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Wednesday, April 09, 2003 |
Tune: Candle In The Wind ...
"
Goodbye 'Damn Hussein
though I never knew you at all
you slid your greasy ass away
when the bombs began to fall
you crawled out of the woodwork
and you're crawling back again
they knocked you off your pedestal
and they obliterate you name
and it seems to me you lived your life
like a scumbag on a string
never knowing who to murder next
till the planes came in
lots of people woulda lynched you
but you ran and hid
your candle burned out long before
your bullshit ever did"
"Being a thug is tough
toughest role you ever played
but your ass ran out of road
when the tanks rolled up your way
And even when you die
the folks will spit on you
you lost your head
your regime falls
and no one cries at all
And it seems to me your like must go
wherever such arise
no tyrants or dictators
no more victims' cries
I''m glad I never knew you
or your poxy pervert kids
your goons and thugs
your yellow troops
whose deeds are now undid ...
1:41:28 PM 
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And on it goes ...
- Wolf 'Enormous' Blitzer is saying the 'elite' Republican Guards are discarding their uniforms, changing into civilian clothes, but 'presumably retaining their weapons', and thus pose an 'enormous threat' to US forces and the Iraqi civilians. 'Presumably.'
- Meantime, in Saddam City -- a Shiite slum -- they're dancing in the streets. They know it's over.
- And in Dearborn, MI -- home to a vast Arab populaton -- there's a rally going on, with people waving Iraqi flags and stars-and-stripes
- Some other nitwit on CNN said: "if we take Tariq Aziz at his word, millions of rifles were distributed to the Baghdad population." 'Presumably' this is couched in terms of another 'enormous threat.' But to whom? The Ba'athists must be crapping in their pants by now. It's not as if their neighbors don't know who they are, hmm?
1:25:47 PM
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It has been a further treat this morning to see camera crews following the Iraqi crowd dragging the head of the Saddam Hussein statue through the streets, and people lining up to spit on, jump on it, hit it with their shoes.
The 'dearly beloved leader,' indeed!
'Elected' with 100% of the vote, Reuters said with a straight face, last fall!
Meanwhile, we have the concerned expressions on the faces of Blitzer, Zahn and even Christiane Amanpour (who really ought to know better!) bemoaning the 'looting' of government offices!
Oh, come on! Get a grip!
The bureaucrats and thugs who occupied those desks, chairs and air conditioners -- not to mention the doubtlessly very valuable 'ashtrays' cited by one reporter (!) -- won't be needing them any more. And who paid for them, anyway, with their empty bellies? What do you exepct? As someone said from Basra last night, watching a shot of an older Iraqi women staggering by with a huge sheet of rusty corrugated iron on her head: "how poor could these people have been, that a piece of junk like that could be regarded as treasure?"
1:06:18 PM
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I've heard it on CNN, and my companion just said it, too. "Now we have to worry about Tikrit."
Do we? That's like saying, "New York has fallen to the Iraqis, now we have to worry about Pittsburgh."
Yes, there may be some holdouts and no-hopers who'll fight in Tikrit. It's Saddam Hussein's hometown, and the place of origin of a lot of his inner circle. So, we'll get them, in the usual fashion. Precise strikes, and a wave of armor when we're ready. What's there to worry about?
If I were going to extend any concern at all, it would be about Mosul and Kirkuk. There, the Iraqi Army doesn't seem to have gotten the message, and is fighting after a fashion, retreating quite slowly. Thanks to the devious, venal Turks, we don't have much of a northern front, and the Kurds are not a good match for the Iraqis, yet. But, we'll get to it. The outcome is not in any doubt, is it? We'll just have to keep applying pressure, and the result is certain. Maybe a week, maybe two. But those cities will fall. And damned pleased their citizens will be, too.
12:26:20 PM
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I really do think it's time for CNN to give Wolf 'Enormous Explosions' Blitzer the bums' rush!
The idiot actually said, just a minute ago, that he's concerned about the 'elite' and 'Special' Republican Guards, because "20,000 of them" are still lurking in Baghdad!
For Heaven's sake! These chickenshit losers have run like rabbits, at every juncture. If they stand and fight, they die. If they run, they die. A slightly more realistic concern is the thousands of Yemenis, Egyptians and Syrians who have decided to make this their fight. Triggerhappy kooks who reputedly want to be martyrs. Well, they'll have their chance, and be granted their wish, I have no doubt.
