a religion of, and for, pedophiles in this post. Let me add, that if they didn't dish out punishments like this, the Ummah would all be camel-fuckers, too.

2002-10-11T23:58:00.000-05:00

The Flying Iron Fisk

Salon has this speech from the House debate on the Iraq resolution. Rep. Pete Stark (Dumbass, CA) shows why he should be named Starkers. This one's bad, folks, and once again, Cato must summon the power of the Iron Fisk Technique.

<bad martial arts movie dubbing>
Pete Stark! You have o-fend-ed United States. You have o-fend-ed President Bush. You have o-fend-ed Cato. (not to be confused with Kato). Now you feel Cato's Iron Fisk Technique.
</bad martial arts movie dubbing>

Oct. 10, 2002 | "Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution (authorizing military force against Iraq). I am deeply troubled that lives may be lost without a meaningful attempt to bring Iraq into compliance with U.N. resolutions through careful and cautious diplomacy.

We've been trying careful and cautious diplomacy for the last ten years. That's the reason we're in this trouble. No administration, Republican or Democrat has had the balls to call ~~Gaddam~~ Saddam to account, until now.

The bottom line is I don't trust this president and his advisors.

No, you'd rather trust ~~Gaddam~~ Saddam Hussein, a man who murders his political opponents, has invaded two of his neighbors, used poison gas on his own people, and only needs a sufficient quantity of weapons-grade fissionables, to produce an atomic bomb.

Make no mistake, we are voting on a resolution that grants total authority to the president, who wants to invade a sovereign nation without any specific act of provocation. This would authorize the United States to act as the aggressor for the first time in our history. It sets a precedent for our nation -- or any nation -- to exercise brute force anywhere in the world without regard to international law or international consensus.

Iraq is not a soverign nation, Iraq is an outlaw nation. Iraq, under ~~Gaddam~~ Saddam, has violated practically every international law there is. It has invaded two of its neighbors, gassed its own people, violated the peace agreements signed after the Gulf War, violated at least 16 UN Security Council resolutions, and you talk about international law protecting Iraq? Bwahahahahaha!

Congress must not walk in lockstep behind a president who has been so callous to proceed without reservation, as if war was of no real consequence.

Proceding without reservation, to remove a threat to the security of the United States, is part of a president's job, you obstipated, oxygen-deprived, son of an incontinent camel.

You know, three years ago in December, Molly Ivins, an observer of Texas politics, wrote: "For an upper-class white boy, Bush comes on way too hard. At a guess, to make up for being an upper-class white boy."

That does it! I'm invoking Cato's Law. Nobody, but an absolute, unmitigated half-wit, would quote Molly Ivins for any purpose, other than to ridicule her.

"Somebody," she said, "should be worrying about how all this could affect his handling of future encounters with some Saddam Hussein." How prophetic, Ms. Ivins.

What somebody should be worrying about, is how a nano-brained fuckwit like you, got elected to Congress.

Let us not forget that our president -- our commander in chief -- has no experience with, or knowledge of, war. In fact, he admits that he was at best ambivalent about the Vietnam War. He skirted his own military service and then failed to serve out his time in the National Guard. And, he reported years later that at the height of that conflict in 1968 he didn't notice 'any heavy stuff going on.

If you weren't such an ignoramus, you might know that several of our best wartime presidents never served in the military. Abraham Lincoln comes immediately to mind. FDR never served in the military, either. Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, served in the Navy, and was a disaster, where military matters were concerned. Prior military service is no guarantee of good performance as a commander-in-chief.

So we have a president who thinks foreign territory is the opponent's dugout and Kashmir is a sweater.

And we have a Congressman who thinks that a murderer and a war criminal is more trustworthy than his own president.

What is most unconscionable is that there is not a shred of evidence to justify the certain loss of life. Do the generalized threats and half-truths of this administration give any one of us in Congress the confidence to tell a mother or father or family that the loss of their child or loved one was in the name of a just cause?

The reason that there is not more definite proof of ~~Gaddam's~~ Saddam's weapons programs, is that he has defied the Security Council resolutions and the peace agreements he signed, requiring inspections of his suspected weapons facilities. What would you accept as proof that he has an atomic bomb? A mushroom cloud over Manhattan?

Is the president's need for revenge for the threat once posed to his father enough to justify the death of any American?

Attempted assassination of a head of state is an act of war. WWI was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

I submit the answer to these questions is no.

Then submit your answer again, dickwad. You're gonna do it until you get it right.

Aside from the wisdom of going to war as Bush wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination. The administration admits to a cost of around $200 billion!

And how many trillions of dollars would it cost to rebuild Manhattan? Never mind the loss of millions of lives. Never mind the loss of priceless works of art and national icons. Never mind the disruption of the nation's economy. I call $200 billion a bargain, compared to the cost of rebuilding New York City.

Now, wealthy individuals won't pay. They've got big tax cuts already. Corporations won't pay. They'll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the Republicans. Rich kids won't pay. Their daddies will get them deferments as Big George did for George W.

What deferments? We haven't had a draft since the 1970s. This is the problem with Democrats, they can't get their minds off the '60s, or their heads out of their asses.

Well then, who will pay?

The same people who will pay, if we have to rebuild New York City. Only they'll pay less, this way.

School kids will pay. There'll be no money to keep them from being left behind -- way behind. Seniors will pay. They'll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war. Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won't be any money for a drug benefit because Bush will spend it all on the war.

There'll be a hell of a lot less money, for those things, if we let ~~Gaddam~~ Saddam blow up New York.

Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights. Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality. And the entire nation will pay as Bush continues to destroy civil rights, women's rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.

If we do things your way, the working folks won't have jobs, because if you think the 9/11 attacks screwed up the economy, wait 'till you see what nuking New York does to the economy. If you think fighting Saddam will hurt water quality, think about what nuclear fallout will do to the water quality. And if you think that there is a civil right for foreigners to come to this country and commit mass murder, without being subjected to official scrutiny, you must have stuck your head so far up your ass, that it cut off the oxygen supply to your brain.

The questions before the members of this House and to all Americans are immense, but there are clear answers. America is not currently confronted by a genuine, proven, imminent threat from Iraq. The call for war is wrong.

Waiting for ~~Gaddam~~ Saddam to develop a nuclear arsenal, before we act against him, is utterly irresponsible. You should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting it. Oops, I forgot, you're a Dim-ocrat, and therefore incapable of feeling shame.

