Archived news and commentary: December 27 - January 2, 2004 - 2005

2004/12/27 - 2005/01/02
2004/12/20 - 2004/12/26
2004/12/13 - 2004/12/19
2004/12/06 - 2004/12/12
2004/11/29 - 2004/12/05
2004/11/22 - 2004/11/28

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, January 2, 2005

News and commentary:

"Arafat Lives" (Efraim Karsh, Commentary, from the January 2005 issue)
"For all their drastically different personalities and political style, Arafat and Abu Mazen are warp and woof of the same fabric: dogmatic PLO veterans who have never eschewed their commitment to Israel’s destruction and who have viewed the “peace process” as the continuation of their lifetime war by other means. (A younger and more direct reincarnation of Arafat is Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Fatah terrorist with undisguised political ambitions.) As late as July 2002, Abu Mazen described Oslo as “the biggest mistake Israel ever made,” enabling the PLO to get worldwide acceptance and respectability while hanging fast to its own aims. ...
So long as the Palestinian territories continue to be run by men of this kind and by their terrorist organizations, there can be no true or lasting reconciliation with Israel. And so long as the territories continue to be governed by Arafat’s rule of the jungle, no Palestinian civil society, let alone a viable state, can develop. Just as the creation of free and democratic societies in Germany and Japan after World War II necessitated, above and beyond the overthrow of the ruling parties, a comprehensive purge of the existing political elites and the reeducation of the entire populace, so the Palestinians deserve a profound structural reform that will sweep the PA from power, free the territories from its grip, eradicate the endemic violence from political and social life, and teach the virtues of coexistence with their Israeli neighbors. Until this happens, there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East."

"Tape shows Al-Jazeera, Saddam link" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2005/01/02)
"A videotape found in a pile of documents in Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime shows a former manager of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel thanking one of Saddam's sons for his support and telling him that "Al-Jazeera is your channel," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday.
According to Asharq al-Awsat's report, the tape of the March 13, 2000, meeting shows former Al-Jazeera manager Mohammed Jassem al-Ali telling Odai Saddam Hussein, "Al-Jazeera is your channel," and Odai recalls that he proposed "some ideas" in previous meetings that led to "some changes" in political coverage, including the introduction of new hosts on Al-Jazeera programs.
Al-Jazeera dismissed al-Ali from his post shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. No reason was given for the dismissal, but many in the Arab press speculated that al-Ali was receiving support from Saddam's government."

"The War Inside the Arab Newsroom" (Samantha M. Shapiro, The New York Times Magazine, 2005/01/02)
A profile of Al Arabiya and its general manager Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed:
"Al-Rashed, an American-educated Saudi, is well known for his often angry and outspoken columns criticizing Islamic fundamentalism, and especially for a particularly scathing column that he wrote after Chechen rebels seized a school in North Ossetia in September, a siege that ended in more than 300 deaths. "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims," he wrote. ...
Beyond Al-Rashed's criticism of Islamic fundamentalists, the main target of his wrath is the Arab media. He didn't want to speak on the record about Al Jazeera, but during the three weeks I recently spent with the station's management and staff, he made it clear that he thinks his competition is not just misguided but actively dangerous. "The region is being filled with inaccuracies and partial truths," he told me. (Like everyone I met at the station, he spoke English with me and Arabic with his co-workers.) 'I think people will always make good judgments if they have the right information and the whole information. What we lack right now is the truth and information. After that, we'll have a sane society. Right now it is an insane society because of the way information is being delivered to individuals.'" (See also: "'Innocent religion is now a message of hate'" (Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/09/05))

"Palestinian Stirrings" (Dennis Ross, The Washington Post, 2005/01/02)
"Something is stirring in Gaza. There is a sense of hope and possibility, a belief that it is time for a change. And there is a new discourse that includes all Palestinian factions and an open questioning of violence.":
"Remarkably, all this is happening in no small part because Arafat has passed from the scene. With him, there was paralysis not only between the Palestinians and the Israelis but also among the Palestinians. And Palestinians better than anyone else understand this. How else can one explain the changing Palestinian mood? Before Arafat's death, roughly 40 percent of Palestinians polled were optimistic about the future. Now the number is 59 percent. Before Arafat's death, Hamas's standing was higher than Fatah's -- 32 to 29 percent. The most recent polls show Fatah at 46 percent and Hamas at 17 percent."

"Iraqi Officials Cite Rise Of Interest in Elections" (Karl Vick, The Washington Post, 2005/01/02)
"The number of Iraqis making sure they are properly registered to vote has surged dramatically, officials said Saturday, calling the rise evidence of enthusiasm for the Jan. 30 elections despite continuing security concerns that have blocked the process in two provinces.
After a slow start to the six-week registration process that began Nov. 1, the number of voters making corrections to official voter lists more than doubled in the final week, according to a final tally quoted by election officials Saturday. ...
Because Iraqis do not have to take any steps to register to vote -- food rationing accounts serve as voter rolls -- requests for corrections are essentially the only gauge of voter involvement in the registration process for the Jan. 30 election.
"This is a very good indicator," said Hussein Hindawi, who heads the election office. 'We are very optimistic.'" (Hat tip: Captain's Quarters.)

