Archived news and commentary: September 19 - 25, 2005

2005/09/19 - 2005/09/25
2005/09/12 - 2005/09/18
2005/09/05 - 2005/09/11
2005/08/29 - 2005/09/04
2005/08/22 - 2005/08/28
2005/08/15 - 2005/08/21

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, September 25, 2005

News and commentary:

"God is Great # 3"
(John Latham, Lisson Gallery, 1990)

"British museum pulls religion-themed work" (AP/Charlotte.com, 2005/09/25)
"LONDON - The Tate Britain museum has removed a work made up of sacred texts from Christianity, Judaism and Islam torn and mounted on glass to avoid offending religious sensibilities following the July transit bombings in London, the museum said Sunday.
The museum said it was particularly concerned that John Latham's piece "God Is Great" could upset Muslims. It pulled the work from an exhibition of Latham's art despite his objection.
"Having sought wide-ranging advice, Tate feels that to exhibit the work in London in the current sensitive climate, post July 7, would not be appropriate," the museum said in a statement.
Three of the four men suspected of carrying out the July 7 attacks, which killed 52 victims and the bombers, were young Pakistani Britons. All were Muslim, and much political debate in Britain has since focused on homegrown Islamic extremism.
"God Is Great" consists of a large sheet of glass and copies of the Quran, the Bible and Judaism's Talmud that have been cut apart, with the pieces mounted on either side of the glass to make it appear that they are embedded in it. ...
Latham, 84, who made his name as a member of London's 1960s artistic avant garde, said the piece, which he made 10 years ago, was not anti-Muslim.
"Tate Britain have shown cowardice over this," he told The Observer newspaper. 'I think it's a daft thing to do because, if they want to help the militants, this is the way to do it.'"

"May Chidiac, a Lebanese political talk show host..."
(AP, 2005/09/25)
"May Chidiac, a Lebanese political talk show host who was wounded when a bomb placed under her car exploded in the town of Ghadir, near the Christian port city of Jounieh, in northern Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2005, is seen in Beirut, Lebanon, late Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005."

"Car bomb wounds anti-Syrian journalist in Lebanon" (Lin Noueihed, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/25)
"BEIRUT (Reuters) - A prominent Lebanese anti-Syrian news anchor was seriously wounded when a bomb blew up her car on Sunday, fuelling fears of a slide into violence as the UN wraps up a probe into the murder of an ex-prime minister.
May Chidiac, 43, a Christian journalist, is a familiar face to Lebanese. She had hosted a talk show earlier in the day to discuss public fears of more violence ahead of the UN investigators presenting their report, expected next month.
A security source said the bomb weighed around 500 grams and was planted beneath Chidiac's white four-wheel drive. It exploded as she was getting in, destroying the car.
Doctors said her left leg beneath the knee was blown off in the blast, which also set her hair and clothes ablaze. They also operated to try to save her left hand. She was in a stable condition in hospital on Sunday night. ...
Chidiac began reading the news on LBC, a Christian-owned channel that has long been critical of Syria's domination of Lebanon, 20 years ago in the midst of the civil war.
"Is this a message to our colleague May, or to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation as a whole or to Lebanon's media body or to political freedom in Lebanon?" LBC said in an editorial message at the start of its news broadcast."

"What happens if we pull out of Iraq? Think Beirut - to the power of 10" (Niall Ferguson, The Sunday Telegraph, 2005/09/25)
"Let us not delude ourselves. A year ago it was possible to write about the potential for civil war in Iraq. Today that civil war is well under way, claiming hundreds of lives last week alone. The question is, are we still in a position to intervene effectively to prevent this civil war from spiralling out of control? Have we in fact ceased to be players and become mere spectators? ...
Is it time, then, for the Americans to revive their tried-and-tested policy of proclaiming victory and getting the hell out? I suspect many readers - not least those with sons, brothers or husbands in the services - fervently wish that they would, preferably preceded by us.
And yet, as Kipling so well understood, there are worse things than trying, however imperfectly, to police a foreign land. (Having spent last week in Cambodia, I have just been forcefully reminded of the horrors that befell Indo-China after the Americans abandoned South Vietnam.)
The kind of violence that we could see in Iraq if we quit now, leaving full-scale civil war to rage, would dwarf all that has happened since 2003. I once asked a friend in Beirut what he thought would end up happening in Iraq. "Like Lebanon in the 1980s," he replied, "but to the power of ten."
Nor is there any guarantee that it would remain a civil war. Last week, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, issued a chilling warning to the Bush administration that Iraq was on the point of falling apart. His fear is that this could "bring other countries in the region into the conflict".
By comparison with that scenario, what happened last week in Basra really was - in another time-honoured phrase of British imperialism - just 'a little local difficulty'."

"SAS in secret war against Iranian agents" (Michael Smith and Ali Rifat, The Sunday Times, 2005/09/25)
"Two SAS soldiers rescued last week after being arrested by Iraqi police and handed over to a militia were engaged in a “secret war” against insurgents bringing sophisticated bombs into the country from Iran.
The men had left their base near the southern Iraqi city of Basra to carry out reconnaissance and supply a second patrol with “more tools and fire power”, said a source with knowledge of their activities.
They had been in Basra for seven weeks on an operation prompted by intelligence that a new type of roadside bomb which has been used against British troops was among weapons being smuggled over the Iranian border.
The bombs, designed to pierce the armour beneath coalition vehicles, are similar to ones supplied by Iran to Hezbollah, the Islamic militant group.
“Since the increase in attacks against UK forces two months ago, a 24-strong SAS team has been working out of Basra to provide a safety net to stop the bombers getting into the city from Iran,” said one source. 'The aim is to identify routes used by insurgents and either capture or kill them.'"

"Israel Launches Airstrikes Against Hamas" (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/25)
"Israel launched a "crushing" retaliation Saturday against Hamas in Gaza with deadly airstrikes, troops massed at the border and a planned ground incursion after militants fired 35 rockets at Israeli towns — their first major attack since the Gaza pullout.
Israeli aircraft pounded suspected weapons facilities and other militant targets throughout the Gaza Strip late Saturday and early Sunday, wounding at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said. Earlier, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at cars carrying militants in Gaza City, killing two Hamas militants.
In the West Bank, the military arrested 207 wanted Palestinian men overnight, most of them members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements.
The military has conducted sweeping arrests of Islamic Jihad militants since a February cease-fire with Palestinians. But this was the first time it has detained large numbers of Hamas members. Among those arrested were Hassan Yousef and Mohammed Ghazal, two of the most prominent Hamas leader in the West Bank, officials said."