And what greatly saddens me at this point in our history is my fear that this entire spectacle has not been planned for the well-being of the world, but for the short-term political interest of our president.

I'm not suprised that a Dim-ocrat would say something like that. Dim-ocrats have proven time and time again, that they are incapable of acting in anything but their own short-term political interest.

"Now, I am also greatly disturbed that many Democratic leaders have also put political calculation ahead of the president's accountability to truth and reason by supporting this resolution. But, I conclude that the only answer is to vote no on the resolution before us."

Like I was saying, they know they'll get killed in the elections, if they don't go along with the president. Fortunately for the country, the president is right.

UPDATE: Richard Bennett is giving Starkers hell, too (link via Instapundit).

2002-10-11T21:35:00.000-05:00

TNT found in stricken Yemen tanker

BBC News has this story.

French investigators have found traces of TNT explosives on the Limburg oil tanker, providing the strongest evidence yet that Sunday's explosion was due to a terrorist attack.
***
Earlier on Friday, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced that "parts of a small boat and traces of TNT were found inside the tanker."
The findings backed up an earlier discovery of fragments from a small marine vessel on the deck of the Limburg.

Even the Yemeni government is conceding that the explosion was the result of an attack. Perhaps this will convince the French government that the Arabs cannot be appeased, and that military action in the region is necessary.

2002-10-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

The Real Reason Democrats Voted Yes

American RealPolitik has the answer with this Chip Bok cartoon.

2002-10-11T13:08:00.000-05:00

Redrawing the Map of the Middle East

VodkaPundit has redrawn the map of the Middle East. Take a look, and see if you can guess what I'd change. I left the answer in the comments thread.

2002-10-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

As If There Were Any Doubt

Andrea Harris, at Spleenville had this link to the Inner Feline Test. My result is below:

For you, simplicity is the name of the game -
even your fur is uncomplicated. You're always looking for
an opportunity to relax, and you shy away from anything
that seems to be more than you can handle. Still, you can
really do whatever you want... After all, you're a lion!

2002-10-11T02:25:00.000-05:00

Senate Approves Iraq Resolution

FOXNews has this story. The Senate voted Friday to authorize President Bush to use military force, if necessary, to disarm Iraq by 77-23 in a roll call vote.

On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to pass the resolution and a "no" vote was a vote to defeat it.
Voting "yes" were 29 Democrats and 48 Republicans.
Voting "no" were 21 Democrats, one Republican and one independent
***
Democrats No
Akaka, Hawaii; Bingaman, N.M.; Boxer, Calif; Byrd, W.Va.; Conrad, N.D.; Corzine, N.J.; Dayton, Minn.; Durbin, Ill.; Feingold, Wis; Graham, Fla.; Inouye, Hawaii; Kennedy, Mass.; Leahy, Vt.; Levin, Mich.; Mikulski, Md.; Murray, Wash.; Reed, R.I.; Sarbanes, Md.; Stabenow, Mich.; Wellstone, Minn.; Wyden, Ore.
***
Republicans No
Chafee, R.I.;
Others No
Jeffords, Vt.

All other members voted yes. This vote, combined with the House vote, gives the president the stick he needs to beat the UN Security Council into line. Saddam, the writing is on the wall, and it reads, "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN."

UPDATE: Patio Pundit has a full, detailed breakdown of the vote.

2002-10-10T19:39:00.000-05:00

Seven-way Fisking

MEMRI has this collection of Arab commentary on National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. These assholes are bad, folks. So bad, that Cato will summon the powers of his Iron Fisk Technique to destroy, not one dipshit, but seven at a time.

<bad martial arts movie dubbing>
Ramadan Abd Al-Qader, Hani Zaid, Dr. Muhammad Bassam Yusuf, Al-Dustour, Dalal al Bizri, Batir Muhammad Ali Wardam, and Al-Thawra! You have o-fend-ed United States. You have o-fend-ed Condoleezza Rice. You have o-fend-ed Cato. (not to be confused with Kato). Now you all feel Cato's Iron Fisk Technique.
</bad martial arts movie dubbing>

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, National Security Advisor to President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, stated that the United States wishes to bring democracy and freedom to the Arab world. In response, a number of Arab newspapers harshly criticized National Security Advisor Rice, often focusing on her African-American heritage. The following are excerpts from such articles:
Egyptian Perspectives
In the government-controlled newspaper The Egyptian Gazette, columnist Ramadan Abd Al-Qader wrote on October 10, 2002, that National Security Advisor Rice's article "smacks of such patronizing arrogance that it has entrenched belief among many Muslims that they are the target of a latter-day Crusade.

Crusade? Bwahahahaha! The term,"Crusade", implies a great effort, an undertaking that requires the mobilization of the entire population. Just where the fuck did you get the absurd idea that it would take a Crusade to kick your sorry, worthless asses from one end of the planet to the other?

Authorities at U.S. airports have recently taken security measures, which reportedly involve racial profiling. Media reports said that Muslim [passengers] would undergo extra checks, including finger-printing and giving accounts of relatives. If true, these steps must be the product of a twisted perception in the U.S. that Muslims are synonymous [with] terrorists.

Perception that Muslims are synonymous with terrorists? Where would we get a silly idea like that? Could it be that the 9/11 attacks, the USS Cole bombing, the Khobar Towers bombing, and practically every other major terrorist attack on US citizens or property in the last ten years have been carried out by Muslims? It hasn't been Swedish Lutherans, Indian Hindus, or Chinese Buddists that have been murdering Americans. It's been Arab Muslims, you dumbass.

The U.S. needs to do far more than launch broadcasts for a Muslim audience if it were really interested in repairing its image in this part of the world and showing that its anti-terror drive is geared against all terrorists, regardless of their religious background."

Don't worry, we're going to launch more than broadcasts at Muslims. We'll be launching some AGM-86C/D cruise missiles at Muslims, and some JDAMs and JSOWs, too. Be careful what you ask for.

In the Egyptian opposition weekly Al-Usbu', National Security Advisor Rice is the subject of a vicious attack by the columnist, Hani Zaid, who wrote under the title: "Condoleezza Rice—National Security Advisor in the rank of a little prostitute":(3) "Ms. Rice persists in treating the Arabs as the masters treated the slaves or the students who have not reached the age of maturity in one of the American schools...

I haven't heard of Condi taking a whip to any Arabs, even though some of you have been ve-ry baaad. If you don't like being treated like children, stop acting like children.