"Long-Term Plan Sought For Terror Suspects" (Dana Priest, The Washington Post, 2005/01/02)
"Administration officials are preparing long-range plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists whom they do not want to set free or turn over to courts in the United States or other countries, according to intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials. ...
One proposal under review is the transfer of large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center into new U.S.-built prisons in their home countries. The prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognized human rights standards and would monitor compliance, the senior administration official said.
As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, plans to ask Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, according to defense officials.
The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now, and would be designed for prisoners the government believes have no more intelligence to share, the officials said."

Saturday, January 1, 2005

News and commentary:

"The Reporting of Iraq and Israel: An Abuse of Media Power" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/01/01)
"How has Middle Britain come to applaud the view — hitherto confined to the most extreme left-wing circles — that the President of the United States is more of a danger than an unbalanced dictator with a terrorist history? How have such solid citizens come to view a democracy — Israel — that has been under attack since its foundation as the greatest threat to world peace? And how has the ancient libel of sinister global Jewish power been allowed to rear its head so openly once again?
Britain is gripped by an unprecedented degree of irrationality, prejudice and hysteria over the issues of Iraq, the terrorist jihad and Israel. All three are intimately linked; all three, however, are thought by public opinion to be linked in precisely the wrong way. This is because all three have been systematically misreported, distorted and misrepresented through a lethal combination of profound ignorance, political malice and ancient prejudices. ...
Public debate in Britain is now marked by a collapse of objectivity, truth, fairness and balance. Logic and morality have been stood on their heads. Victims are portrayed as oppressors, while mass murderers have to be understood and sympathised with." (See also the full Limmud conference talk [PDF].)

"Why the Democrats Keep Losing" (Joshua Muravchik, Commentary, from the January 2005 issue)
"The aftermath befitted the morrow of a civil war. Tens of thousands of Americans visited the website of the Canadian immigration service to learn how they could take themselves into exile. A Florida psychotherapist reported treating more than a dozen people for sudden depression. “Hard times, brutish times, lie ahead,” intoned the New Republic.
The New York Times turned its op-ed page into a kind of wailing wall, where a procession of mourners poured forth their laments and imprecations. Garry Wills: “We now resemble [Europe] less than we do our putative enemies . . . al Qaeda [and] Saddam Hussein’s Sunni loyalists.” Thomas Friedman: The Bush people “have used . . . religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad.” Maureen Dowd: “jihad in America. . . . One party controls all power. . . . One nation dominates the world.”
The proverbial visitor from afar might have been astonished to learn that all of this rhetorical tearing of hair and rending of garments was occasioned by nothing more than the results of a presidential election, and not even the wailers themselves could have doubted that this election would be followed by another four years hence. Clearly something else was going on." (See also: "The Morning After" - News and commentary on the post-election debate after President Bush's victory.)

"Journalists shouldn't be cheerleaders" (Alan Greenblatt, St. Petersburg Times, 2005/01/01)
"It's hardly a shocker that Norman Mailer could show up at a place like Cambridge, Mass., and win big applause with a speech attacking President Bush. After all, employees of Harvard University gave more money to John Kerry's presidential campaign than people who work anywhere else (except the University of California). What made the standing ovation for the novelist so disappointing, though, was that it came from a great big pack of journalists.
Claims of media bias were a major theme during this past election year - from Dan Rather's doctored documents questioning Bush's military service to a convention of minority journalists loudly cheering Kerry when he addressed them in August. But conservatives who want proof of their longstanding claims that the mainstream media harbor a liberal bias could do worse than ordering the audio recordings of the Cambridge conference that are on sale from its sponsor, Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism.
They would hear laughter and applause from reporters after Mailer said he wished he "was young enough to thrash" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and scattered applause when he claimed that it was not Jesus but "the devil who speaks to George Bush every night." ...
None of the dozen people who stood up to question Mailer challenged any of his political assertions. And only a few failed to stand and applaud at the end of a speech that had characterized Bush as "lord of the quagmire" in Iraq."