Saturday, September 24, 2005

News and commentary:

"911 WAS AN INSIDE JOB!"
(Michelle Malkin, flickr.com, 2005/09/24)
See also: "A day among the moonbats" (Michelle Malkin, michellemalkin.com, 2005/09/24)

"Crowds Opposed to Iraq War March on D.C." (Jennifer C. Kerr, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/24)
"WASHINGTON - Crowds opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House on Saturday, shouting "Peace now" in the largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the U.S. invasion.
The rally stretched through the day and into the night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and dissent on the National Mall.Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, noting that organizers had hoped to draw 100,000 people, said, "I think they probably hit that." ...
"Bush Lied, Thousands Died," said one sign. "End the Occupation," said another. More than 1,900 members of the U.S. armed forces have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003. ...
Folk singer Joan Baez marched with the protesters and later serenaded them at a concert at the foot of the Washington Monument. An icon of the 1960s Vietnam War protests, she said Iraq is already a mess and the troops need to come home immediately. "There is chaos. There's bloodshed. There's carnage."
The protest in the capital showcased a series of demonstrations in foreign and other U.S. cities. A crowd in London, estimated by police at 10,000, marched in support of withdrawing British troops from Iraq. Highlighting the need to get out, protesters said, were violent clashes between insurgents and British troops in the southern Iraq city of Basra." (See also: "Bad Company" (Investor's Business Daily, 2005/09/23))

"Teenage punks behind black hijabs" (Janice Turner, The Times, 2005/09/24)
"The unsmiling girl in the black hijab defined her identity thus: “I am a Muslim of Arab origin, living within British society.” Hadil, 18, could not attend a more racially integrated school than Quintin Kynaston in West London where, according to its Ofsted report, “the wealth of cultures and faiths is valued, respected and appreciated”.
Hadil, along with a number of fellow pupils, had taken part in a documentary called Young, British and Muslim and here she was up on stage, giving her views to an audience at the National Film Theatre. Yet in reply to the question “Do you feel British?” Hadil shrugged and said: “I look at British culture and see no moral values which appeal to me.” ...
So after the debate I asked Hadil if there was nothing about British society she admired? Did she not believe women should be able to vote? (Yes, she did.) If she had to appear in court, did she think her testimony was worth that of any man? (Too right.) Had she not just enjoyed, that very afternoon, freedom of religious expression — indeed of an expensive, state-funded, multi-media variety? (Well, yes.) Wasn’t it fabulous that while given the choice of wearing the hijab, she was not compelled to do so? (Yes.) And that, although she does receive the occasional rude remark about her chosen dress, she mostly walks the streets unmolested? Were not these freedoms also part of British morality, just as much as throwing up outside All Bar One or wearing your knickers above your jeans? And was there a Muslim nation on earth that would afford her the same rights? (Probably not.)
It was a little like the “What have the Romans ever done for us?” scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Yes, apart from equality, democracy, religious tolerance and freedom of speech, British morality had done nothing for Hadil."

"Divided Basrans remain resigned to British presence" (Anthony Loyd, The Times, 2005/09/24)
Basra II: "Of 40 people asked by The Times on the streets of Basra whether or not the British should leave Iraq after Monday’s clashes, 23 said “no”. Reaction among the city’s 1.5 million predominantly Shia population divided roughly into three camps.
The rogue police unit who first detained the two British special forces soldiers were believed to be a splinter faction of Hojatoleslam al-Sadr’s powerful militia, the Mahdi Army, hence Sadrists in Basra generally condemn the British. Their propaganda machine claims that one of the arrested soldiers was an Israeli spy, and that the undercover troops were intending to plant bombs in Basra.
Supporters of the leading Shia party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who have recently clashed with Sadrists, tend to view the British raid on their rival’s police station more even-handedly, taking the classic Arab attitude: “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
Between the two Shia factions lies a large percentage of Iraqis sick of corruption and violence, who regard the British as the only credible source of stability before the constitutional referendum on October 15."

"Ayatollah urges party to reject draft constitution" (Adrian Blomfield, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/09/24)
Basra I: "Basra lurched further towards religious extremism yesterday after the leader of one of the province's biggest political parties instructed his supporters to reject a draft constitution in a national referendum next month.
The unexpected announcement by Ayatollah Mohammed Yaqubi, head of the Fadhila party, has shocked British diplomats and raised fears that Basra could become the main focus for violence in the Shia-dominated south.
Mr Yaqubi's declaration came as the most revered Shia figure in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, signalled that he would endorse the constitution and indicated the possibility of a damaging split among Iraq's usually cohesive Shia majority.
Mr Yaqubi's apparent mutiny also risks turning Basra into a radical outpost, western diplomats warned.
"There has always been a small possibility that Basra could become something like the Fallujah of the south," a western diplomat in Baghdad said.
'I guess this brings that eventuality one step closer. The hope is that Sistani will persuade Yaqubi to back down.'"

Friday, September 23, 2005

News and commentary:

"Blast at Gaza Rally Kills 15, Injures 80" (Sarah El Deeb, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/23)
"A truck filled with masked militants and homemade weapons exploded at a Hamas rally Friday, killing at least 15 Palestinians and wounding 85 — including children — bringing a grisly and terrifying end to one of the last gatherings by armed groups celebrating Israel's Gaza pullout. ...
Hamas swiftly claimed Israeli aircraft had targeted the militants with a missile. "We will avenge the blood of our martyrs," said Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader.
But Palestinian officials said the explosion was set off by the mishandling of explosives. The Interior Ministry issued a statement calling on Hamas "to shoulder its responsibility for these ... explosions instead of making accusations against others."
An accidental explosion would be only the latest in a string of deadly mishaps for militant groups in Gaza.
A Hamas weapons warehouse exploded this month in Gaza City, killing six people. Hamas claimed it was an Israeli attack, but Palestinian security forces found the blast was an accident caused by the militants.
During an Islamic Jihad rally at the abandoned Jewish settlement of Netzarim last week, a gunman died after accidentally shooting himself in the head."