Rice talks about teaching us democracy and freedom. She ignores the racism which prevailed when she was a child in Alabama where she attended segregated schools for blacks because she was a black Negro from African origins. She passed her holidays in parks specifically designated for blacks, and she was not allowed to enter restaurants for white people only. When she was 9, she participated in the funerals of four of her Negro friends who were murdered in a racist attack at a Baptist church in Westminster. She has forgotten all of this.

I doubt very much that she's forgotten any of those things. It takes a pretty God-damnned thick crust for a Muslim to condemn Americans as bigoted church bombers when your Muslim brothers do things like this - or this.

What she remembers is the study of Zionism in the hands of Joseph Corwell,(4) the father of Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, in the faculty for political science at Stanford (sic) (5)... All there is for me to say to this lady and to her administration...[is] we do not need lessons from anybody."

You sure as Hell need something you ain't got, 'cause you're about to get something you don't want.

A Syrian Perspective
Writing for the Internet site "Akhbar Al-Sharq,"(6) which is the mouthpiece of the Syrian opposition, Dr. Muhammad Bassam Yusuf, a Syrian author living in exile, attacked American preparations for a military campaign in Iraq and referred to the African-American background of National Security Advisor Rice: "Perhaps the black Condoleezza Rice, the American security advisor, has forgotten her African origins and why she was in America and not in Africa, her original homeland. She has to be reminded that she is a descendant from African slaves and that the Americans enslaved millions of them and led them to America in chains from their homeland in Africa. [The Americans] killed millions of them as they killed millions of Indians, the true owners of the American land."

I don't think she's forgotton that her ancestors included slaves, and I don't think she's forgotton who enslaved them. A Muslim lecturing anyone of Black African descent on the evils of slavery is like Adolph Eichmann lecturing Jews on the evils of antisemitism.

Jordanian Perspectives
The Jordanian daily Al-Dustour(7) wrote that National Security Advisor Rice claims that "'the United States wants to be a liberating force, and dedicate itself to liberating the Islamic world, starting with Iraq, and to establish democracy and freedom.' She is ignoring more than one and a half billion Muslims who suffer from America's greed and oppression and from its cruel and visible war against Islam and Muslims."

If you think you've got a war with America now, you not only don't have a clue, you couldn't find a clue if someone stuck it up your constipated ass, with six inches left sticking out. To paraphrase John Paul Jones, we have not yet begun to fight.

"It is a war that has many features—cultural, ideological, political and economic. It [America] slaughtered Muslim children, women and men and stole their natural resources;

Stole their natural resources? If it were not for Western investment in the Arabs' oil fields, there would be no oil fields. We brought the Arabs wealth, we brought them improved medical care, we took them into our schools and let them study whatever they liked. And Arabs repaid us by nationalizing our oil companies' investments. They repaid us by murdering American soldiers sent to Arabia to protect them. They repaid us by destroying the World Trade Center in New York City.

its ships have occupied their territorial waters;

Our ships have respected the internationally-recognized territorial limit of 12 miles, but we have never accepted the claims by some regimes of 200-mile territorial limits. We have resisted such claims, regardless of who made them.

it has acted against them with racism and terror; it has frozen their money

We have asked banks to freeze the accounts of those who use charities as fronts for groups who murder the innocent. Murders must, and should, be stripped of the means to commit more murders.

and has provoked the Zionist crusaders to attack the religion of Islam and its morals and values, its holy Koran and its messenger [Prophet Muhammad].

Your precious prophet, Mohammed, was a pervert, who lusted after 5-year-old girls, and married 9-year-old ones. His followers murder their enemies' civilians, and hide behind their own.

[America] has pressured the regimes allied with her in the Muslim countries to prosecute the Islamic movements, the religious thinkers and the young Muslim men in the name of war on terrorism."

We have asked our "friends" in the Arab world to act against those who preach hatred and violence. We do not tolerate religious violence in our own country, why shouldn't we expect our "friends" to do likewise?

"Will America free the Muslim world [to act] in the manner in which its ally, the criminal and blood thirsty Ariel Sharon does... conducting all kinds of murderous acts in one of the purest and holiest lands of Islam...?"

We're not going to "free" you to commit more of the vicious murders you seem to delight in. We're going to stop you from slaughtering civilians. We may have failed to teach you that slaughtering civilians is immoral, and we may have failed to teach you that slaughtering civilians is counterproductive, but we may yet be able to teach you that slaughtering our civilians is suicidal.

"The Black Rice"
"Will the black Rice free our Muslim world by the same method that Americans have used against Muslim prisoners in the Giangi fort in Afghanistan?! Or the method [America] used in Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Algeria and other Muslim states where it has killed millions, expelled and tortured many and violated their fundamental human rights!!"

Girls in Afghanistan now go to school, and music is heard in the streets of Kabul. A new government has been elected, and it is working, with our help, to bring peace, stability, and prosperity to the people. Whatever methods we may have used, Afghanistan is freer now than it has been in the last 20 years.

"Will the black Condoleezza free our Islamic homeland with destructive calls for moral degradation through drugs, sex, AIDS and crime which have spread all across the great America?! Or through the destruction of peaceful homes, the uprooting of stones and trees and the destruction of agriculture as it has done in Muslim Afghanistan. Not a single mosque, mud house, village or city, not a clinic or institution, child, woman or old man, was saved from America's crimes?! Or by the erection of Buddha statues in every city and village in that large Muslim country?"

I don't think I've ever heard Condi Rice advocate taking drugs or getting AIDS, or committing crimes, for that matter. You must have her mixed up with Dr. Joycelyn Elders (I guess all Black people look alike, to you). If Muslim soldiers had not hidden behind the civilians they were supposed to be defending, practically all of the civilian casualties and property loss would have been avoided. It is not America's fault that Muslim soldiers are cowards who hide behind women and children because they don't have the balls to come out and fight.

"O Muslims, here is America invading you with its steel, its fire and its oppression. Its bloodthirsty individuals, the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Sharon, are carrying to you death, destruction, devastation, enslavement and evil which will start in Iraq after they have suppressed Afghanistan and Palestine, and will end, if we do not protect ourselves, in the last piece of land in our extended Muslim world which will be converted into a gigantic Guantanamo extending from one ocean to another."