But you're safe, Wolfie Baby. "Embedded" in your five-star hotel in Kuwait, blowviating about things you can't possibly grasp. Safe for now, until your bosses wake up, and realize what a total waste of airtime you are. You should send your resume to Al-Jazeera.
12:18:43 PM
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As my companion frequently says: "you know, you are always right!"
Well maybe. 'Always' would be a bit too rich. I'd say: I'm often right.
So, where are the apologies from the peaceniks, the weak-kneed liberals, the 'Arab Street' theorists, the endlessly theorizing but pitifully misinformed 'analysts' of the past few months? The flamers who filled my inbox? Will Michael Gordon of the NYT eat his words about 'the plan going wrong'? Will the idiots who agonized over the activities of a few disorganized armed bands of thugs own up that they didn't know what they were talking about? Will we hear some analysts retract what they said about the 'elite' Republican Guards? Was Don Rumsfeld right, or wasn't he? [Hint: he was] Have we not proved that Saddam was a Hitler, with his goons and death squads? [Answer: Kinda sorta ... He was more of a Mussolini: a puffed-up, absurd figure, a man of straw.]
If you look back over Blodgett, you'll find that I called this one right, all down the line. It's why you'd do yourselves a favor to bookmark this URL, and use it to learn to start thinking for yourselves, dear people of the Salon community. Adopt a contrarian viewpoint to the doctrinaire pabulum that you are fed by most of the media, who are so liberal, so basically self-doubting about what justice, truth and liberty means, and completely confused about we can achieve it.
The war phase of the Iraq Liberation is pretty much in the bag. If Saddam and his murderous gang aren't all dead yet, they soon will be, as the people they oppressed turn on them. Now, it's the 'peace' that needs to be won. I'm sure we shall see the French, Germans, Russians, Chinese and their fellow-travelers trying to screw it up, aided and abetted by the nitwits of the UN. But I'm betting they won't succeed.
The three cheers for today don't belong to me, though. They belong to the planners and armed forces of the Coalition, for a difficult job done damned well, and to the Iraqi people, who now have a golden opportunity to shake off forty years of Stalinist terror, socialist inefficiency, and pointless militarism.
And continuing fear, confusion and failure to all those who opposed it, I say.
11:49:42 AM
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Damned right!!
ROME (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday warned countries it has accused of pursuing weapons of mass destruction, including Iran, Syria and North Korea, to "draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq."
John R. Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, also appealed to Syria and other countries in the Middle East to open themselves up to "new possibilities" for peace in the region.
"With respect to the issue of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the post-conflict period, we are hopeful that a number of regimes will draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq that the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction is not in their national interest," Bolton told a news conference.
Bolton, in Rome for meetings with Vatican and Italian officials, specifically mentioned Syria, North Korea and Iran in his comments in response to a question about what the postwar period would hold.
Iran has said its nuclear programs are for peaceful purposes, while Syria has denied U.S. charges of shipping military supplies to Baghdad and lawmakers have accused the United States of double standards in its support for Israel.
11:17:05 AM
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How satisfying to see a US Army tank recovery truck -- the biggest tow truck you ever saw -- drag a huge bronze statue of Saddam 'Ozymandias' Hussein off its plinth in a main Baghdad square, just now, live on CNN. A historic moment, and sure to be one of the enduring images of the war
The Iraqis had been going wild, trying to knock it down themselves, hitting the plinth with a sledgehammer, wrapping a rope noose round its neck. And when it crashed down, the Iraqis there went bananas, chanting and jumping on the wreckage. Who said they weren't happy to be liberated?
All that remains are two severed legs. "Look upon my works, ye mighty ..."
11:11:40 AM
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Just now ....
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it had temporarily suspended humanitarian operations in Baghdad because the situation in the city was "chaotic and unpredictable."
This is presumably so they can announce an even bigger 'humanitarian crisis' tomorrow.
9:48:01 AM
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According to Ananova ...
'Angry' Ark Royal crew switch off BBC
The BBC has been axed from the nation's flagship naval vessel following claims of pro-Iraqi bias.
The [Royal] Navy says it has switched off News 24 aboard HMS Ark Royal after complaints by the crew.
It is one of a handful of task force ships which receives live TV direct from Britain.
Rolling news plus two entertainment channels are beamed into the warship.
A BBC correspondent has been on board but the crew say they have no gripe with his reports.
However they were annoyed by the comments of presenters and commentators reporting on the carrier's Sea King tragedy a fortnight ago.
The BBC suggested poor levels of maintenance played a hand in the deaths of seven fliers.
Sailors also believe the news organisation places more faith in Iraqi reports than information coming from British or Allied sources.