"Pattern of Abuse" (Adam Zagorin, TIME, 2005/09/23)
"A decorated Army officer reveals new allegations of detainee mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did the military ignore his charges?":
"The new allegations center around systematic abuse of Iraqi detainees by men of the 82nd Airborne at Camp Mercury, a forward operating base located near Fallujah, the scene of a major uprising against the U.S. occupation in April 2004, according to sources familiar with the report and accounts given by the Captain, who is in his mid-20s, to Senate staff. ...
In addition, the report details what the Captain says was his unsuccessful effort over 17 months to get the attention of military superiors. Ultimately he approached the Republican senators.
The Human Rights Watch report—as well as accounts given to Senate staff—describe officers as aware of the abuse but routinely ignoring or covering it up, amid chronic confusion over U.S. military detention policies and whether or not the Geneva Convention applied. ...
The sergeant says that military intelligence officers would tell soldiers that the detainees "were bad" and had been involved in killing or trying to kill Americans, implying that they deserved whatever punishment they got. 'I would be told, 'These guys were IED [improvised explosive device] trigger men last week.' So we would f___ them up. F___ them up bad ... At the same time we should be held to a higher standard. I know that now. It was wrong. There are a set of standards. But you gotta understand, this was the norm. Everyone would just sweep it under the rug ... We should never have been allowed to watch guys we had fought.'" (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan. See also the report: "Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division" (Human Rights Watch, September 2005))

"Bad Company" (Investor's Business Daily, 2005/09/23)
"The media have pushed the idea that the demonstration this weekend at the White House was an "anti-war" gathering. What they didn't say was who was behind it. ...
For the record, the lead organizer is ANSWER, which the media routinely refer to as an "antiwar group."
It is nothing of the sort.
In fact, ANSWER is a front group for the Stalinist Workers World Party. And any group that qualifies for that epithet in front of its name deserves special scrutiny, since Josef Stalin was responsible for the murder of as many as 25 million human beings.
Well, you might ask, does it really matter? It sure does.
Imagine for a moment it was a different group that sponsored the demonstration — say, a neo-Nazi group. Think The Washington Post and other media would report that? You bet they would.
After all, Adolf Hitler and his thugs were some of the worst mass murderers of all time. We would expect — no, demand — media to report that a demonstration attended by hundreds of middle class moms, concerned fathers and pacifist students was in fact organized by Brownshirts.
So why do communists — particularly those who march under Stalin's flag — get different treatment? And why do thousands of average people feel comfortable marching arm in arm with them?"

More on ANSWER:
"Dazed and confused about Iraq" (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com, 2003/10/27)
"No Answer" (Peter Beinart, The New Republic, 2003/07/11)
"The Saddam-Serbia Alliance" (Stephen Schwartz, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/10/28)
"Peace Kooks" (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com/FrontPageMagazine, 2002/10/17)

"Middle East tension rises as UN prepares to accuse Syria of Hariri assassination" (Ewen MacAskill et al., The Guardian, 2005/09/23)
"UN investigators will next month directly implicate the Syrian government in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, potentially igniting a new Middle East crisis.
According to a source close to the investigation, evidence pointing to Syrian involvement in the murder has grown - in particular, from a Syrian defector, who claims he was in the room when Hariri's assassination was discussed. "The defector is singing," the source said.
Evidence recovered by a team of six British divers off the Beirut coast, where Hariri's motorcade was blown apart, had also played an important part in the inquiry, the source added. The scene of the explosion was quickly covered over after the murder and much evidence lost, but the divers recovered human remains and car and truck parts from the seafloor.
Detlev Mehlis, who is leading the UN inquiry, is scheduled to present his final report on October 25. Four Lebanese generals have been arrested so far on suspicion of murder. But Mr Mehlis, a former German state prosecutor, will also name several influential figures in the regime as suspects in the killing, the source said."

"Bomber's widow says extremists twisted his mind" (David Sanderson, The Times, 2005/09/23)
"The widow of one of the July 7 suicide bombers told how her “innocent and naive” husband had been poisoned by elements in radical mosques as she cradled their new born baby daughter in her arms.
Samantha Lewthwaite said that she “totally abhorred” the actions of her husband Jermaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people on a Piccadilly Line tube train near King’s Cross; but she said that she still wore the white gold ring her husband had given her and would pass it on to their first child, a son, Abdullah, when he marries. Ms Lewthwaite, 21, a Muslim convert, said that her husband had been a peaceful man whose behaviour changed when he began visiting mosques in London and Luton.
She said: “His behaviour gradually began to change. He turned from the man that I married. In hindsight I can now see exactly what was happening to him and why. How these people could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful. He was an innocent, naive and simple man. I suppose he must have been an ideal candidate.”
She said that Jamaican-born Lindsay started becoming a stranger to her when they moved from Huddersfield to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
“I firmly believe if we had stayed up North he would be the same Jamal,” she said in an interview with The Sun newspaper, 'but he got involved in mosques in London and Luton and became a changed person. In October through to November 2004 he met a group who changed his life. He became a man I didn’t recognise. I have no doubt his mind was twisted in there.'"

Thursday, September 22, 2005

News and commentary:

"Powerful Shiite Cleric Backs Constitution" (Tarek El-Tablawy, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/22)
"The country's most powerful Shiite cleric endorsed the draft constitution Thursday, rejecting opposition voiced by two popular leaders of
Iraq's majority sect and underlining a rift also on display in anti-British violence in the southern city of Basra.
Two officials in the Shiite Muslim hierarchy in Najaf said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called senior aides together and told them to promote a "yes" vote among the faithful during the Oct. 15 national referendum on the constitution. ...
Iraqi security forces in the south have largely fallen under the authority of militias — the military wings of Iraq's various Shiite factions. The Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stands largely in opposition to the Badr Brigade, which owes allegiance to the biggest Shiite party, SCIRI.
SCIRI is beholden to al-Sistani, whose decision to endorse the constitution sets up a political showdown with al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army — both vehement opponents of the charter.
Al-Sadr was joined in his opposition Thursday by Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yaqoubi, who issued a statement from his office in Basra instructing his followers to vote against the constitution."