By the time we get through with you, the "gigantic Guantanamo" won't extend from one ocean to another. There won't be enough of you left, for that. You Muslims came to America looking for a fight, and. by God, you're going to get one. You have pissed off the Great Satan, and you're about to catch Hell. You think it takes balls to fly an airliner into a building? The Japanese kamikaze pilots flew their planes into naval ships that could shoot back. We still kicked their asses, and we'll kick yours, too. Muslims are the most vile, gutless, and inept bastards that God ever put on the face of the Earth. They murder women and children, and hide behind women and children. And then they call us bloodthirsty.

"Will you Muslims be the great and free nation; the best nation ever created for humanity [a reference to a Koranic verse] or [let] the barbarian cowboys kidnap you? It is your opportunity to teach the arrogant rowdies the clear Islamic lesson through Jihad and the defense of faith, religion, holy places, the land, the honor and the homeland!"

From the Austrians' successful defense of Vienna, to the present, no Muslim army has won any significant battle on Western soil, and damnned few battles on their own. The last time a Muslim army won a significant battle against a Western Army (the Soviet Union was not a Western nation) was the Siege of Khartoum, over a hundred years ago. Since that time, the West has gotten stronger, and the Muslims have gotten weaker. But if you think you're tough enough, step out from behind your women and children.

"Have You Not Been Taught by Your Cowboy Masters"
"As for you, black Condoleezza Rice, swallow your tongue, remember your origins and stop talking about liberation and freedom. Have you not been taught by your cowboy masters that 'slaves' cannot liberate themselves, that they are not capable to capture the large Islamic world whose cultural roots are planted in the depths of history The slaves who are happy with their enslavement, O Condoleezza, will continue to be enslaved. They will never be free and will never free others."

This sort of bigoted horseshit is a major reason why none of the rest of the world can stand Muslims. Muslims have shown themselves time and time again to be the most vile, ignorant, and hateful people on the face of the Earth. The only good thing that can be said about Muslims is that they are as incompetent as they are hateful.

Writing a week later in the same newspaper, Batir Muhammad Ali Wardam(8) stated that no one could imagine that "the beautiful Condoleezza Rice, the Security Advisor to the administration of George Bush the son—may Allah not show us his grandson afterwards—wants to liberate the Islamic world...on the wings of American bombers."

Worry less about President Bush's grandchildren, and more about your own.

Columnist in the London Arabic Daily: "Ayatollah Condoleezza"
Dalal al Bizri, a columnist for the London-daily Al-Hayat, wrote under the title: "Ayotollah Condoleezza and the export of democracy."(9)
"The language applied recently by Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor, to Iraq, reminds one of the Mullahs who called for the export of the Islamic revolution to all corners of the world. The American democracy as revealed in the preaching of Condoleezza Rice raises the question of relativity..."

The difference is that the only liberty the Mullahs offered was the liberty to do whatever the hell the Mullahs ordered. By contrast, people in liberated Afghanistan do pretty much as they please, so long as they do not harm others.

"Democracy is an idea for the road to power which is today the most powerful for peoples and their cultures, and nothing else... It is the ideology of the greatest power on earth, and as we have learned from history it is the most enthusiastic country [seeking] to control the less strong and the less important of nations..."

How do you think we got to be the most powerful nation on earth, dickwad? Throughout history, armies of democracies have routinely devastated their tyrannical enemies. Free men fight more fiercely, for they have more to lose. Free societies are able to freely examine the causes of their defeats, and learn from them. Free societies are prosperous, and prosperous societies can afford large, well-trained, and well-equipped armies. Free societies are more creative, and develop new and better weapons and tactics.

An Iraqi government Daily: "The Cursed Rice"
Finally, an editorial titled "American Values and (Rice the Liberator)" in the mouthpiece of the Iraqi regime, Al-Thawra,(10) responded to National Security Advisor Rice's interview. "What does Rice know about the true Islamic religion that she can arrogate to herself the right to attack its principles and change its values and foundations! Does she believe that the Muslims, who carried the banner of religion and light to the nations of the world, will forsake their beliefs, their symbols and their history for the sake of the so-called American values or under American missiles and weapons of destruction?"

Americans don't give a half-cup of runny shit what Muslims believe. What pisses us off, is what they do. And what they do, is murder innocent people. What they do, is develop hellish weapons to allow them murder even more innocent people.

"About which values is Rice talking? Those before September 11, or after September 11? If she is referring to the previous date, would American crimes in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile, Yugoslavia, Palestine and Iraq enter these values?"

William T. Sherman, an American general, said that "war is Hell". That's an American value that we've taught the world for more than a century. Here's another American value for you: Life is tough - life is tougher, when you're stupid. Starting a war with America, which is what the Muslims did, on 9/11, is about as stupid as it gets.

The editorial concludes: "The cursed Rice and the members of her administration should think a thousand times before uttering their empty words and old clichés about values of democracy and liberation because their nations are more in need of these than any other nation on earth. The Muslims will not be tightfisted in teaching them those principles which characterize the great religion of Islam and its honorable history."

The only thing Muslims can teach Americans, is gratitude that we are not Muslims. No religion or political idology has Islam's long history of unmitigated stagnation. Islam's insistance that Muslims must do nothing but submit to the will of Allah has made it impossible for the Ummah to compete with the rest of the world.

UPDATE: Lynn Sislo (Poet and Peasant) has linked to this post. Welcome, Poet and Peasant readers. Make yourselves at home, kick the tires, leave a comment. And come back again, soon.

UPDATE: Bargarz has linked to this article. Welcome, Bargarz readers. Bargarz has an interesting post on chain bookstores in Australia, with a link to a Sgt. Stryker post on why Borders is better than Barnes & Noble.

2002-10-10T14:25:00.000-05:00

House Resolution Authorizes Use of Force Against Iraq

The NY Times has this story (link via Instapundit).

The House on Thursday authorized war-making powers for President Bush, giving him the extra muscle he needs is his determination to free America and the world from what he says is the growing threat of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The 296-133 vote was a solid endorsement of Bush's insistence that he will work with the United Nations if possible, or alone if necessary, to disarm Saddam of his weapons of mass destruction.

Halfway there. According to the story, the Senate was going to vote down a measure intended to delay its vote on the Iraq resolution. Soon, the president should have the club he needs to beat some sense into the UN.

2002-10-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

The Only Thing to Fear Is Failure Itself

VodkaPundit has this article (link via Big S Blog).

Be afraid of George W. Bush if you must. But your real fear should be your neighbors, if Bush fails us in this Terror War. We’re just one more attack away from trading a lot of freedom for a little security – and getting the neither that we deserve.
***
Most civil libertarians fear what will happen to us if we attack Saddam. I fear what will happen if we don’t.