"Look back at Weimar – and start to worry about Russia" (Niall Ferguson, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/01/01)
Off topic of the day: "I seldom agree with the New York Times, but Nicholas Kristof was pretty much on target the other day. ''The bottom line,'' he wrote, ''is that the West has been suckered by Mr Putin. He is not a sober version of Boris Yeltsin. Rather, he's a Russified Pinochet or Franco. And he is not guiding Russia toward free-market democracy, but into fascism.'' Correct — except that Russia is not Chile or Spain. Neither of those countries was ever in a position to pose a serious threat to our security; indeed, there were many conservatives who thought it preferable that they should be fascist rather than communist. ...
Born in 1991 in the wake of the Soviet Union's humiliating defeat in the Cold War, today's Russian Federation has suffered a slump, hyperinflation and is currently enjoying a boom on the back of high oil prices. Its slide into authoritarian rule has been gradual since Putin came to power in 1999. Is it going to culminate — 14 years on — in a full-scale dictatorship in 2005? That is beginning to look more and more likely." (See also: "The Poison Puzzle" (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times/LibertyPost, 2004/12/15))

"Sudan and Southern Rebels Sign Pact to End Civil War" (Marc Lacey, The New York Times, 2005/01/01)
"NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 31 - The government of Sudan signed a preliminary peace accord on Friday night with a rebel group from the country's impoverished south that could end one of Africa's longest-running civil wars, even as the conflict in the western Darfur region continued. ...
Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, Sudan's president, was on hand for Friday's signing ceremony, as was John Garang, the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Under the agreement, he will soon become one of Mr. Bashir's vice presidents.
Also in attendance was President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who committed assistance from his country and from the African Union to try to make the deal stick. "Africa begins the year 2005 on a very good footing," Mr. Mbeki said, adding, 'Let's party!'"

Note: Happy New Year!

Friday, December 31, 2004

News and commentary:

"NOUS SOMMES TOUS DES ANTI-AMERICAINS!"
(Last of the Famous International Playboys, 2004/12/31)

"God Help Them - It Sure Ain't Funny" (Douglas, Last of the Famous International Playboys, 2004/12/31)
Douglas on the first issue of L'ANTI-AMERICAIN:
"On the cover: a banner playing on Jean-Marie Colombani's famous front-page editorial in Le Monde following September 11th: "We are all anti-Americans!" The deck of on the front page identifies the paper as a "satyrical and funny-ish monthly." The lede headline is "France Offers Political Asylum to Americans! Cut-out for our Democrat friends: the refugee form, p. 2" (They have no Democrat friends.) The head next to the picture of Bush flipping the bird reads, "4 Ways to Lodge a Grievance Against Bush." The teaser heds on the right and below are: "Bill O'Reilly, died-in-the wool anti-French, p. 3;" "How to prevent the inauguration in January, p.5;" "Operation freedom for Condoleeza Rice, p.11;" "They never landed in 1944! p. 13;" "A scientific study proves it: Americans lay turds that are too big!" ...
Doesn't get much better so I'll spare you the rest. On page 13, Stéphane Rose writes again:

In June of 1944, thousands of US soldiers parachuted onto the coast of Normandy liberated France fro mthe German invader in an epic battled known throughout the world today by the name of "débarquement." That is the official version which supported the commemoratins of the sixtieth anniversary of that even last June, an event to which the English historian Robert Patterson, professor at the university of Gloucester and World War II specialist, was not invited. This is because, according to him, not a single Yankee participated in the débarqument. "This business of US allies who save France is nonsense," he explains. 'The US have never been the allies of anybody and cared not a whit for what happened in Europe in 1940, just as they don't care today.'"

"Brazilian Sculptor Ivan Pinto poses next to the cast of a statue of the late Yasser Arafat..."
(AP, 2004/12/31)
"In this photo released by the Municipality of Paraiba do Sul, Brazilian Sculptor Ivan Pinto poses next to the cast of a statue of the late Yasser Arafat at his studio in Paraiba do Sul, 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of Sao Paulo in Rio de Janeiro state, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2004."

"Brazil Town to Honor Arafat With Statue" (Stan Lehman, AP/Yahoo! News, 2004/12/31)
"SAO PAULO, Brazil - The New Year's Eve celebrations in the small community of Paraiba do Sul will honor a figure the town's mayor says hasn't been honored anywhere else in the West — the late Yasser Arafat.
Moments before the clock rings in 2005, a fireworks and light show will serve as a backdrop to the unveiling of a life-sized statue of the Palestinian leader holding the traditional symbol of peace, the olive branch.
The 5-foot, 7-inch bronze statue will be part of an open-air memorial that includes a marble map of Palestine and a replica of the Palestinian flag, also in marble, Paraiba do Sul Mayor Rogerio Onofre said.
"It is the first time a memorial in Arafat's honor has been built in the Western world," Onofre said.
"We decided to build the memorial to demonstrate our solidarity with the Palestinian cause," Onofre said by phone. 'We hope the memorial will encourage people to discuss the Middle Eastern crisis, which is the cause of all the violence and turmoil afflicting the world today.'"