"My escape from blazing tank" (Anthony Lloyd, The Times, 2005/09/22)
"Sergeant George Long tells how he fled petrol bombers in Basra":
"'My face was on fire. Petrol poured down behind me and into the back. Luckily I had goggles on. It was panic. You don’t think about anything, you just want to put the flames out.'
Sergeant George Long, 29, of the Staffordshire Regiment, yesterday described to The Times the moment he had to dive in flames from his Warrior armoured vehicle as a furious mob closed around it outside a Basra police station.
It was a moment witnessed by millions on television in Britain and sparked off a new wave of soul-searching about Britain’s role in Iraq. ...
Second Lieutenant John Cliffe, a 25-year-old platoon commander with the Staffordshire Regiment, was also seen by millions on TV when he abandoned his blazing Warrior and leapt into the mob of rioters below.
“There was a hell of a lot of flame. It was Catch-22: do I stay and go up in flames or get out? There was burning fuel seeping through my turret on to my gunner and me. The vehicle was stalled. The radio was jammed. We were getting hammered by petrol bombs and burning tyres. I thought I had a fighting chance. So I jumped.”
He was nearly 30 metres from the nearby line of the Coldstream Guards who, on foot and in full riot gear, were themselves being assailed by rocks and petrol bombs.
They saw Second Lieutenant Cliffe jump from his vehicle, followed quickly by his gunner.
Knowing his life was in danger, one of the soldiers fired into the mob and he scrambled to safety. But the Iraqi casualties had little impact on the rioters. “They backed off, but only for a small period. Gunfire is a daily occurrence for them,” Company Sergeant-Major John Sheard said."

"Iraqi Forces Show Signs Of Progress In Offensive" (Jonathan Finer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/22)
"Tall Afar's Sunni Muslim majority and its strategic location on a main insurgent smuggling route, 40 miles from Iraq's border with Syria, make the operation here an important test case for the transition of security duties to Iraqis, commanders said. "If we can get things under control and begin handing off responsibilities here, we can do it anywhere," McMaster said. "It won't happen overnight, but progress is being made."
But while it has provided evidence that the capabilities of Iraq's security forces are improving, the operation in Tall Afar has also laid bare the challenges they face as their role in fighting the insurgency expands.
Because the ranks of the Iraqi police force and army are filled mostly with Shiite Arabs and ethnic Kurds, they are perceived in many of the country's Sunni sections not as national forces but as factional hit squads bent on persecution. The ethnic tensions were evident in Tall Afar, a city of just over 200,000 predominated by Sunni Turkmens. ...
U.S. and Iraqi commanders acknowledge that it will be many months before the Iraqi units are able to function on their own, a belief echoed by dozens of Tall Afar residents interviewed during the operation. One year ago this month, U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through Tall Afar, but when the Americans largely withdrew from the region, the insurgency returned, stronger than ever.
"If the Americans leave, the chaos will come back. The bad people will come back again, just like before," said Abdullah Wahab Muhammed Younis, one of the city's most prominent Shiite sheiks, who said insurgents have killed 14 members of his family and wounded 33 in the past year.
'The Iraqi army is stronger than it was, but they are not ready. Not yet.'"

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

News and commentary:

"Snubbing Democracy" (Ralph Peters, New York Post, 2005/09/21)
"For 50 years, the American left complained that we supported dictators instead of backing human rights and democracy. On Sunday, the lefties got yet another dose of what they used to demand: Free elections in Afghanistan, long the victim of tyranny.
The left's reaction? Ignore the success of the balloting and explain away its importance by bending the truth until it's as twisted as an arrow designed by a liberal-arts faculty.
Why? Because Afghan democracy was enabled by the U.S. military — and by that devil incarnate, George W. Bush. ...
Even major U.S. news outlets, disappointed by the lack of Election Day bloodshed, relegated the voting to the inner pages or to a brief mention well along in the broadcast. Heroism in the cause of democracy doesn't merit headlines.
Instead, we heard whining that just over 50 percent of eligible Afghans voted, that there were too many candidates, that warlords were allowed to run, that the Taliban's back in business and, generally, that Afghanistan still isn't a replica of Vermont four years after its liberation. ...
We all should be exhilarated by the valor and spunk displayed by Afghan voters. Left or right, we should be heartened by the yearning of human beings to control their own destiny, to cast off ancient traditions of oppressive governance. And we should be boundlessly proud of our troops, who gave the Afghan population this opportunity.
Instead, we get shrugged shoulders and cheap criticism. The non-coverage of Sunday's elections said far more about us than it did about Afghans."

"We Need American Troops" (Jalal Talabani, The Wall Street Journal, 2005/09/21)
"There is no more important international issue today than the need to defeat the curse of terrorism. And as the first democratically elected president of Iraq, I have a responsibility to ensure that the world's youngest democracy survives the inherently difficult transition from totalitarianism to pluralism. A transformation of the Iraqi state and Iraqi society is impossible without a sustained commitment of soldiers from the United States and other democracies. ...
Without foreign intervention, the transition in Iraq would have been from Saddam's bloodstained hands to his psychopathic offspring. Instead, thanks to American leadership, Iraqis have been given an opportunity of peaceful, participatory politics. Contrary to the new conventional wisdom, Iraq and the history of 20th-century Europe demonstrate that force of arms can implant democracy in the most arid soil.
The rapidity of the democratization and reform of Iraq is staggering. There was no German state for four years after the Second World War. By contrast, Iraq has moved from a centralized, one-man dictatorship to a decentralized, federal republic in half that time. ...
Without American forces, the vision of American leadership and the quiet fortitude of the American people, Iraqis would be almost alone in the world. With its allies, the United States has provided Iraqis with an unprecedented opportunity. Iraqis have responded by enthusiastically embracing democracy and volunteering to fight for their country. By giving us the tools, your troops help us to defend Iraqi democracy and to finish the job of uprooting Baathist fascism."

