Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix argues that Iraq is worse off after Saddam Hussein was removed.
``What's positive is that Saddam and his bloody regime is gone, but when figuring out the score, the negatives weigh more,'' the former chief U.N. weapons inspector was quoted as saying in the daily newspaper Jyllands Posten.
How many did Saddam Hussein kill? Reportedly, more than 300,000 are already found in mass graves around Iraq. Maybe twice as many were killed, possibly around a million. Who knows, as excavating the mass graves and finding out how many people he killed, and were still actively murdering when he was thrown out, is still largly undone. Add to that the terrible losses of lives in the wars he started, and the starving of his own country.
What we do known beyond any doubt, is that Hans Blix is an idiot.
Never send a Swede to do a man's job.
PS: The Danish article in Jyllands Posten which is the source for Blix' latest madness also says Blix argues that most Iraqis "probably" would prefer Saddam to the terrorism and unrest they now experience. The journalist, Jesper Stein Larsen, inserts a paragraph in his article pointing out that polls tell us that a majority of Iraqis are happy to get rid of Saddam, and that only one per cent express sadness that he is gone.
CNN says that Moqtada al-Sadr's thugs have taken over government, religious and security buildings in Najaf today, and that Iraqi police is negotiating to get their stations back.
Members of his illegal militia have been in firefights with coalition forces and Iraqi police many places in the area. Al-Sadr is encouraging a general strike among Shiites. He demands that coalition forces withdraw from all populated areas and release prisoners, an unacceptable demand.
There is no turning back now. Jacta est alea.
Bremer, probably correct, points out that these violant clashes are geographically limited and not representative for Iraq as a whole.
I know if you just report on those few places, it does look chaotic," Bremer said on CNN's "American Morning." "But if you travel around the country, what you find is a bustling economy, people opening businesses right and left, unemployment has dropped.
"The story of the house that doesn't burn down is not much of a story in the news," he said. "The story of the house that does burn down is news."
True, but what has happened over the last days is still cause for serious concern. Al-Sadr has been allowed to build a following and create an aggressive opposition to the coalition. This uprising must be crushed. If it can come about by negotiations (not that there is much to negotiate about), fine, but it's imperative that he doesn't get away with this troublemaking to inspire others.
Side thought: It seems the British forces in Iraq, who hold exclusively Shiite areas, have avoided the worst of last week's trouble. What are they doing right that US forces could learn from? Never underestimate a country that has fought countless brush wars and most large wars over the last centuries, and not lost one of them since 1781.
The newest issue of The New Republic has the amusing cover title "God Bless Atheism." Leon Wieseltier has a very interesting discussion of the "under God" pledge discussion, and argues that it has taken atheists to teach the believers what their words mean, what their beliefs are, and what they are not. Read it!
Update & warning: Some people claim that the site is aggressively peddling spyware. I have kept link so this warning appears to those who look for reverse links, but I recommend not clicking it.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells has written a disturbing article for Washington Monthy:There Goes the Neighborhood, arguing that US housing prices are about to plummet, and that the property price crash can take the economic recovery down with it.
I'm not into scaremongering, and neither have I looked at this issue closely enough to have an informed opinion on. But the subject of economic bubbles interest me, and the US property market may well be one, as the extremely low interest rates will tend to push prices upward. People buy property based on how much they are able to pay every month, not the total cost of the house. Many do not pay enough attention to what will happen when the interest rate goes up. And, one day it will.
PS: Washington Monthly is also the new home of former CalPundit blogger Kevin Drum, now reborn as "Political Animal."
On Tuesday the Los Angeles Times featured the study, noting acceptance of gays in the military rose from 51 percent in 1977 to 80 percent in 2003, and approval of gays as elementary school teachers rose from 27 percent in 1977 to 61 percent in 2003.
Other studies have shown that support for gay civil unions is at 57%. Gay marriage, on the other hand,is still opposed by 60 to 65 per cent. However, a study asking only high school seniors showed twice the support for legalizing gay marriage, indicating which way this is moving.
Tolerance only goes so far, however. Gays may be coming into acceptance. People who do not believe in God is certainly not. The study's author, Karlyn Bowman, makes this point:
"There's only one group someone wouldn't vote for," Bowman revealed. "Those are atheists. In this country there's more acceptance for homosexuals than atheists."