I'm sorry to say that I have to agree with Stephen. If we do not police the Middle East, we will end up with a police state at home. I recently wrote that responsibility is the price of greatness. Responsibility is also the price of freedom.

2002-10-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

The Price of Greatness Is Responsibility

I was trying to locate a Winston Churchill quote, the one that goes "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never give in", when I ran across a speech he gave at Harvard, in 1943.

Twice in my lifetime the long arm of destiny has reached across the oceans and involved the entire life and manhood of the United States in a deadly struggle.
There was no use in saying "We don't want it; we won’t have it; our forebears left Europe to avoid these quarrels; we have founded a new world which has no contact with the old. "There was no use in that. The long arm reaches out remorselessly, and every one's existence, environment, and outlook undergo a swift and irresistible change. What is the explanation, Mr. President, of these strange facts, and what are the deep laws to which they respond? I will offer you one explanation - there are others, but one will suffice.
The price of greatness is responsibility. If the people of the United States had continued in a mediocre station, struggling with the wilderness, absorbed in their own affairs, and a factor of no consequence in the movement of the world, they might have remained forgotten and undisturbed beyond their protecting oceans: but one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilised world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes.
If this has been proved in the past, as it has been, it will become indisputable in the future. The people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility. Although we live in a period so tumultuous that little can be predicted, we may be quite sure that this process will be intensified with every forward step the United States make in wealth and in power. Not only are the responsibilities of this great Republic growing, but the world over which they range is itself contracting in relation to our powers of locomotion at a positively alarming rate.
***
We do not war primarily with races as such. Tyranny is our foe, whatever trappings or disguise it wears, whatever language it speaks, be it external or internal, we must forever be on our guard, ever mobilised, ever vigilant, always ready to spring at its throat. In all this, we march together. Not only do we march and strive shoulder to shoulder at this moment under the fire of the enemy on the fields of war or in the air, but also in those realms of thought which are consecrated to the rights and the dignity of man.

It never ceases to amaze me how marvelously the words of a gifted leader, spoken in times of crisis, retain their relevance, even decades after their author's death. There are those who say we must not act alone. They say that we must have the blessing of the UN before we act. They are wrong. They do not understand that the price of greatness is responsibility.

America has achieved a greatness unmatched in recorded history. Never in all of history has there been a nation so wealthy, so powerful, so loved, so hated, so feared, and so sought after. But with that power comes a price - responsibility. Responsibility to aid those who cannot defend themselves against tyranny. Responsibility to spread civilization's values - tolerance, equal justice under law, individual liberty. Responsibility to protect and defend the civilization we have built. These responsibilities are not ours by grant of the UN, they are ours by grant of nature and of God. These responsibilities are not ours by grant of the UN, and we cannot give them up to the UN.

America stands at a crossroads. We can gird ourselves, take the fight to the enemy and destroy his ability to threaten our lives and our loved ones. Or we can cower behind the flimsy shield of unenforced and unenforcable UN resolutions. One path leads to immediate pain, with the hope of victory. The other path is easier now, but leads inevitably to destruction.

The price of greatness is responsibility. Those who would enjoy the benefits of civilization must be willing to do their part to defend it. America will lead, in this struggle. We will stand alone, if we must. If tiny Britain could stand alone against Hitler's might, America can, by damn, stand alone against a mob of sorry-assed barbarians who murder their enemies' civilians and hide behind their own.

2002-10-09T17:49:00.000-05:00

Speech Had Big Audience Despite Networks' Action

The NY Times has this story.

Still, people were interested enough to seek the speech out on cable in above-average numbers. The Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC were watched by average audiences of 4.5 million, 2.6 million and 1.2 million people, respectively, during the speech. Those networks had average audiences last month of 2 million, 765,000 and 452,000 people on Mondays between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Nearly 8.5 million people watched the speech on the Fox broadcast network.
The address handily beat its direct competition on the other broadcast networks. "The Drew Carey Show" was watched by 4.5 million people on ABC; "King of Queens" was watched by 11.7 million people on CBS; "Fear Factor" was watched by 12.2 million people on NBC.

The most charitable explanation for the broadcast networks' refusal to cover the president's speech is that they thought no one would be interested in watching. The less charitable explanation is that they wanted to keep Americans from hearing what President Bush had to say. Whichever motive was the true one, the networks screwed up, big time.

2002-10-09T15:31:00.000-05:00

Tories back Blair on Iraq

BBC News has this story.

Tony Blair's stance on Iraq will be backed by the Tories while it remains in the national interest, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram has said.
He said the UK must act within international law under a time-limited United Nations resolution that left Saddam in "no doubt" about the consequences of failing to comply.

Allies as steadfast and dependable as the British have been are a treasure. Their strength may not be as great as it was in times past, but the strength they have can usually be found fighting on the side of right, not sitting on the sidelines, making cowards' excuses. When it comes to clarity of principle, and the courage to stand up for those principles, Britain has few peers, and no superiors.

2002-10-09T01:43:00.000-05:00

Steven Den Beste on the Horrors of War

A couple of days ago, I wrote, in this article, that even those who survive a war see things no one would want to see. Steven Den Beste describes some of the horrors I was talking about.

I think of the least lucky of the survivors of the attack at Pearl Harbor. Some of the American ships capsized, and men inside them were trapped in air pockets. They could not be reached with the diving technology of the time, and cutting through the armored hull of the ship was impossible. They tapped on the side of the ship, and men outside tapped back. They talked by Morse Code, and so the names of a lot of those trapped that way are actually known. But the names have never been revealed by the government, to spare their families. All those trapped this way eventually died, in the dark, from thirst or hunger or when the air gave out, with no shred of hope, no chance of rescue, and only a faint metallic tapping on the outside of the hull to keep them company.
Anyone who thinks that war is in any way fun is a blithering idiot. War is among the most terrible, horrible, awful things humans can do. Some men are improved by it; some men come out of war feeling as if they'd done the right thing, satisfied and even proud. The crewmen in the PBY's in the Pacific could take the memory of men fished from the water home with them, and feel a deep and well deserved satisfaction.
***
We can either fight here, fight with unprepared civilians, fight in a time and place and manner that they choose, or we can fight there, fight with our soldiers who are trained and equipped for combat, and fight within a plan which minimizes the risk to our soldiers and their civilians (and even to their soldiers) as much as risk can ever be minimized in war.
I hate the horrors of war, but there's nothing we can do to prevent someone from suffering them now. Our only choice is who will do the suffering, and where, and when. But by deciding to control the flow of events instead of letting our enemy control them, we might well be able to make this war less horrible, overall, in the long run. By choosing to deliberately cause some horror, we have a significant chance of preventing much more horror which might have happened in another place and time, like here, to us.