"No 'Turning Back' in Egypt" (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, 2005/09/21)
"It's hard to imagine Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a change agent. During the 24 years he has ruled this country, he has displayed a military man's passion for stability and a corresponding wariness of democracy. His Egypt has often symbolized the political stasis of the Arab world.
But unlikely as it sounds, the 77-year-old Mubarak won reelection this month on a platform of political and economic reform. The fact that even the pharaonic Mubarak is running as a democrat illustrates the power of the reform movement in the Arab world today. The movement is potent because it's coming from the Arab societies themselves and not just from democracy enthusiasts in Washington.
I can't predict whether Mubarak will deliver on the promises he made during his campaign. I can see all the reasons why he should and all the reasons why he won't. But what's unmistakably clear in the aftermath of Egypt's first semblance of a multi-candidate presidential election is that the country's old authoritarian system has broken apart. I doubt Mubarak could put it back together even if he tried."

"At this of all times, don't start panicking" (Magnus Linklater, The Times, 2005/09/21)
Basra II: "There have been numerous reports recently that hostile militias have infiltrated the police, and even taken control in some areas, but if they are now involved in internecine warfare against coalition forces, then that is a grim development, introducing an element of instability that even Baghdad has not had to contend with.
None of this merits the panic reaction of those who have seized on these dramatic events as evidence that British troops should announce forthwith the date for a pullout, leaving Basra to the tender mercies of Moqtada al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army. This was a violent attack but, as Brigadier John Lorimer, who was in charge of the operation, pointed out, it involved a small crowd of fewer than 300 people. Colonel Tim Collins, who commanded the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment during the invasion, observed on Newsnight that barely a dozen petrol bombs were thrown — “no worse than a night on the streets of Belfast”.
To back down in the face of a mob assault would be to send a signal that would be welcomed by every militia gang jockeying for power in Basra in the run-up to the referendum on Iraq’s constitution, and invite the open warfare that the south, for all its troubles, has hitherto avoided. Nothing would be more likely to fan the flames of insurrection. Above all, it would be the worst possible message to send to British soldiers patrolling the streets of Basra, who are attempting to guarantee the security of its citizens."

"SAS stormed prison to save soldiers from execution" (Philip Webster and Ali Hamdani, The Times, 2005/09/21)
Basra I: "British troops stormed an Iraqi police compound in Basra because they feared that two captured SAS soldiers were in danger of being summarily executed by Shia militiamen.
“The intelligence we had received left us in no doubt these men were going to be killed,” one senior military source told The Times yesterday.
Monday’s events caused deep concern within the Government yesterday. John Reid, the Defence Secretary, raised the prospect that Iraqi police seized the two special forces soldiers in collusion with the Mahdi Army, a banned militia loyal to the Shia firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr. The behaviour of the Iraqi police was worrying and not yet understood, he said.
Fears that hardline Islamic militia are tightening their grip on southern Iraq, with the connivance of Iraqi police, put Tony Blair under pressure to outline an exit strategy for the 8,500 British forces in Iraq. ...
The British action angered the Iraqi authorities. Muhammad al-Waili, the Governor of Basra province, called it barbaric, savage and irresponsible. A spokesman for Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi Prime Minister, called it a “very unfortunate development”.
Iraqi television fuelled that anger by broadcasting pictures of the two soldiers inside the station as the police inspected wigs, Arab headdresses, an anti-tank missile and communications equipment allegedly seized from the soldiers’ car."

"Agreement on weapons founders after 24 hours" (Jane Macartney, The Times, 2005/09/21)
"North Korea dismissed a deal to give up its nuclear arms programme just one day after it was struck, with a vow to keep the weapons until Washington allows for the provision of civilian atomic reactors.
The reclusive Stalinist state has backtracked before on agreements and the deal is not yet dead. Within minutes of Monday’s agreement between North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China, experts said that the document was long on words, vague on timing, and short on action.
America “should not even dream of” Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear capability before it receives light-water reactors, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said, returning to the main stumbling block during two years of talks that had appeared to achieve a breakthrough in Beijing, China, on Monday. “This is our just and consistent stand as solid as a deeply rooted rock,” the ministry said."

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

News and commentary:

"Amir"
(Direland, 2005/09/20)
"Amir is a 22-year-old gay Iranian who was arrested by Iran’s morality police as part of a massive Internet entrapment campaign targeting gays. He was beaten and tortured while in custody, threatened with death, and lashed 100 times."

"Iran sanctions state violence against gay people" (OutRage!, 2005/09/20)
Amir II: "'This is a further example of the violent homophobia of the Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist regime,' said Brett Lock of OutRage!
OutRage! is appalled that large sections of liberal and left opinion in the West shows little concern regarding the murderous brutality of the clerical fascist regime in Tehran.
"We deplore the gullibility of many gay, left and human rights groups concerning the abuse of LGBT human rights in Iran.
"Too many are willing to believe the smears and slurs of the Iranian government and state-approved newspapers like Qods.
"When two young men were executed for same-sex acts in the Iranian city of Mashad in July, some left and human rights organisations accepted at face value claims by the state-controlled media that the youths were hanged for rape.
"Similar gullibility has been shown by some left-wingers. They have long swallowed Iran's homophobic propaganda.
"Believing the stories in Iran’s state-sanctioned media is like accepting the news as reported by the press in Franco’s Spain or Pinochet’s Chile.
'Where are the left-wing campaigns in western countries to support the freedom struggles of Iranian LGBTs, women, democrats, socialists and workers?'"