"The Islamization of Europe" (Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/31)
A review of "Eurabia - The Euro-Arab Axis", by Bat Ye'or:
"Bat Ye’or summarizes the bitter harvest Western Europe is now reaping from the sociopolitical and cultural changes it has sewn:

... Europe’s hidden war against Israel is wrapped in the Palestinian flag, and is part of a global movement that is transforming Europe into a new continent of dhimmitude within a worldwide strategy of jihad and da’wa, the latter being the pacific method of Islamization … this policy of dhimmitude for the Euro-Arabian continent … entitled “Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Region” was accepted by the European Union in December 2003. Unfortunately, the policy of “Dialogue” with the Arab League nations, willfully pursued by Europe for the past three decades, has promoted European dhimmitude and rabid Judeophobia."

"An Easier, but Less Deadly, Recipe for Terror" (Joby Warrick, The Washington Post, 2004/12/31)
"If you can get past the guards and fences, the ingredients for a chemical attack are available off the shelf at a crumbling military base called Shchuchye in south-central Russia. There, stacked like dusty wine bottles on wooden racks, is a collection of 1.9 million artillery shells filled with nerve agents such as VX, an oily yellow liquid so deadly that a single drop on the skin can kill.
The smallest shells, each containing enough poison for at least 85,000 lethal doses, could be slipped easily into a backpack. But while U.S. officials fret about possible theft, Russia insists that the weapons are secure and that none are missing."

"Justice Expands 'Torture' Definition" (R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen, The Washington Post, 2004/12/31)
"The Justice Department published a revised and expansive definition late yesterday of acts that constitute torture under domestic and international law, overtly repudiating one of the most criticized policy memorandums drafted during President Bush's first term.
In a statement published on the department's Web site, the head of its Office of Legal Counsel declares that "torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and international norms" and goes on to reject a previous statement that only "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death" constitute torture punishable by law. ...
Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin said in the new memo that torture may consist of acts that fall short of provoking excruciating and agonizing pain and thus may include mere physical suffering or lasting mental anguish. His opinion is meant, according to its language, to undermine any notion that those who conduct harmful interrogations may be exempt from prosecution." (See also [PDF]: "Memorandum for James B. Comey, Deputy Attorney General, Regarding Legal Standards Applicable Under 18 U.S.C. § § 2340-2340A" (U.S. Department of Justice, 2004/12/30))

"Terror groups call voting un-Islamic" (Nick Wadhams, AP/The Washington Times, 2004/12/31)
"BAGHDAD — The radical Ansar al-Sunnah Army and two other terrorist groups issued a statement yesterday, warning Iraqis not to vote in the Jan. 30 election because democracy is un-Islamic.
"Democracy is a Greek word meaning the rule of the people, which means that the people do what they see fit," the groups said in a warning. "This concept is considered apostasy and defies the belief in one God — Muslims' doctrine."
Democracy leads to passing un-Islamic laws, such as permitting homosexual "marriage," if the majority agrees, the terrorists said.
After the warning was issued, all 700 employees of the electoral commission in Mosul, Iraq, resigned, the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera reported." (See also: "Jazeera TV: Bin Laden Tape Urges Iraq Polls Boycott" (Miral Fahmy, Reuters/ABC News, 2004/12/27))

Added in archive:
"After the carnage: the predatory 'intelligentsia'" (Rajeev Srinivasan, rediff.com, 2004/05/13)

Thursday, December 30, 2004

News and commentary:

"Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas..."
(Enric Marti, AP, 2004/12/30)
"Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the front-runner in the upcoming Jan 9 presidential elections is carried by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades leader in West Bank, Zakaria Zubeidi, center left, during a campaign visit to the Jenin refugee camp, Thursday Dec. 30, 2004. Abbas on Thursday shook hands with Zubeidi an armed militant leader wanted by Israel, and prayed with the fugitive at a West Bank cemetery for those killed in fighting with Israel."

"Abbas embrace of militant elicits Israelis’ concerns" (AP/MSNBC, 2004/12/30)
"The highlight of Abbas’ visit to the Jenin refugee camp next to the northern West Bank town of Jenin was his encounter with a group of gunmen led by Zakaria Zubeidi, the local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent group with ties to Abbas’ ruling Fatah party.
Zubeidi, who is idolized in the camp for his swagger and wanted by Israel for organizing attacks and sending suicide bombers into Israeli cities, took center stage in welcoming Abbas to the camp. Jenin was the scene of heavy fighting during an Israeli incursion in 2002 that followed one of the bombings.
Zubeidi and other gunmen hoisted aloft Abbas, who smiled and waved to about 3,000 Palestinians gathered around. Some in the crowd were armed.
Abbas won Zubeidi’s ringing endorsement. After Abbas left the stage, Zubeidi, with gunmen firing in the air, warned that he would deal with anyone who tried to challenge the elected Palestinian leadership. Then Zubeidi escorted Abbas’ car out of the camp."

