Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Clueless What a stunningly stupid post on Instapundit: THE REAL WILSON SCANDAL: Forget Valerie Plame, the big scandal is why anyone in the Bush Administration would ever have tasked a guy with Wilson's views with an important mission. Regardless of the rest of the story, heads should roll for that. UPDATE: Darren Kaplan wonders if Wilson's hiring was legal in light of anti-nepotism laws. I don't know, but surely his publicly expressed views made him unsuitable regardless of his relations. ANOTHER UPDATE: Randy Paul emails to suggest that I'm "smearing" Wilson above. But it's an attack on the competence of the White House, not on Wilson. Wilson's free to hold those views. But only an idiot would pick someone like that for a politically sensitive mission of great importance. Either (1) Wilson had a sudden epiphany on the war, which I strongly doubt; or (2) He felt this way when they picked him, and they either didn't know (bad) or didn't care (bad). Regardless, this reflects very badly on the White House's judgment. And unlike other parts of this affair, we don't need additional facts to figure it out. Yeah, the problem we've got is that the administration never should have hired someone who would have been sckeptical. Really, this is where the focus needs to be. Idiot. 10:47:13 PM    comment []trackback []

Oh, fer chrissakes! Honestly, I really don't have words for this: Theft of Iraq's art treasures continuing Four months since major combat ended in Iraq, the looting of irreplaceable artifacts still runs rampant, a top authority on Iraq's cultural heritage said Monday. As many as 300 profit-hungry looters at a time, some armed with guns and mortars, are descending on archeological sites in southern Iraq "day and night" to dig for objects such as precious clay tablets, cylinder seals, small statues and jewelry, said Donny George, a native of Baghdad and director general of the Iraq State Board of Antiquities. It's been four months. The level of delusion in the civilian leadership of the DoD is mind-boggling. We don't have a shortage of troops, yet there are looters running around with mortars, digging and smuggling artifacts with impunity? What the Hell? 10:38:52 PM    comment []trackback []

Iraq Poll This link was posted over on Iraq Democracy Watch, but it doesn't seen to have gotten the notice it deserves. It is about the results of the Gallup poll conducted in Iraq, and it doesn't quite say what everyone claimed that it did. From The Washington Post Data Reveal Inaccuracies in Portrayal of Iraqis That same poll, however, found that, countrywide, only 33 percent thought they w re better off than they were before the invasion and 47 percent said they were worse off. And 94 percent said that Baghdad was a more dangerous place for them to live, a finding the administration officials did not discuss. The poll also found that 29 percent of Baghdad residents had a favorable view of the United States, while 44 percent had a negative view. By comparison, 55 percent had a favorable view of France. Similarly, half of Baghdad residents had a negative view of President Bush, while 29 percent had a favorable view of him. In contrast, French President Jacques Chirac drew a 42 percent favorable rating. Unsurprisingly, Cheney, appearing on "Meet the Press", blatantly lied about the results of the poll (only one of a long parade of lies and misdirection). He described the poll as "carefully done" and said it found "very positive news in it in terms of the numbers it shows with respect to the attitudes to what Americans have done." "The U.S. wins hands down," Cheney said, when Iraqis were asked what model of government they would prefer among five choices. Cheney's information, according to an aide, came from the American Enterprise essay on the poll that said 37 percent of respondents chose the United States, and 28 percent selected Saudi Arabia. But a look at the raw data from the poll on the magazine's Web site revealed different figures. According to the data, only 21.5 percent chose the United States, while 20 percent refused to select any model, and 16 percent selected the Saudi government. 6:48:11 AM    comment []trackback []