In addition, I believe we are legally required to be bombing Syria right now. And unlike the Quran's alleged prohibition on depictions of Muhammad, I've got documentation to back that up!
Muslims in Syria torched the Danish Embassy a few weeks ago, burning it to the ground. According to everyone, the Syrian government was behind the attack — the prime minister of Denmark, Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Scott McClellan. I think even the gals on "The View" have acknowledged that Damascus was behind this one.
McClellan said: "We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support."
We are signatories to a treaty that requires us to do more than "hold Syria responsible" for this attack. Syria has staged a state-sponsored attack on our NATO partner on Danish soil, the Danish embassy. According to the terms of the NATO treaty, the United States and most of Europe have an obligation to go to war with Syria.
Or is NATO — like the conventions of civilized behavior, personal hygiene and grooming — inapplicable when Muslims are involved? Liberals complain about "unilateral action," but under the terms of a treaty created by Dean Acheson and the Democrats, France, Germany, Spain and Greece are all obliged to go to war with us against Syria. Why, it's almost like a coalition!
Friday, February 17, 2006
Ann Coulter: Declare War on Syria Now
Ann Coulter, herself a lawyer, says the US government is now legally obligated to declare war on Syria:
Michael Maren on NGOs
I'm doing research for a scholarly article on the role of NGOs in international relations, and found this interesting interview author Michael Maren gave to Might Magazine. He says NGOs hurt the very people they intend to help:
Q: Doesn't it seem to you that these charitable organizations come into a country like Somalia or into poor areas of the U.S. offering the promise of new schools or better health care or food or whatever, and in so doing, they sort of exonerate us from having to worry about the fact that our government doesn't care for the needs of a certain percentage of its population?
A: Or our government is supporting a dictator of a country who's ripping off the national treasury for billions of dollars. The president of Kenya is a billionaire. He's stolen more money than all of these organizations are ever going to bring in. He gets to play with these NGOs.
Q: But the presence of Western NGOs means that governments don't have to carry out the obligations that governments should have to carry out.
A: Yeah, it lets us off the hook. "We're doing something. We're building schools over there. That's our obligation to this country"-when we're pursuing macroeconomic policies that are causing these problems to begin with, such as massive structural adjustments and debt burdens. That's really the problem, and that amount of money dwarfs the money coming in through these charities. You have to think about development in terms of larger economic issues. That's where the problems are.
Q: What would happen if these aid organizations pulled out of these countries?
A: I think if all of them went out of business today, there would be very few people who would be any worse for it, and a great number of people would be better off. People know what's best for themselves. They can do what they need to do. In most of these countries-I'm thinking of Africa-people are not developing economically because they're not being allowed to. They're being oppressed politically If you look at the development that's taken place in Asia in the past 15 or 20 years, none of that can be attributed to foreign aid. It's all investment, it all came about through change in government policies that allowed people to invest their money. I had a friend who had a business in Nairobi a number of years ago who said he wanted to keep the business small because if you stuck your head up too high they'd chop it off. The president of Kenya basically stole most of the successful businesses in The country, and now owns them. That's not the kind of policy that's going to foster large economic growth. And if the Asian model is going to apply to Africa, it's got to start slowly, and it has to start with good government. And to a certain extent, NGOs and aid organizations in these countries now help fortify a lot of bad governments.
Q: In the end, is there any role for NGOs or charitable organizations in the developing world at all?
A: No.
Music in My Heart
Last night saw Rita Hayworth, Tony Martin, Alan Mowbray and Eric Blore in Music in My Heart, a charming musical featuring conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Martin is a Broadway understudy about to be deported by the Immigration Service. He misses his boat when his taxi crashes into Rita Hayworth's cab. She's on her way to marry a millionaire, whom she misses because of the accident. So Martin goes home with Hayworth to hide out from Uncle Sam in New York's colorful Lower East Side. There, working in an Italian restaurant alongside a colorful Russian cook, he romances Hayworth. A few twists later, the millionaire turns out to have a heart of gold--and Hayworth gets hitched to Martin. This 1940 film is somehow relevant to today's immigration issues, as well as funny. Eric Blore as the millionaire's valet really steals the show. I didn't get it from Netflix, rather on VHS from my corner video rental place, but I just checked, and Netflix has it listed here. It's really worth seeing.Interestingly Rita Hayworth really did marry a millionaire--the Aga Khan. And Tony Martin married the fabulously long-stemmed dancer Cyd Charisse in 1948. They lived happily ever after, too.