"Into the Tar Pits: Dinosaurs either evolve or die" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review/Private Papers, 2004/12/30)
"The international media is not up in arms about the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh or the video execution of democratic activists in the streets of Baghdad — at least not as they once had been over the televised shooting of a Vietcong captain by South Vietnamese general Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Of course, the democracy activists in Iraq were working only for freedom, not, like Loan, for socialist tyranny. The only political consistency for the media's reaction or lack thereof seems to be the particular affinity of the shooters and victims for the United States: Pulitzer Prizes when a Communist is shot by an American surrogate; snores when the murdered Iraqi idealists shared an American vision of elections. ...
What has happened? Sometime around the 1980s, the Right saw the demise of the Soviet Union as an opportunity to evolve beyond realpolitik to promote not just anti-Communism but grassroots democracy, coupled with free-market globalism from Eastern Europe to Latin America and Asia. In contrast, the hard Left stayed in its knee-jerk suspicion of the West and continued to give a pass to authoritarians from Cuba to Iran who professed socialism, thinking that the world was a static zero-sum game in which somebody's gain spelled another's loss — oblivious that real wealth could be created by a change of mentality and technology and not mere exploitation. ...
There is neither a Karl Rove conspiracy nor an envisioned red-state theocracy. No, the problem with our Left is what killed the dinosaurs: a desire to plod on to oblivion in a rapidly evolving world."

"Symposium: Gender Apartheid and Islam" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/30)
A symposium on Islam and women's rights, with Mohamed El-Mallah, Julia Roach, Robert Spencer and Ali Sina, "the founder of Faith Freedom International (www.faithfreedom.org), a movement of ex-Muslims created to provide support for those who want to leave Islam and give factual information about Islam for others":
"Sina: ... Let us see what the Quran says about women. It says “men have a degree (of advantage) over them” 2:228 ; that the witness of woman is worth half of that of man 2:282; that women inherit half of their male siblings, 4:11-12; that a man can marry two or three or four women 4:3; that if a women becomes captive in a war, her Muslim master is allowed to rape her 33:50; that if a woman is not totally submissive to her husband she will enter Hell 66:10; that women are “tilth” for their husbands (to cultivate them) 2:223; that men are in charge of women, as if women were imbeciles or minors who could not take care of themselves; that they must be obedient to their husbands or be admonished (verbally abused), banished from the bed (psychologically abused) and beaten (physically abused) 4:34.
These verses define the station of women in Islam."

"Iraqi police lured into death trap" (Jim Muir, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/30)
"Iraqi insurgents killed at least 30 people, including seven policemen, after luring officers into a building in Baghdad and then destroying it in a huge explosion.
The blast also flattened several nearby houses. American investigators said the killers had booby-trapped the building with nearly a ton of explosives.
Police stormed the building late on Tuesday night after a tip-off that Arab militants were using it as a base. An Arab gunman is also reported to have opened fire at random on local residents to attract police attention. ...
Residents of the mixed Sunni and Shia neighbourhood said foreign Arabs, including Sudanese, lived in the house and two vehicles, packed with weapons, had pulled up outside the house two days earlier, raising suspicions about the activities of those inside. ...
Four houses were destroyed, with stones and cement stacked in jagged mounds. The blast gouged out four large craters where the houses had stood. Water spilled from ruptured pipes and turned the craters and the dirt into a muddy swamp."

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

News and commentary:

"Letter from Amsterdam: Final Cut" (Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, from the 2005/01/03 issue)
"A social-studies class I visited included Africans, Indians, Turks, Moroccans, an Egyptian, and a few whites. We had a discussion about van Gogh and Hirsi Ali, and the only girl in class who wore a veil spoke more often and more passionately than the others. The girl, who was born in Amsterdam to Moroccan parents, didn’t condone the murder but could “understand why Mohammed B. had sought comfort in Islam.” She said that people had insulted her in the streets after the murder, spitting at her feet or telling her to take off her veil. “When I hear people talk about ‘those fucking Moroccans,’ I feel defensive and really want to be Moroccan, but when I visit Morocco I know I don’t belong there, either.” A Moroccan-born boy said that it was because of her Dutch accent.
I noticed that some of the Muslim boys, who were described to me later as “quite fundamentalist,” snickered every time the veiled girl spoke, even when she argued, to loud protests from the other girls, that Muslim women were not oppressed. “Hirsi Ali is a dork,” she said. “She doesn’t look beyond her own experience.” The whites in the class remained silent, as though afraid to enter this treacherous terrain. One of the black students made fun of the Muslims’ preoccupation with “identity” and said, “Moroccan, Egyptian, Algerian — who the fuck cares. They’re all thieves.” The others laughed, even some of the Muslims."