We did not seek this war, it was thrust upon us. We can only try to win it as quickly and decisively as possible, with the minimum loss of innocent life. We can try to make sure that we create a lasting peace in the region, once the fighting ends. If we can, perhaps the deaths and suffering will not have been in vain. Perhaps the horrors of war will give way to something better.

2002-10-08T23:18:00.000-05:00

Mark Steyn Whacks the Anti-Yanks

Steyn takes a clue-by-four to the anti-American Left in this column in the National Post.

If you believe, like Nelson Mandela, that Bush is the problem not Saddam, then the above makes perfect sense. But I wonder if the rest of the anti-Yank set have thought it through. They may routinely say that "Bush frightens me," but they're posing; their lack of action makes plain that the Great Satan doesn't frighten them at all. They know America could project itself anywhere and blow up anything, but it doesn't. It could tell the UN to go screw itself, but it's not that impolite. Imagine any previous power of the last thousand years with America's unrivalled hegemony and unparalleled military superiority in a unipolar world with nothing to stand in its way but UN resolutions. Pick whoever you like: the Soviet Union, Imperial Japan, the Third Reich, Napoleon, the Vikings. That's really frightening.

That was just a small sample of Steyn's idiotarian bashing. Check out the rest of it. We'll wait.

2002-10-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

Fisking Fisk

His Most Rotweillerian Majesty, Misha I, tears Robert Fisk (Fiskus Assholicus) a new one.

We must forget how President Bush junior promised to "stand by" Afghanistan before he began his bombings last year – and has left it now an economic shambles of drug barons, warlords, anarchy and fear.
That's one heck of a lot easier to forget, seeing as how it never happened. You might want to inform the 82nd AB that we've abandoned Afghanistan, we're sure they'll be quite pissed off when they hear that we left without them.

There's lot's more where that came from.

2002-10-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

UK population to get smallpox jab in bio-terror defence

Annanova has this story .

The Government is preparing for a mass smallpox vaccination in the event of a bio-terrorist attack.
***
Under the plan, key health care workers in each area of the country would be vaccinated as a precautionary measure so they could respond to any outbreak.
If an outbreak did occur the population in that area would be offered vaccination. Only if there were numerous outbreaks would mass vaccination be considered.

Looks like the Brits are taking the threat of a smallpox attack more seriously, too. I think they ought to make it available, on a voluntary basis, to the entire population, but this is a step in the right direction.

2002-10-08T20:11:00.000-05:00

Riyadh 'to fingerprint US visitors'

BBC News has this story.

US diplomats say Saudi Arabia is set to impose tit-for-tat immigration procedures on American citizens following the tightening of security checks on some visitors to the United States.
***
The American system, which came into force a week ago, requires visitors from countries deemed to pose a threat of anti-US terrorism - including Saudi Arabia - to register with the government and be photographed and fingerprinted.

If Saudi Arabia wants to make it more difficult to hire American workers, it's okay with me. I frankly don't think any American citizens should be working for our enemies, anyway.

2002-10-08T19:52:00.000-05:00

For Kuwait. Baghdad still the enemy

The Boston Globe has this story.

Advice to President Bush?
''You have to finish the job that your father didn't finish,'' counsels a former Kuwaiti oil minister.
Forget the drums of war. In Kuwait, a country occupied by Iraq in 1990 and liberated by US forces in 1991, a full-blown orchestra is playing.
***
In fact, Kuwaiti officials appear more worried by the prospect of diplomatic solution, fearing that Hussein's survival will only embolden him and swell the ranks in a disenchanted Arab world that lauds his defiance. Some Kuwaitis even suggest that US threats of an attack and the visible military buildup in Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain are simply gunboat diplomacy that will again disappoint. They remember standoffs in 1994 and 1998, when US forces returned to the region, only to see Hussein emerge with what Kuwaitis considered a stronger hand.

It would appear that Kuwait knows something about Saddam that the rest of the Arab world does not. Perhaps it is because they are the only Arabs who have lived under Saddam's rule and are free to speak against him.

I do not think that President Bush is likely to back down from Saddam. In fact, he just added another demand that Saddam is almost certain to reject, the right to interview witnesses outside Iraq, and take their families with them, so they cannot be used as hostages.

2002-10-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

Poll: Journalists Support Iraq Invasion, Bush

ScrappleFace has some new poll results.

Almost 92 percent of journalists said they would back an invasion in answer to the question, "If George W. Bush, armed with nothing but a scimitar, were to personally lead ground troops in an invasion of Iraq, would you support the attack?"

The poll also showed 98% support for President Bush's handling of the economy. Of course, the way the question was phrased might have influenced the results. Take a look, and see what you think.

2002-10-07T21:55:00.000-05:00

What the Germans Just Don't Get

Earlier today, I was trying to answer a reader's comment on this post. The reader who left the comment is a German, and a pretty decent sort, not the hateful kind that seems to infest the Schroeder government. He was trying to explain that Schroeder had "made unfriendly noises, but that Germany had not been hateful", and that Germany was afraid of getting involved in a war with unclear consequences, not anti-American. And it dawned on me, what I had been missing in trying to understand Europe's coolness toward American policy. There is an attitude that is particularly prevalent among the European Left, that America is eager to send its sons and daughters to kill and die in the Middle East. The kindly ones among this group attribute it to a blind lust for vengance, the crude ones attribute it to a blind lust for cheap oil. Horst Prillinger, an Austrian who runs a blog called The Aardvark Speaks, considers Steven Den Beste and myself to be Klingons. I may have convinced him that I'm just very angry at the Arabs/Muslims, but I think he's still convinced that Steven keeps a bowl of fresh qagh (gagh) on his desk.

We Americans are not exactly thrilled to send our young men and women in harm's way, either. It may come as a surprise to Germany, and the rest of Europe, but we love our children, too, and are not eager to see them come home in GI coffins. We understand that even those who survive the war without so much as a scratch, are likely to see things that no decent human being would want to see. America waited 50 years for the Soviet Union to realize that their system did not work, and join the free world. Even a confirmed warblogger like myself, who ends every post with the words "Riyadh delenda est", would have gladly waited fifty years, or a hundred, for the Arabs to recognize the value of our ways, and enjoy the fruits of liberty. They chose the path of violence, against Israel, and against us.