Konstantin on Russian NGOs
Citing a report in the Moscow Times, today Konstantin accuses the US and EU of double standards regarding NGOs in Russia:
The idea is very simple but absurd and irrational. Good countries can have very restrictive laws on NGO’s because they are democratic and nice. Bad countries – like Russia – are not supposed to put any restrictions on NGO’s because these countries are very repressive and not democratic. But wait a minute! Just six months ago NGO’s activities in Russia were not restricted by Kremlin in any way. Still I don’t remember if any "freedom fighting" NGO said, “Thank you, Mr. Putin for your very liberal attitude towards us”. On the contrary, US-financed NGO’s were picturing themselves as being the most repressed in the whole world, suffering beyond imagination from Putin's political terror. Go figure.
Another Interesting Press Release . . .
Muslims to Rally at Denmark Embassy to Defend Against Attack on Prophet Muhammad
2/13/2006 10:26:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: New Black Panther Party, 202-397-4577 or 267-259-6420
News Advisory:
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally at the Denmark Embassy
WHERE: Denmark Embassy, 3200 Whitehaven St., NW, Washington, D.C.
(off of Massachusetts Ave, 2 Blocks From the Islamic Center)
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 18, 1 to 4 p.m.
(meet in front in front of Islamic Center at 12 noon. Press Conference will begin at 1 p.m. and Rally which will follow, will be held after Salaatul Zuhr)
WHO:
Speakers Include: Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, Imam Akbar Bilal, Imam Abdul Alim Musa, Imam Mohammed Asi, Hodari Abdul Ali, and other community and Muslim leaders who will speak in solidarity with the worldwide Muslim Ummah (Community) that is fighting against the intentional debased attack by the Danish and western peoples against Islam. The participants recognize this as an escalation in the American-European War against Islam and the Muslims.
Sponsored by a coalition of Muslim groups and the New Black Panther Party.
-0-(ht free republic)
UPDATE: More here, from Michelle Malkin.
Armenians Protest PBS Massacre Panel
Just got this press release about a protest against PBS from the Armenian National Committee of America:
LOS ANGELES, CA - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to cancel its plans this April to provide Armenian Genocide deniers a national television audience.
In a February 14th letter to Jacoba Atlas, PBS's Co-Chief Program Executive, ANCA Board Member and Western U.S. Chairman Steve Dadaian voiced the profound opposition of the Armenian American community to PBS's intention to televise a panel discussion featuring two known Armenian Genocide deniers following the April 2005 broadcast of 'The Armenian Genocide' by Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions. The two Genocide deniers are Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan.
In the letter, Dadaian, noted that 'the mere existence of Armenian Genocide deniers or, for that matter, Holocaust revisionists does not entitle these individuals to a place on our national stage alongside those who responsibly research and document these and other crimes against humanity.' He added, �Consider, for example, the absurdity of following a broadcast of Schindler�s List with a roundtable that includes Holocaust deniers.'
Commenting on the form letters that PBS has sent to concerned Armenian Americans over the past week, Dadaian welcomed the network's recognition that 'the majority of historians, nations and news organizations recognize the Armenian Genocide,' and pointed out that, 'save for the Turkish government and its surrogates (Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan included), this crime is universally acknowledged and unanimously condemned by the international community.'
Thursday, February 16, 2006
"Heck of a job, Cheney!"
Well, those aren't Bush's exact words about Dick Cheney's hunting accident, but it seems to mean the same thing. Here's President Bush's precise quote from the Associated Press
"I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine," the president said in his first public comments on Saturday's accident. "I thought his explanation yesterday was a powerful explanation."It took 10 days from the time President Bush praised Michael Brown until he accepted the FEMA director's resignation. Let's see how long Dick Cheney can hold on--in a nation of hunters and NRA members who know something about hunting accidents and how ordinary people handle them.
White House May Dump Cheney
Republican speechwriter and Wall Street Journalist Peggy Noonan says that the White House may try to hit the "refresh" button and dump Dick Cheney because the Vice President has become a "hate magnet". Noonan says White House insiders are wondering who might replace him:
It would have to be a man wildly popular in the party and the press. And it would have to be a decision made by Dick Cheney. If he didn't want to do it he wouldn't have to. If he were pressed--Dick, we gotta put the next guy in here or we're going to lose in '08 and see all our efforts undone--he might make the decision himself. He'd have to step down on his own. He's just been through a trauma, and he can't be liking his job as much now as he did three years ago. No one on the downside of a second term does, hate magnet or not.My candidate for Vice President of the United States to replace Dick Cheney is well-known to readers of this blog: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Of course, all this is exactly like the sort of thing people blue-skied about in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was in trouble and a lot of people urged him to hit refresh by dumping Dan Quayle. He didn't. George W. Bush loves to do what his father didn't.