"Love, Poverty and War" (Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/29)
An interview with Christopher Hitchens: "A very large element of the Left and of the isolationist Right is openly sympathetic to the other side in this war, and wants it to win. This was made very plain by the leadership of the "anti-war" movement, and also by Michael Moore when he shamefully compared the Iraqi fascist "insurgency" to the American Founding Fathers. To many of these people, any "anti-globalization" movement is better than none.
With the Right-wingers it's easier to diagnose: they are still Lindberghians in essence and they think war is a Jewish-sponsored racket. With the Left, which is supposed to care about secularism and humanism, it's a bit harder to explain an alliance with woman-stoning, gay-burning, Jew-hating medieval theocrats. However, it can be done, once you assume that American imperialism is the main enemy. Even for those who won't go quite that far, the admission that the US Marine Corps might be doing the right thing is a little further than they are prepared to go - because what would then be left of their opposition credentials, which are so dear to them?"

"Osama's Nightmare" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2004/12/29)
"Despite the cries of the experts-for-rent for whom imperfect results always mean failure, we should take heart from Osama's latest message: If any confirmation were needed of the importance of holding elections in Iraq, we just got it. If the terrorists thought they had a chance at the polls, they'd be campaigning instead of killing. ...
The only thing of which we may be certain is that our deadliest enemies are doing all they can to stop Iraq's elections. It's the one goal on which the various terrorist factions and insurgent groups agree. If we needed any further proof that our struggle against terror is about human freedom and the dignity of the common man and woman, our enemies are laying it in front of us." (See also: "Jazeera TV: Bin Laden Tape Urges Iraq Polls Boycott" (Miral Fahmy, Reuters/ABC News, 2004/12/27))

"Bin Laden call met by wave of bloodshed" (Jim Muir, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/29)
"Dozens of Iraqi policemen and soldiers were killed yesterday as insurgents launched a wave of attacks on police stations and checkpoints north of Baghdad in territory dominated by supporters of Saddam Hussein.
The attacks, which cost the lives of up to 30 policemen and members of the fledgling national guard, as well as several civilians, came hours after a tape purporting to be from Osama bin Laden was broadcast urging Iraqis to "do their duty" and fight the Americans and their "infidel" allies.
The tape also called for a boycott of next month's elections.
In the most serious incident, gunmen surrounded the police station at Mukashifa, south of Saddam's home town, Tikrit. Guards were overpowered and 12 policemen, three of them officers, were taken out and shot before the post was blown up."

"No such thing as an ordinary day in Baghdad" (James Hider, The Times, 2004/12/29)
"A week later, Ali, our translator, was late coming to work. He had a very valid excuse.
He was in a taxi when he saw US troops blocking the road while their comrades conducted a house raid. A soldier was beckoning cars forward with his left arm, while pointing to the left with his other arm.
Ali did not understand the signal. Already nervous because his cabbie was from Fallujah and singing the praises of the Mujahidin, he told the driver to stop. As they argued about what the gesture actually meant — advance, or turn left? — another car overtook them and drove towards the soldier.
When the vehicle was 15m away, the soldier opened fire and shot the two occupants dead. The children down the street did not even stop their game."

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

News and commentary:

"A New Divide" (John Podhoretz, New York Post, 2004/12/28)
"But what is not heartening is this sobering fact: We can locate the decline in support for the war effort almost entirely inside the Democratic Party.
By a margin of 80-19, Democrats now say they oppose the decision to go to war. The margin among Republicans is exactly the reverse: 80 percent of GOPers support the war, while 19 percent disapprove.
This is not only a partisan divide. It's a cultural divide. As the year 2004 ends, the rank and file of the Democratic Party has turned decisively and profoundly against the military effort in Iraq. And there is reason to believe it won't be long before they turn on the military as well.
Throughout the year, Democratic politicians have been trying to split the difference with the military — saying they support the troops while opposing the war. But that kind of sophistry won't stand.
The military wants to fight this war. Democrats don't. How long before Democrats decide that our men and women in uniform are just extensions of the president and party they detest — a bunch of warmongering, bloodthirsty and stupid imperialists?" (See also: "Poll shows troops in support of war" (Robert Hodierne, Army Times/USA Today, 2004/12/27))

"The Israeli Crime That Wasn’t" (Alyssa A. Lappen, FrontPageMagazine, 2004/12/28)
Lappen on the Mohammed Al-Dura case: "The bottom line: the tapes suggest that the man and boy were not shot, period, least of all by the Israelis.
Speaking last summer, Foreign Ministry press director Gideon Meir said that reopening this four-year-old case would only cause more damage to Israel: The myth has taken on a life of its own, he said. Besides, some Israeli newsmen say, exposing the lies of Palestinian newsmen and leaders would be like reporting that it rains in the spring, or it's hot in August. It's not news.
But the power of the myth may be precisely why Israel should make a federal case of this affair. Perhaps the Jewish state will do so if France 2 ever presses its case. After all, Mohammed Al-Durrah played a huge role in the incitement to global jihad; the episode has real significance as the first blood libel of the 21st century.
Press behavior was equivalent to that in the 19th century Dreyfus Affair. For the media industry, this case could be equivalent in scale to the Enron accounting scandal." (See also: "The mythical martyr" (Stephane Juffa, The Wall Street Journal/Backspin, 2004/12/06 [2004/11/26]) and "Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?" (James Fallows, The Atlantic, from the June 2003 issue))