"'Next Time, You'll Be Executed': A young, gay Iranian torture victim speaks out" (Doug Ireland, Gay City News, 2005/09/20)
Amir I: "Amir is a 22-year-old gay Iranian who was arrested by Iran’s morality police as part of a massive Internet entrapment campaign targeting gays. He was beaten and tortured while in custody, threatened with death, and lashed 100 times. He escaped from Iran in August, and is now in Turkey, where he awaits the granting of asylum by a gay-friendly country.
In a two hour telephone interview from Turkey, Amir -- through a translator -- provided a terrifying, first-hand account of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s intense and extensive anti-gay crackdown, which swept up Amir and made him its victim.":
"'There was a metal chair in the middle of the room -- they put a gas flame under the chair, and made me sit on it as the metal seat got hotter and hotter. They threatened to send me to an army barracks where all the soldiers were going to rape me. There was a soft drink bottle sitting on a table -- Ali Panahi told one of the other basiji to take the bottle and shove it up my as, screaming, ‘This will teach you not to want any more cock!’ I was so afraid of sitting in that metal chair as it got hotter and hotter that I confessed. Then they brought out my file, and told me that I was a ‘famous faggot’ in Shiraz. They beat me up so badly that I passed out, and was thrown, unconscious, into a holding cell.
"When I came to, I saw there were several dozen other gay guys in the cell with me. One of them told me that, after they had taken him in, they beat him and forced him to set up dates with people through chat rooms -- and each one of those people had been arrested, those were the other people in that cell with me.'
'We were eventually all taken to court, and cross-examined. The judge sentenced four of us, including me, to public flogging. The news was printed all over the newspapers that a group of homosexuals had been arrested, with our names. I got 100 lashes -- I passed out before the 100 lashes were over. When I woke up, my arms and legs were so numb that I fell over when they picked me up from the platform on which I’d been lashed. They had told me that, if I screamed, they will beat me even harder -- so I was biting my arms so hard, to keep from screaming, that I left deep teeth wounds in my own arms.'" (See also: "Iran and the Death of Gay Activism" (Doug Ireland, Gay City News, 2005/09/08) and "Islamists versus Gays" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2005/07/20))

"A police handout image taken from CCTV footage..."
(Scotland Yard, 2005/09/20)
"A police handout image taken from CCTV footage and released on September 20, 2005 shows Mohammed Sidique Khan (2L) wearing a white cap, Germaine Lindsay (C) carrying a white plastic bag, followed by Shahzad Tanweer (2R) at King's Cross Thameslink train station in central London. Three of the London suicide bombers staged a dry run on June 28, 2005 to the capital just over a week before they blew themselves up on the transport network and killed 52 commuters, the police said on Tuesday."

"Sorry we liberated you guys" (Stephen Pollard, The Times, 2005/09/20)
"There are few certainties in modern Britain. Even the biennial Ashes thrashing is now a thing of the past. There is, however, one tradition on which we can still rely: regular outpourings of Western self-hatred and the appeasement of tyrants from the Church of England.
The latest example is a report by a group of bishops led by the Bishop of Oxford. According to the authors, the bishopric should conduct a “public act of repentance” for the war in Iraq. ...
In the minds of Bishop Harries and his crew, even the liberation of the Iraqi people from tyranny into democracy would still be a shameful act.
There sounds the true voice of the clergy. Forget all the sophistic arguments about the war acting as a recruiting ground for terror or concern about the terrorists’ victims. The real problem is the very fact of “deeply flawed” Western democracies (as they put it) taking action against tyranny.
Worse still — yes, you knew it was coming, and here it is — it was America that led the way. So consumed are they with hatred for America that they consider Saddam to be preferable to democracy, if it has been facilitated by America. In a passage of breathtakingly blinkered bigotry, we are told that “what distinguishes it (the US) from many other empires in history is its strong sense of moral righteousness”.
No. What distinguishes America is that when it fights it does so not to impose tyranny but to promote freedom and the stable democracy of which the bishops are so contemptuous. Without America sending its sons to fight for liberty, we would be speaking German. But in the minds of the clergy, when the choice is between tyranny and freedom, the latter does not even deserve a thought." (See also: "Bishops want to apologise for Iraq war" (Ruth Gledhill, The Times, 2005/09/19))

"Iran blamed as militias step up Basra violence" (Richard Beeston, The Times, 2005/09/20)
Basra III: "The violence that erupted on the streets of Basra yesterday was the result of a simmering struggle between British forces and the increasingly powerful Shia Muslim militias active in southern Iraq.
Attention has been focused on the Sunni Muslim insurgency against US-led forces further north, yet the British have been facing a sharp rise in attacks from an increasingly sophisticated and deadly foe.
There are strong suspicions that the bloodshed is being orchestrated with weapons and encouragement from Iran.
The clashes and the arrest of two undercover soldiers was almost certainly triggered by the arrest at the weekend of Sheikh Ahmed al-Fartusi, the leader of the Mahdi Army, a banned militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr. He was seized by British troops in a raid that also netted his brother and another colleague. “The operation is the result of an ongoing multinational force investigation that identified individuals believed to be responsible for organising terrorist attacks against multinational forces,” said a statement released by the British military on Sunday after the deaths of six British soldiers and two security guards over the past two months."

Monday, September 19, 2005

News and commentary:

"A combo shows two British soldiers detained by Iraqi police..."
(Essam al-Sudani, AFP, 2005/09/19)
"A combo shows two British soldiers detained by Iraqi police sitting in a police station in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Iraqi police have detained two British soldiers in the southern town of Basra, a British military spokesman said. British troops used force to gain the release of two of their comrades arrested earlier in the day by Iraqi police, a source at the Iraqi defense ministry told AFP."

"British Attack Basra Jail to Free Two" (Abbas Fayadh, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/19)
Basra II: "British forces using tanks broke down the walls of the central jail in the southern city of Basra late Monday and freed two Britons, allegedly undercover commandos, who had been arrested on charges of shooting two Iraqi policemen.
Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi prisoners also fled the jail.
Violence flared earlier in the day as demonstrators hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at British tanks; at least four people were killed.
The fighting erupted after British armor encircled the jail where the two Britons were being held. During the melee one soldier could be seen scrambling for his life from a burning tank and the rock-throwing mob."

"British troops arrested in Basra" (BBC News, 2005/09/19)
Basra I: "Two British soldiers have been arrested in the southern Iraq city of Basra, sparking clashes outside a police station where they are being held.
The men, said to have been under cover, reportedly exchanged fire with police after failing to stop at a checkpoint.
Two British tanks, sent to the police station where the soldiers are being held, were set alight in clashes. ...
BBC world affairs correspondent Richard Galpin said tension had been growing in Basra since the arrest on Sunday of a senior figure in the Shia Mehdi Army militia, suspected by the British military of being behind a series of attacks on troops.
His arrest drew crowds onto the streets of Basra demanding his release."