They murder Americans by the thousands, and they seek weapons that would allow them to murder us by the millions. We cannot permit that, so once again, America must march forth to defend Western Civilization from barbarism. It will stretch our resorces thinner than we would like, and thinner than we deserve, but we will defend our allies, even as we defend ourselves.

But, our allies need to understand that our resources are not infinite. Britain could not police the world forever, and without help, even America's strength must eventually fail. When that day comes, I do not know who will replace us. Perhaps the Russians or the Australians can one day bear the burden, but if a new guardian does not emerge, Western Civilization will fall, and mankind will enter another dark age.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste has written an article describing some of the horrors of war, and linked to this article.

UPDATE: Horst Prillinger has conceeded that Steven doesn't keep a bowl of fresh qagh on his desk, but just has some in the fridge for special occaisions. I guess it's a start.

2002-10-07T18:42:00.000-05:00

Inter-Palestinian clashes rock Gaza

BBC News has this story.

Gun battles left at least two people dead in Gaza City after about 20 armed militants posing as Palestinian policemen ambushed and killed a senior security official.
The killing of riot police chief Rajah Abu Lehiya took place on Monday morning as the Gaza Strip was in uproar following a major Israeli incursion into the Palestinian-controlled town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Colonel Abu Lehiya's life was known to have been under threat since his forces broke up a pro-Osama bin Laden rally in Gaza a year ago, killing at least two supporters of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The group has distanced itself from Monday's killing, which was claimed by a relative of one of the Hamas members killed at the rally.

I wonder if the Paleo-stinian Authority will do better at catching the murderer of one of their own than they do stopping violence directed at Israelis. I'm guessing they'll do a good deal better on this one.

The question is whether the PA will use this as an excuse to smack Hamas around. It's generally bad policy to let political rivals go around killing your senior people. There's no telling where they might stop. On the other hand, if Hamas didn't exist, the PA would have to invent them. Arafat needs a "radical" group, to make the PA look "moderate". My guess is that Arafat will get the guys who did this, but not go after the rest of Hamas.

2002-10-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

German friendship

Steven Den Beste has some advice for Germany.

I neither want nor expect Germany troops to join us in Iraq. But I do want something from Schröder: I want him to shut up. I want him to say that Germany will neither participate nor impede the US, that Germany respects the US and accepts that the US must make a decision on this, and that if the US decides to attack that Germany will wish us luck and otherwise stay the hell out of the way, and accept that Germany may suffer from some of the peripheral effects of that decision, and to tolerate those effects as Germany's price for being a friend to America in time of crisis.
***
And if he still actually wants to be friends with us – really really good friends, as his rhetoric suggested once he'd won the election – then I'd like him to sit down and think objectively about just what good that friendship is for America, and what Germany actually has to offer us that we would think is worth what we give Germany as part of that alleged friendship.
I'd like someone to tell me that, because right now I don't see any use to it. What I see is a load of horseshit, and us getting taken advantage of by people who contemptuously assume we're too stupid to realize that we're being cheated.

Except for Britain, the only NATO members that have been worth the urine to piss on, have been the "new" NATO members, such as Poland, the Czech Republic, etc. Actually, the new NATO members have done pretty well. On the other hand, Germany's "help" has come with so many insults and lectures that it reminds me of Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal, the Saudi prince that Rudy Guiliani told what to do with his $10 million check. And French help - what French help?

It's been reported that about a division worth of American tanks have left Germany, for Iraq. When those tanks are finished in Iraq, they should be redeployed anywhere other than Germany. There is no reason American tax dollars should be spent in a country as hateful as Germany has been. In fact, there's no reason why American consumers should spend their dollars on German products. Germany makes nothing that I can't do without, and I'm prepared to prove that, by experiment.

2002-10-06T23:13:00.000-05:00

Rumors of War

MSNBC has this story.

Rumors of preparations for a coming gulf war fall mostly into one category: “impossible to disprove.” According to an Arab intelligence officer in the region, U.S. Special Forces teams are already inside Iraq, hunting Scud missiles and probing defenses. ...
A division’s worth of Abrams main battle tanks have disappeared from Europe and may have been the same ones spotted atop transport trucks in Kuwait last week. Any tanks they brought in recently, insist the Americans, were for routine exercises and would soon go back home.
***
Iraq’s neighbors, at least, are convinced not only that war is inevitable—but that it’s coming soon. Arab intelligence officials in two countries, who spoke on condition they not be identified further, both expected the Americans to attack Saddam as early as mid-November.

This is good news. The sooner we can take Saddam down, the better I'll like it.

It hasn't been easy to sift the truth out of all the conflicting stories coming out of Washington, but in wartime, that's a good thing. Democracies can rarely keep the truth completely secret, so the more conflicting stories in circulation, the better. If you can keep track of who knows which stories, you can sometimes identify leakers by the stories they leak. And the more rumors that are floating around, the more false leads the enemies' spies have to sift through. Churchill's dictum that in wartime, the truth "must be attended by a bodyguard of lies" is still true, and the Bush administration has played this gambit well.

UPDATE: I passed this story along to John, over at Big S Blog, and he took it, and added some info from Debka. He thinks it's going to happen either right after the elections, or right after Thanksgiving. I think the president will probably wait until Thanksgiving, to give our gallant allies a little more time to get a clue.

2002-10-06T22:49:00.000-05:00

Yemen raid nets al-Qaeda suspects

BBC News has this story.

Yemeni security forces have arrested at least five suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network north of the capital, Sana'a.
Two of the five were injured in a gunbattle which broke out after security forces surrounded a building in the al-Rawdah suburb.
The Yemeni forces were reportedly acting on a tip-off.
The authorities have recently been working to try to strengthen security in Yemen in coordination with the United States, which believes al-Qaeda members are hiding in there.

In view of the French tanker attack, I'd say it's certain that either Al-Qaeda, or some similar group is operating out of Yemen. It's probably larger than the Yemeni government realizes, or is willing to admit. And I suspect that the Bush administration's firm approach to dealing with the Taliban and Saddam has something to do with the willingness of the Yemeni government to cooperate with us in tracking down these militants.

2002-10-06T22:35:00.000-05:00

Craft 'rammed' Yemen oil tanker

BBC News has this story.