Who would it be? Someone who's a strong supporter of Iraq, and, presumably, the Bush doctrine.
Who would that be? That's what I suspect the president's men are asking themselves. But silently. (ht Ann Althouse)
Where Are Iran's Nukes?
You can find some of them on this interesting map of Iran's nuclear facilities from the Intelligence Summit Blog (ht Roger L. Simon).
US Condemns New Images of Abu Gharib Torture
Al Jazeera seems to be reporting the US State Department's response to Australian television broadcasts of new pictures of Abu Gharib torture as a tactical defeat for the United States:Bryan Whitman, a senior spokesman for the defence department, responded to the broadcast by Australian television network SBS of previously unpublished images of prisoner abuse.If only the US spokesman could have said: "As Justice Brandeis said, 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'The public has a right to know, and we took strong measures to end these reported abuses when they were first reported. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took full responsibility at that time and he will announce his resignation this afternoon."
"The department believes that a further release of images could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world and would endanger our military men and women that are serving around the world," he said.
Whitman said he did not know whether US officials had reviewed the photos and video clips or whether they were among a group of images the department had been withholding from public release since 2004.
Here's a link to the Australian TV news report with the photos.
Where on earth is Rudy Giuliani?
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The Devil's Game
I saw this book by Robert Dreyfuss listed in a podcast on the History News Network while checking out a link about Abu Gharib photos from Michelle Malkin. It seems intriguing, because Dreyfuss's claims about US policy favoring Islamic fundamentalists appear to explain a lot of things that are going wrong right now around the world from Denmark to Dagestan. Here's the blurb from Amazon.com:
The first complete account of America’s mostHere's a link to his personal website.
dangerous foreign policy miscalculation: sixty years of support for Islamic fundamentalism.
Devil’s Game is the gripping story of America’s misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Among all the books about Islam, this is the first comprehensive inquiry into the touchiest issue: How and why did the United States encourage and finance the spread of radical political Islam?
Backed by extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy makers and CIA, Pentagon, and foreign service officials, Robert Dreyfuss argues that this largely hidden relationship is greatly to blame for the global explosion of terrorism. He follows the trail of American collusion from support for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt to links with Khomeini and Afghani jihadists to cooperation with Hamas and Saudi Wahhabism. Dreyfuss also uncovers long-standing ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West. The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to foil nationalism and communism, extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate the region, thundering against freedom of thought, science, women’s rights, secularism—and their former patron.
Wide-ranging and deeply informed, Devil’s Game reveals a history of double-dealing, cynical exploitation, and humiliating embarrassment. What emerges is a pattern that, far from furthering democracy or security, ensures a future of blunders and blowback.
About the Author
Based in Washington, D.C., Robert Dreyfuss has written extensively on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and national security for The Nation, The American Prospect, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC.
If Dreyfuss is right, we are in trouble with a capital T...
Where's Rudy Giuliani when we need him?
Army Study: Pay Attention to What Al Qaeda Says
Apologies to Homer Simpson and Team America, World Police--The Combatting Terrorism Center says the US should read those captured Al Qaeda documents that lay out the internal workings of Bin Laden's network:
To achieve long-term success in degrading the broader movement driving terrorist violence, however, the CTC believes the United States must begin aggressively digesting the body of work that comprises jihadi macro-strategy. We therefore also seek to apply our model to the ideological dimension of al-Qa’ida revealed in numerous instances in these documents, the goal being to identify ways to facilitate the ideational collapse of this body of thought. The included documents provide insights into the points of strategic dissonance and intersection among senior leaders that must be better understood in order to be exploited.Well, better late than never, I guess. Hope it is not now too late...Apparently it is intended as a rebuttal to Martin van Crevald's theories in The Transformation of War.(ht Guns and Butter Blog)
Agustin Blazquez Presents COVERING CUBA 4 to Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Our friend sent us this news release, hot on the heels of the successful premiere of his newest documentary about Cuba:
Filmmaker Agustin Blazquez with Florida's Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in her office on Capitol Hill. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen is holding Blazquez's recently released documentary COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below. The premiere of this documentary at the Tower Theaters in Miami was a great public and critical success. Both Tower Theaters were filled to capacity and many people were not able to get in. The premiere was sponsored by the Miami Dade College. This documentary reveals the story of secret corporate manipulation of the U.S. government, the media and the American people creating support for their corporate greed, all while staying hidden just under the surface. The corporation featured is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). It is a fascinating story of intrigue and deceptions that the U.S. media censored because of the economic and political leverage of ADM that sponsors many of the leading political programs on the major TV and Radio networks. Blazquez's documentary kept the audience captive at the Tower Theaters for the 105 minutes duration. This documentary is for all Americans to see and is available in English and with Spanish subtitles. It can be obtained at: http://www.cubacollectibles.com/cuba.mv?p=108-CC4
Ann Althouse on Dick Cheney's Hunting Accident
Ann Althouse: The suggestion is only that there's a political need to go on TV and emote so that people see you're not a machine. TV demands emotion. Tell us how you feel, reporters demand of people in pain, who often enough snap back "How do you think I feel?" Cheney accidentally shot an old man. How do you think he feels? Why do you need him to go on television and say what you already know? Because it would be so weird and awkward for gruff old Dick to do that?