"al-Qaida Takes Blame for London Blasts" (Maggie Michael, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/19)
"Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in a statement broadcast Monday that his terror network carried out the July 7 London bombings, marking the group's first direct claim of responsibility for the attacks that killed 52 people.
The Egyptian-born militant also criticized the legitimacy of Sunday's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan and condemned Pakistan — the one-time ally of Afghanistan's deposed Taliban regime — for forging strong ties with the United States.
"The blessed London attack was one which al-Qaida was honored to launch against the British Crusader's arrogance and against the American Crusader aggression on the Islamic nation for 100 years," al-Zawahri said in the tape aired on Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV.
"In their final testament, the heroic brothers in the London attacks ... provided great lessons to the Islamic nation and Muslims in Pakistan to oppose the infidels," said al-Zawahri, who wore a black turban and white shirt and spoke to someone off-camera who was interviewing him. The attacks also killed the four bombers.
"This blessed attack revealed the real hypocritical face of the West," said the bushy gray bearded al-Zawahri in his latest tape, which included English subtitles and credits saying it was produced and translated by al-Sahab Media Production House, a shadowy purported al-Qaida media organization."

"Imam of Stockholm's Great Mosque: Expulsion of Preachers of Hate is Completely Justified..." (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 988, 2005/09/19)
"Following the July 7, 2005 London bombings, and following a threat on his life by Swedish Islamists, imam Hassan Moussa of Stockholm's Great Mosque in Sweden published in the Swedish daily Expressen a call for national unity in Sweden to remove the threat posed by Islamists, and complimented the British government for taking action by expelling the "preachers of hatred." ...
'After the London attacks, the time for 'buts' is over, at least on my part. I don't want to hear any more 'buts' or other excuses for suicide attacks in Europe. I never again want to hear, 'But what about the victims in Iraq ' or 'But think about what the U.S. has done there and there,' or 'But think about the [immigrant-European] segregation [in European countries].'
In the Friday sermon that I delivered at Stockholm's Great Mosque after 7/7, I condemned the attacks unreservedly. I talked about how we now must, once and for all, deal with those forces that disgrace Islam by mutilating and murdering innocent people. The TV pictures from London had left me in such despair that I couldn't hold back the tears while delivering the Friday sermon. That caused strong reactions.
Afterwards, I was – in my own mosque – threatened by people who considered it reprehensible that I 'wept for English children.' Unfortunately, there is a minority among Swedish Muslims that holds extreme views, and that sympathizes with the London bombers. Some of these people are regular visitors to several Islamic congregations, among them Stockholm's Great Mosque where I am active. ...
The day after my Friday sermon... I was approached by a man who threatened my life. He demanded that I stop condemning Islamist terror – or else. His threat was of such a serious nature that my wife and I decided to file a police complaint...
The developments in the recent past concern me deeply. I have a feeling that many do not understand how serious the situation is. It is not very likely that Sweden will be hit by a terror attack as London was, but it is not impossible. The Swedish society must open its eyes [and realize] that there are extreme Muslims in the country, even if they are few, who hate an open and tolerant society, who don't want us as Muslims to be a clear part of the Western world, Europe, and Sweden. [They are] people who are prepared to go as far as necessary to achieve their goals.'" (See also: "Leading Imam Warns of Moslem Extremists" (Radio Sweden, 2005/09/07))

"Cone-demned"
(The Sun, 2005/09/19)
"Cone-demned ... 'spinning whirl' ice creams look similar to the world Allah written in Arabic script."

"The Crescent of Pistachio" (Andy McCarthy, The Corner, 2005/09/19)
Last spring we had an unbelievable moronic Racist Ice Cream Affair in Sweden. But this beats even that. After all, the Swedish company didn't cave in to the morons:
"Now comes word, from The Sun in Britain, that ice cream is being pulled from the menu at Burger King. It seems that the lid on the packaging, which rather obviously is suggestive of, well, the familiar swirl of ice cream atop a cone, has some Muslims upset – because they perceive a resemblance to the Arabic word for “Allah,” which resemblance they deem highly offensive.
An intimidated Burger King is pulling the ice cream until the packaging is redesigned. Meanwhile, Inayat Bunglawala – the leader of the Muslim Council of Britain and a prominent member of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s task force to “tackle extremism,” praised the “sensitive and prompt action to prevent any hurt being caused to the religious sensibilities of others." The religious sensibilities of others, if the others are not Muslims, have not historically been of much concern to Mr. Bunglawala." (See also: "'Allah' ice-creams banned" (Steve Kennedy, The Sun, 2005/09/19) and "Ice cream giant slammed for "racist" ads" (The Local, 2005/04/13))

"Muslims and the Holocaust" (Cathy Young, The Boston Globe, 2005/09/19)
"Recently in England, four Muslim-staffed committees appointed to advise Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Cabinet on issues related to Islam have come up with a recommendation: Get rid of an official event viewed as offensive to Muslims. What event would that be? A celebration of the Crusades, perhaps? No, Holocaust Memorial Day. ...
Alas, this is not a unique case. The same issue of the London Daily Telegraph that reported the attack on Holocaust Day carried another remarkable story. Ahmad Thomson, deputy chairman of Britain's Association of Muslim Lawyers and occasional adviser to the prime minister, recently claimed that Blair had been pressured into entering the Iraq war by a sinister conspiracy of Jews and Freemasons. In his 1994 book, ''The Next World Order," Thomson (a convert to Islam) claimed that the Holocaust is a ''big lie" and that the presence of US soldiers in Saudi Arabia is especially outrageous because many of them are Jewish.
These two stories illustrate an uncomfortable truth: The infection of anti-Jewish bigotry is alarmingly widespread in the Muslim community today, not only in predominantly Muslim and Arab countries -- where the media routinely circulate anti-Semitic libels and conspiracy theories while preachers and editorialists compare Jews to pigs and monkeys -- but in Western democracies as well. Some apologists on the left blame this virulent hatred on the Israeli occupation of the territories. But is it plausible to believe that a state of Israel within its 1948 borders would be less hated by those who believe all of its land rightfully belongs to Muslims?
This is not to tar all or most Muslims with the same brush, or to deny that anti-Muslim bias and paranoia exists, too. (In the United States, some right-wing bloggers have been shrieking that the proposed memorial to the victims of 9/11's Flight 93 is shaped like -- horrors! -- a crescent.) Nor is it to say that Islam is inherently intolerant: All religions and ethnic groups have their bigots and haters. For a variety of reasons, the bigotry and hate in Islam are perilously close to the mainstream." (See also: "The monster in Britain's midst" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/09/11) and "Ditch Holocaust day, advisers urge Blair" (Abul Taher, The Sunday Times, 2005/09/11))