"Shattered Glass, Battered Freedom" (Lionel Shriver, The Wall Street Journal, 2004/12/28)
"On the 18th of this month, 1,000 enraged Sikhs stormed the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, throwing eggs, smashing windows, injuring three police officers, attempting to climb onto the stage, and successfully halting the production after it had played for 20 minutes. ... Even more distressing than the triumph of shattered plate glass is the rhetoric to which this conflict has given rise -- and not only from conservative Sikhs, but from leaders of the Catholic Church. The views of Harmander Singh, spokesman for a Sikh advocacy group, were echoed by numerous British television news guests for days: "We are not against freedom of speech, but there's no right to offend."
Oh, but indeed there is.
Freedom of speech that does not embrace the right to offend is a farce. The stipulation that you may say whatever you like so long as you don't hurt anyone's feelings canonizes the milquetoast homily, "If you can't say anything nice. ..." Since rare is the sentiment that does not incense someone, rest assured that in that instance you don't say anything at all. ...
Apparently contemporary "tolerance" does not merely allow others to practice whatever goofy or incomprehensible religion they like -- and sometimes with a rolled eye -- but surrounds any faith with a hands-off halo of sanctity, so that whatever is sacred to you must also be sacred to me. Disquietingly, this halo in Britain may be enshrined into law." (See also: "Violent Sikh demo forces theatre to cancel play" (Nick Britten, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/21))

"Suicide attack on Shia chief as Iraq poll tensions rise" (Jim Muir, The Daily Telegraph, 2004/12/28)
"With tension rising sharply in advance of next month's Iraqi elections, a senior Shia Muslim politician survived a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad yesterday, while the only serious Sunni party still in the field announced that it was pulling out of the poll.
The car bomb went off in a busy street outside the office and home of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and is the number one figure on the unified list of Shia candidates in the Jan 30 election.
The suicide bomber was trying to ram the gate of Mr Hakim's building when the car exploded, devastating several houses and wrecking cars.
Some of the building's guards were among the 13 people believed killed in the attack. Local residents and passers-by were also among the dead. Many others were injured.
Mr Hakim and the SCIRI leadership were unharmed. He blamed the attack on Sunni extremists and elements still loyal to Saddam Hussein, and called on his followers not to seek revenge.
"We have chosen the path of non-violence and we will stick to it," he said."

"Sunni Party Pulls Out of Iraq Vote As Doubts Grow" (Karl Vick, The Washington Post, 2004/12/28)
"The largest political party representing Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority announced Monday that it would drop out of the Jan. 30 election, dealing a fresh blow to the vote's credibility on the same day the top Shiite Muslim candidate survived a car bombing.
The withdrawal of the Iraqi Islamic Party, combined with the assassination attempt on cleric Abdul Aziz Hakim, heightened concerns that the parliamentary election may produce a lopsided result, further alienating Sunni areas where the armed insurgency is growing. ...
"We asked to postpone the election long ago because we believe the security situation in the country is not suitable to hold elections," Mohsen Abdul Hamid, head of the party, told reporters in Baghdad.
'The Iraqis don't understand the elections yet," he said. "We need enough time, at least six months, to prepare ourselves. . . . The security issue is very complicated.'"

Added in archive:
"I'm disgusted ministers did nothing as Sikhs forced play's closure, says Rushdie" (Rajeev Syal, The Sunday Telegraph, 2004/12/26)
"A Fighting Faith" (Peter Beinart, The New Republic, 2004/12/02)

Monday, December 27, 2004

News and commentary:

"Jazeera TV: Bin Laden Tape Urges Iraq Polls Boycott" (Miral Fahmy, Reuters/ABC News, 2004/12/27)
"An audio tape purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged Iraqis Monday to boycott January's elections, saying anyone who takes part would be an "infidel."
The speaker on the tape, aired by Arabic television channel Al Jazeera Monday, also praised bloody attacks by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on U.S. troops and government officials in Iraq, hailing the Jordanian militant as a true "soldier of God" and al Qaeda's leader in Iraq.
"This (Iraqi) constitution is blasphemous … and anyone who takes part in this election consciously and willingly is an infidel," said the speaker, whose voice sounded similar to previous bin Laden recordings. ...
"I consider the prince of the mujahideen, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a true soldier of God," the speaker said. "He is the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq and everybody should follow him and obey him."
"Their (Zarqawi's group) brave operations against the Americans and the government of (Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad) Allawi make us happy and proud," he added."