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Happy Valentine's Day!
Here's a link to the history of Valentine's Day, from The History Channel:
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Why Cheney's Hunting Accident Story Has Legs
(White House photo by David Bohrer)It's not just liberal media bias, and all the "I'd rather be hunting with Dick Cheney than driving with Ted Kennedy" bumper stickers in the world won't make this accident go away.
The reason is the icongraphic and symbolic resonance of Dick Cheney's accident. Yes, it was an accident, he didn't shoot his hunting buddy on purpose, it could have happened to anyone, and so forth.
Yet:
1. Dick Cheney appears to be careless.
A careful hunter simply wouldn't shoot his buddy. Maybe he got carried away, maybe he wasn't paying attention, maybe he just didn't see, but still--he was aiming at some quail and hit his buddy. That's careless, and it goes to the general impression of the Bush administration's handling of Katrina, Iraq, and the search for Bin Laden, among other things. They are careless. This impression is reinforced by Cheney's hunting accident.
2. Dick Cheney appears to be trigger-happy.
Again, the claim against the US in Iraq is reinforced by the accident. Shoot first, ask questions later, it seems, whether hunting or making foreign policy.
3. Dick Cheney appears to have missed his target.
Like the US going after Bin Laden, Dick Cheney created "collateral damage" but didn't bag his quail.
4. Dick Cheney appears to be secretive.
That the story leaked out through Kate Armstrong's phone call to a friendly reporter, rather than an announcement from the Vice-President's office parallels complaints about news management related to the Iraq war. Again, a simple hunting accident resonates with larger problems for the administration.
5. Dick Cheney appears to be incompetent.
The whole accident story raises the question--doesn't he have better things to do? How come the Vice President has time to go quail hunting while the US is involved in a showdown with Iran, a crisis in Palestine, a botched Saddam trial in Iraq, and the Danish Cartoon crisis.
The story won't go away, not because it isn't trivial in itself, but because this little accident reflects in microcosm the very big problems with the administration--including the wounding and injury of friends like Denmark and Israel by botched American foreign policy; and the wounding and injury of American citizens in New Orleans and the South Coast by botched handling of Hurricane Katrina.
It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Mark Steyn: "A Falling Camel Attracts Many Knives"
Thanks to Ann Althouse for pointing out this Mark Steyn column:
And the good news is that that body's already on its way. The European Union's Justice and Security Commissioner, Franco Frattini, said on Thursday that the EU would set up a "media code" to encourage "prudence" in the way they cover, ah, certain sensitive subjects. As Signor Frattini explained it to the Daily Telegraph, "The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression. . . . We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."
"Prudence"? "Self-regulate our free expression"? No, I'm afraid that's just giving the Muslim world the message: You've won, I surrender, please stop kicking me.
But they never do. Because, to use the Arabic proverb with which Robert Ferrigno opens his new novel, Prayers for the Assassin, set in an Islamic Republic of America, "A falling camel attracts many knives." In Denmark and France and the Netherlands and Britain, Islam senses the camel is falling and this is no time to stop knifing him.
The issue is not "freedom of speech" or "the responsibilities of the press" or "sensitivity to certain cultures." The issue, as it has been in all these loony tune controversies going back to the Salman Rushdie fatwa, is the point at which a free society musters the will to stand up to thugs. British Muslims march through the streets waving placards reading "BEHEAD THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM." If they mean that, bring it on. As my columnar confrere John O'Sullivan argued, we might as well fight in the first ditch as the last.
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