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4-20-03. Well, the war in
Iraq is over. One didn’t have to wait for an official announcement; the surest sign that the war had ended was the resurgence of the press’s obsession with the laci Peterson story. They are not showing equal interest in the thousands of people missing in Iraq or Cuba. Hans Blix is lobbying for his old job back, looking for WMD in Iraq. He doesn’t seem at all chagrined that the Marines and Soldiers of the coalition have found more weapons in four weeks than his team of experts did in twelve years. Amnesty International is demanding that they be allowed to send human rights monitors to Iraq to make sure that the coalition is living up to its obligations to the Iraqi people. Strange that they never showed much interest in the Iraqi people when Saddam was running things. French Foreign Minister De Villepin went to Damascus to discuss with his terrorist pals what their next step will be. Word is out that French officials are in Syria offering visas to Saddam’s cronies. Press analysts are wondering about our future intentions regarding Syria, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, etc. Perhaps the easiest way to figure out who our most dangerous enemies are would be to just watch and see whom the French are talking to.
Information has come out that the Germans and Russians, in addition to selling arms to the Iraqis on
the eve of, and even during, the war were sharing intelligence with them. These are the nations that we are told are our allies, the nations from whom we must get permission to take
military action in our own defense. At any other time nations that shared
intelligence with, and sold weapons to, our opponents in a war would have been called enemies, not allies, but such is the nature of the left’s opposition to Bush. Gary Kamiya of Salon Magazine (Salon.com) stated in a recent article, “I have at times...secretly wished for things to go wrong...Wished for all the things we feared would happen.” He further stated that, “a number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings.” What, specifically, were they wishing for? More American casualties and a military disaster? “Many antiwar commentators have argued that once the war started, even those who oppose it must now wish for the quickest, least-bloody victory followed by the maximum possible liberation of the Iraqi people,” he writes. “But there is one argument against this: What if you are convinced that an easy victory will ultimately result in a larger moral negative -- four more years of Bush.” And Paul Maslin, advisor to Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean said, “Besides he’s (Dean) ready to bet that something will go wrong in Iraq’s reconstruction. Or in Syria. Or North Korea. Or we’ll see another terrorist attack -- and then Americans will turn on Bush...” To these people the continued enslavement and murder of Iraqis, cargo ships laden with body bags, or even another 9-11 are desirable outcomes if it means that the Bush presidency will suffer. The left’s visceral hatred of Bush has eclipsed rational thought. What used to be called the loyal opposition has now become frankly and unabashedly traitorous.
The “serious” media are not much better. Peter Collins of CNN revealed this week that he was
forced by network executives Tom Johnson and Eason Jordan to read on the air propaganda screeds written by Saddam’s regime. Recently the coalition has set up a TV station to broadcast
Western news and talk shows to the Iraqis to show them what
free speech in a democracy is like. Fox news and even PBS agreed to let their shows be broadcast -- but not CNN, which refused to cooperate in any way, stating that they did not think it appropriate for an “independent” news organization to “participate in a US government transmission.” No, they only participate in broadcasting propaganda from people like Saddam and Castro (with whom they have a similar arrangement).
R.W. Apple, columnist for the New York Times, and first to claim that our war plan had failed, and to
call the effort “bogged down” and “a quagmire,” after the first 72 hours, wrote on 4-19 that, “nobody got it quite
right.” Well, imagine that. Nobody was able to predict with complete accuracy the exact details of an ongoing military campaign. Mr. Apple, nobody got everything right, but you have the distinction of having gotten nearly everything wrong. And media pundits are starting to call the continuing war on terror “World War Four.” An attempt to characterize Bush as a warmonger, or a clever way to induce the Germans into participating?
Not to be left out of this orgy of complaining (or of any orgy), the Hollywood left is whining that
they are being censored for their antiwar views. Tim Robbins delivered one of the most paranoid and self-pitying speeches in memory when he and “life partner” Susan Sarandon were disinvited from an event at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He and Ms. Sarandon complain that they are being punished for their outspoken opposition to the war. Yes, they are, and should be, as are many celebrities who are seeing their audiences disappear. But censorship is not the issue -- the free choice of private individuals and private organizations is the issue. What these narcissistic pea-brains cannot understand is that while they have a right to speak, nobody has an obligation to listen. Nor does anyone have an obligation to give them a venue for their idiocy. It is especially irritating to hear Robbins and Sarandon whine about this since Ms. Sarandon was a leader in the fight to have Dr. Laura taken off the air for her political views. If these morons cannot understand something as simple as the concept that censorship is the exclusive province of government, and the difference between censorship and consumer choice, then why should we believe that they can comprehend the intricacies of foreign policy and national security?
There is one real tragedy of the war. The Iraqi Minister
of Information has disappeared and is rumored to have committed suicide. This is an irreplaceable loss to the world of comedy, and all who appreciate great satire will mourn his passing. On the other hand we have been spared the racist maunderings of Jessie Jackson for the past four weeks. Unfortunately he will be back, and his first complaint will probably be that when the POWs were returned to the States and were taken to the terminal from the C-17, the black woman was riding on the back of the cart.
In the aftermath of our victory Bush called Chirac to mend fences. Then he called Putin for
the same purpose. Throughout this time Bush has shown admirable resolve and courage in the face of vicious opposition, but now he has gone crawling to those who tried to stab this country in the back. The concept of Christian forgiveness is admirable, but this is self-defeating and self-destructive. One would have thought that Bush, of all leaders, understood the evil of appeasement.
In England, the waiting list for care under the National
Health Service just keeps getting longer. A Halifax hospital sent an ambulance to the house of a man suffering from pneumonia six months after he died. Here in the US, government can be equally efficient. A Colorado postman has been having his golden retriever pull his mail cart for the last two years, ever since his hip replacement. Now he has been told to stop the practice by the local postmaster who cited safety concerns, pointing out that every year more than 3,000 postal carriers are bitten by dogs.
PTB
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