"Imam’s throat slit for saying peace prayers" (Shafiq Mir, expressindia, 2004/12/27)
"Danwakote (rajouri), December 27: Piqued over the peace prayers at the local Jamia Masjid in non-descript hamlet of Danwakote in Rajouri district, militants last night abducted and slit the throat of the Imam of the mosque, sparking off a huge protest demonstration in the area.
Sources said today morning, hundreds of villagers from Danwakote and its adjoining areas came out on the streets to protest the killing of Moulvi Mohammad Bashir, the head priest of the Jamia Masjid mosque. ...
According to villagers, at 8:30 pm last night, some unidentified gunmen barged into the house of Bashir and abducted him and another villager Khalil Ahmad at gunpoint.
After taking them a kilometer away, militants released Ahmad, but slit throat of Bashir, whose body was spotted by villagers." (Hat tip: The Corner.)

"Militant about 'Islamism'" (Janet Tassel, Harvard Magazine, from the January-February 2005 issue)
A profile of Daniel Pipes: "In his case, applied scholarship is the weapon for what he calls "hand-to-hand combat" with militant Islam (or radical Islam, Wahhabism, or Islamism, terms he uses interchangeably) — a "true successor," in his words, of fascism and his father's nemesis, communism.
This might be the place for one of Pipes's definitions of the adversary, a virtual catalog of frights:

Militant Islam derives from Islam but is a misanthropic, misogynist, triumphalist, millenarian, anti-modern, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, terroristic, jihadistic, and suicidal version of it. Fortunately, it appeals to only about 10 percent to 15 percent of Muslims, meaning that a substantial majority would prefer a more moderate version.

Nevertheless, this "totalitarian ideology," even with "only" 10 to 15 percent signed on (roughly 100 to 150 million persons worldwide), "regards itself as the only rival, and the inevitable successor, to Western civilization." To many people this is scary stuff. But such warnings are his specialty. Among his many disquieting predictions, he wrote, as early as March 1994:

From [an American] point of view, the Middle East increasingly stands out as a region that develops and exports problems, including political radicals, terrorism, drugs, unconventional weaponry, and conspiracy theories. We should recognize that this region resembles the Pacific rim less than it does Africa; and we should ready ourselves for the many troubles yet to come."

"The Millennium War" (Austin Bay, The Weekly Standard, from the 2005/01/03 issue)
"In September 2001, I suggested we call this hideous conflict the Millennium War, a nom de guerre that captures both the chronological era and the ideological dimensions of the conflict. If there is one mistake we've made in fighting this war, it's the way we've soft-pedaled the ideological dimensions, and that soft-pedaling has blurred our goals. This really is a fight for the future, a battle between our free, open political system and the unholy alliance of despots and millenarian Islamofascists whose very existence depends on denying liberty.
Recognizing the ideological component as an essential feature of the war indicates the most desirable End State to the war would have two features: (1) democratic nations that police terrorism, instead of promoting it or seeding it; (2) an Islamic clerisy that understands its role on Earth is spiritual guidance and education, not temporal political control.
A large order? The task is absolutely huge, but so was World War II, when heavy history fell on "the greatest generation." It's this generation's turn to accept the challenge of building free nation states and protecting Muslim moderates, or we will face terrible destructive consequences."

"The Best Defense Is a Good Offense" (Anthony H. Cordesman, The New York Times, 2004/12/27)
"The United States can win in Iraq only through offensive action. It cannot afford to make every American base a fortress, or to disperse scarce manpower and other military resources in force-protection missions. United States forces have to be mobile and able to redeploy where the threat is - even though such redeployments often mean moving forces to vulnerable areas. If the Pentagon concentrates on protecting troops in the short run, the war will last longer and total casualties will be greater. Worse, the United States will simply never win. ...
For months and years to come, insurgents and terrorists will continue to try to exploit every fault line in Iraqi society, in American politics, and in regional and international affairs as well.
There is no certainty that the United States will win in Iraq. The war after the war is a far more difficult one than the war against Saddam Hussein. If America overreacts to attacks and lets the enemy drive its agenda, losing the war in Iraq will become not just possible but almost certain."

"Poll shows troops in support of war" (Robert Hodierne, Army Times/USA Today, 2004/12/27)
"Despite a year of ferocious combat, mounting casualties and frequent deployments, support for the war in Iraq remains very high among the active-duty military, according to a Military Times Poll.
Sixty-three percent of respondents approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, and 60% remain convinced it is a war worth fighting. Support for the war is even greater among those who have served longest in the combat zone: Two-thirds of combat vets say the war is worth fighting.
But the men and women in uniform are under no illusions about how long they will be fighting in Iraq; nearly half say they expect to be there more than five years."

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

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Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

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