"N. Korea Pledges to Drop Nuclear Program" (Burt Herman, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/09/19)
" North Korea agreed Monday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances, a breakthrough that marked a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.
The chief U.S. envoy to the talks praised the development as a "win-win situation" and "good agreement for all of us." But he promptly urged Pyongyang to make good on its promises by ending operations at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
"What is the purpose of operating it at this point?" said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. "The time to turn it off would be about now."
Despite the deal's potential to help significantly ease friction between the North and the United States after years of false starts and setbacks, Hill remained cautious.
"We have to see what comes in the days and weeks ahead," he said.
The agreement clinched seven days of talks aimed at setting out general principles for the North's disarmament. Envoys agreed to return in early November to begin hashing out details of how that will be done."

"Bishops want to apologise for Iraq war" (Ruth Gledhill, The Times, 2005/09/19)
Via Harry's Place. Holy Fools, indeed: "Bishops of the Church of England want all Britain’s Christian leaders to get together in public to say sorry for the war in Iraq and its aftermath.
The bishops say that the Government is not likely to show remorse so the churches should. They want to organise a major gathering with senior figures from the Muslim community to make a “public act of repentance”.
The bishops admit that their suggestion is provocative and bound to attract massive criticism, but insist it is not “a cheap gesture”. Their renewed condemnation of Britain’s role in Iraq since the 2003 invasion will further widen the rift with Downing Street.
The proposal for a public apology comes in a new report published today. In the report, the bishops plead for more “understanding” of what motivates terrorists. They criticise Western democracies as “deeply flawed” and accuse the US of dangerous expansionism.
The bishops, who strongly opposed the war in Iraq, want Christian leaders to express their repentance in an “act of truth and reconciliation” for the West’s contribution to the problems in Iraq."

"Musharraf Denies Rape Comments" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2005/09/19)
"Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, has denied telling The Washington Post in an interview last week that claiming rape has become a "moneymaking concern" in Pakistan and that many Pakistanis felt it was an easy way to make money and get a Canadian visa.
The comments have outraged women's groups and sparked protests across Pakistan, marring a high-profile trip that Musharraf has made to the United States to promote a moderate image of Pakistan. His trip included speeches to a Jewish group and a women's group while attending the U.N. General Assembly. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin formally protested the reported remarks in a meeting with Musharraf on the sidelines of the U.N. gathering.
"Let me say with total sincerity that I never said that, and it has been misquoted," Musharraf told the women's group. "These are not my words, and I would go to the extent of saying I am not so silly and stupid to make comments of this sort."
In an interview Saturday with CNN, Musharraf said that the remarks were made by someone else in his presence and not by him. ...
The interview was conducted by three Washington Post reporters and was tape-recorded. A review of the recording yesterday confirmed that Musharraf -- who was surrounded by aides who took notes and also recorded the interview -- was accurately quoted." (See also: "Musharraf: No Challenge From Bush On Reversal" (Glenn Kessler and Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/16). Also: "Musharraf's remarks on rapes in Pakistan decried" (Zeeshan Haider, Reuters, 2005/09/16))

"Iran's President Does What U.S. Diplomacy Could Not" (Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/19)
"Five weeks ago, Iran's new president bought his country some time. Facing mounting criticism after walking away from negotiations with Europe and restarting part of Iran's nuclear program, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked the world to withhold diplomatic pressure while he put together new proposals.
On Saturday, dozens of international diplomats, including the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, gathered at the United Nations to hear how Ahmadinejad planned to stave off a crisis.
Instead his speech, followed by a confused hour-long news conference, was able to do what weeks of high-level U.S. diplomacy had not: convince skeptical allies that Iran may, in fact, use its nuclear energy program to build atomic bombs.
Ahmadinejad appeared to threaten as much when he warned from the General Assembly podium that in the face of U.S. provocation, "we will reconsider our entire approach to the nuclear issue."
Senior European diplomats said immediately afterward that the speech had been "unhelpful." In fact, the opposite may be true.
"The effect of that speech will likely be a toughening of the international response to Iran because it was seen by so many countries as overly harsh, negative and uncompromising," Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns said in an interview Sunday."

"U.S. Claims Success in Iraq Despite Onslaught" (Ellen Knickmeyer, The Washington Post, 2005/09/19)
"Using enemy body counts as a benchmark, the U.S. military claimed gains against Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led fighters last week even as they mounted their deadliest attacks on Iraq's capital.
But by many standards, including increasingly high death tolls in insurgent strikes, Zarqawi's group, al Qaeda in Iraq, could claim to be the side that's gaining after 2 1/2 years of war. August was the third-deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.
Zarqawi's guerrillas this spring and summer showed themselves to be capable of mounting waves of suicide bombings and car bombings that could kill scores at a time and paralyze the Iraqi capital. Insurgents have also launched dozens of attacks every day in other parts of Iraq and laid open claim this summer to cities and towns in the critical far west, despite hit-and-run offensives by U.S. forces.
Last week, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, declared "great successes" against insurgents. But Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, where Lynch briefed reporters, was under stepped-up security screening and U.S. guard for fear of suicide bombings. Insurgents for three days running last week managed to lob mortar rounds into the Green Zone, the heart of the U.S. and Iraqi administration.
Lynch spoke at the close of a two-day onslaught of bombings and shootings that killed nearly 190 people, the bloodiest days in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Over 17 days this month, guerrillas across Iraq killed at least 116 Iraqi forces and 346 Iraqi civilians in drive-by shootings, bombings and other violence, according to Iraqi officials."

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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)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

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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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