The owners of a French oil tanker on fire off the coast of Yemen say they believe it was rammed by a smaller boat, before exploding into flames.
A junior officer on board the Limburg reported seeing a small craft "fast approaching" the tanker in the port of Ash Shihr, at Mukallah, 570 kilometres (353 miles) east of Aden, and believes the two vessels touched before an explosion occurred.
Yemeni officials say they do not consider the blast an act of sabotage.
But Captain Peter Raes, managing director of France Ship, told BBC News Online it would be "near impossible" for an accidental explosion to have taken place, and that explosives were likely to have been on board the vessel which crashed.

Now, I'm no particular fan of the French, whether as soldiers, politicians, or seamen, but the notion that their new, double-hulled tanker just "blew up", is nonsense. The Yemenis' response was silly enough to have come from a Monty Python script.

2002-10-06T10:46:00.000-05:00

Why the U.S. will not be going it alone against Iraq

Matt Welsh has this column in the National Post (link via Instapundit)

But the focus on Iraq, and the buildup toward war there -- even if it were only a threat intended to bully Saddam into readmitting inspectors -- creates an urgency to twist arms and trade horses immediately, until all the relevant countries get on board. Which means delaying the inevitable reckoning with Saudi Arabia.
To cite the familiar statistic, Saudi Arabia outnumbered Iraq in the number of Sept. 11 hijackers by a score of 15 to 0. Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, and his Saudi-heavy sect, practises a virulent strain of Wahhabist Islam that originates in Mecca and is exported worldwide with billions in Saudi oil money. Saddam's bankrupt regime is secular and exports no discernible ideology. By any reasonable measure, the events of Sept. 11 were more closely linked to Saudi Arabia than to any other country except Afghanistan. Many of Bush's criticisms of the Taliban, the Palestinian Authority and Saddam are equally applicable to the House of Saud.

Few people dislike the Saudi regime more than I do, but taking care of Saddam first not only removes a threat of WMD attack against America and its allies, but puts us in a much stronger position when our reckoning with the House of Sods finally comes. With Iraqi bases to strike from, and a friendly government in Bagdhad, we will have the means to strike at any of our remaining Persian Gulf enemies, plus a third available option against Syria.

Restoring Iraq's oil fields to full production will undercut the Saudi's "oil weapon", and if Saudi Arabia were to turn off its oil taps, American troops based in Iraq would be well-positioned to turn those taps back on. Indeed, a post-Saddam oil embargo by the Saudis would probably be the catalyst for the long-due reckoning with the Saudis.

2002-10-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

Israel Set to Use New Missile Shield to Counter Scuds

The NY Times has this story.

PALMACHIM AIR FORCE BASE, Israel — Israel has deployed an operational missile defense and is ready to use it to protect Tel Aviv and other major population centers if they come under fire from Iraq's arsenal of Scud missiles.
Known as the Arrow, the system is designed to avoid the pitfalls of the American Patriot system, which Israelis say had little success in stopping Iraq's Scud missile attacks during the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
The program, which will cost more than $2 billion, is partly financed by the United States. One battery is already deployed here, and when the final interceptors and radars are installed about two years from now, Israel will be the first nation in the world to have a nationwide missile defense system.
***
The Arrow is what military experts call a theater defense system, meaning it is designed to intercept medium- and short-range missiles, not ocean-spanning intercontinental missiles. But because Israel is such a small country, the three batteries it plans to deploy will be a true nationwide system, protecting all of Israel's territory.

If these things work, maybe we ought to get some of them, too. Patriot was not designed as an ABM, and it's remarkable that it worked at all in that role. I'm not surprised that the Israelis came up with something better. After the Gulf War, thay had a lot more motivation than we did.

2002-10-05T22:08:00.000-05:00

Terror suspects arrested near Rome

BBC News has this story.

Italian police have arrested three Egyptians suspected of planning attacks on the US War Cemetery in Anzio, Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport and fast food outlets.
Explosive material and maps highlighting the Nettuno American Cemetery and Memorial were found in the flat of one of the three detained, a police official told Italian radio.
***
"In view of the current international situation, we have activated a monitoring activity of the environment of foreign citizens, particularly those from outside the EU," Mr Forleo said.

Three cheers for the Italians! Maybe the INS ought to hire some of the investigators involved in this case.

2002-10-05T21:44:00.000-05:00

WTC widower told to leave US

BBC News has this story.

The husband of a Russian woman who died in the 11 September attacks faces deportation from the US - despite the fact that the couple's two children can legally live in America.
Vasiliy Ryzhov, whose wife Tatyana worked on the 93rd floor of the south tower of New York's World Trade Center, has been told he must leave the country because of alleged visa irregularities, Russian TV reported.

Have we run out of Arabs and other Muslims for the INS to harass? Have we run out of any other illegal immigrants? Is the INS down to its last functioning neuron? Has the INS lost its basic human decency, along with its common sense? The answers are: no, no, yes, and yes. Norman Mineta, the Bush Administration's designated doofus, isn't as dumb as the ignorant, tofu-for-brains, asswipe who made this decision. Yeah, the guy fudged his green card app, but I can't believe that there aren't aliens in this country who deserve deportation more than Ryzhov. Give him a fine, maybe 30 days in jail and a year probation, to make the point that fudging your paperwork is a bad idea. But one of his two kids is an American citizen, by birth. Do we really want to separate a minor, American citizen from his only living parent? Put the compassionless bastard who made this decision in charge of reviewing the paperwork of suspicious Muslims. His zeal for deporting people might do some good, there.

2002-10-05T00:38:00.000-05:00

Voluntary Smallpox Vaccination Urged

The Washington Post has this article.

The Bush administration's top bioterrorism advisers said yesterday they support a voluntary smallpox vaccination program that would begin with 500,000 health care workers, expand to 10 million emergency responders and extend to the rest of the population as early as 2004.
It was the first time high-ranking administration officials acknowledged they are considering offering the risky vaccine to the public prior to an attack and it represented a profound shift in thinking from the June recommendations of a government advisory panel to inoculate about 20,000 medical personnel.

I wonder if the president will mention this in Monday night's speech. It would certainly serve to underscore the danger posed by Saddam's WMDs. It would show that the government is taking the threat more seriously than before. And if the government is taking Saddam's threat more seriously, perhaps we, the people, should, too. Perhaps we, the people, should call our congresscritters and tell them to let Dubya get ~~Goddam~~ Saddam Hussein, before we all have to take a potentially dangerous vaccine. Damn, Dubya's good.