One senior rating said: "The BBC always takes the Iraqis' side. It reports what they say as gospel but when it comes to us it questions and doubts everything the British and Americans are reporting. A lot of people on board are very unhappy."
Ark has replaced the BBC with rival broadcaster Sky News.
9:39:21 AM
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Wall Street Journal Europe has this fine piece today from Mike Gonzalez in their Brussels bureau ... quoted in its entirety for those who don't subscribe -- you should! ... and who would otherwise be deprived of this intelligent analysis of where France is headed, dragging crumby Belgium behind it.
A certain ex-KGB colonel in Moscow is probably disbelieving his good luck. All of the subversion by lefties of the latter half of the 20th Century is finally paying off. Anti-Americanism, to order, by the selfish generation ... and if there's anti-Semitism too, well, I'm sure the Frogs are saying: what does it matter? The Arabs are such cultured, unemotional, hardworking people, aren't they? They embrace a 'religion of peace' (and car bombs, suicide bombs and fanatical genocide) ...
How We Got Here
"How did we get here?" asked a former French minister in a newspaper column last Saturday. Here is a situation in which French Jews are being beaten up in the streets of Paris and in which President Jacques Chirac has to write to Queen Elizabeth II to apologize for the desecration of British tombs in France, and in which one-third of the French are pulling for Saddam Hussein to win and the government is beginning to fear that things are out of hand. But it's too late to begin to worry now.
An even better question is who brought us here. The former environment minister, Corinne Lepage, lays the blame on the government and an obeisant media for "having wanted to stigmatize American policy in excessive fashion." But it's time to name names.
Mr. Chirac brought us here, as did his foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. In Belgium the foreign and defense and prime ministers -- Louis Michel, Andre Flahaut and Guy Verhofstadt -- have brought their country to shame too. And that's just the start.
Mr. de Villepin, the pin-up boy of diplomacy in some "progressive" circles, was not just content to travel the world in an attempt to derail U.S. policy, which is bizarre behavior for the foreign minister of a country that describes itself as a U.S. ally. Mr. de Villepin reportedly also has made odious comments that make it clear "how we got here."
Mr. de Villepin, sources told me, last week told members of the National Assembly that "hawks" in the U.S. administration are "in the hands of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon." According to the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine, he went so far as to bitterly attack a "pro-Zionist" lobby made up of U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, White House staffer Elliot Abrams, and former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, all Jewish.
But it's not just an anti-Semitic thing. Mr. de Villepin -- who claims in his book "the Cry of the Gargoyle" to be a fan of Machiavelli and Napoleon -- never shies from messianic statements. He told legislators that the fight over Iraq was actually one against "Anglo-Saxon liberalism," one Assembly member told me.
The air in France has been fouled by its own leaders, in other words, and they won't be able to pretend this is the fault of Britain or America. Indignant voices like Ms. Lepage's are being increasingly heard. Even in the media echo chamber. An editorial in Radio France Internationale noticed recently that the phrase "the Anglo-American forces," constantly used instead of "coalition forces," is borrowed straight from Vichy propaganda.
In her own j'accuse for Le Figaro, Ms. Lepage said that to the errors of the media and the leaders: "one can add the pacifist demonstrations, which have nothing peaceful about them. Having attended them, I can bear witness to the fact that these demonstrations are far from gatherings of real defenders of the rights of man or of peace. These are hordes orchestrated by the security services of Islamicist groups which, perfectly organized and armed with loudspeakers, shout extremely violent slogans in which racial and anti-Semitic hatred is expressed without the least taboo."
Small wonder that the Interior Ministry itself says only a spark could "turn anti-Americanism in the suburbs into uncontrolled violence." Unfortunately that observation comes too late for Noam Levy, one of the French Jews beat up with an iron bar while taking part in an anti-war demonstration. He said he was shocked by "the anti-Zionist slogans." He should check with the Quai d'Orsay about the provenance of these feelings.
And it's too late for the families of young Britons who fell while defending France in World War I, and whose tombs in the little town of Etapes in Calais were vandalized. Among the choice graffiti at the base of a cenotaph figured this insult: "Dig up your rubbish, it's contaminating our soil."
"France," wrote Mr. Chirac to Queen Elizabeth II with all the pomp -- not to mention pomposity -- at his command, "knows what it owes to the sacrifice and courage of British soldiers who came to help her recover her liberty in the fight against barbarity ... From the French people and from me personally, I offer you my deepest regrets."
Too late. Mr. Chirac has himself refused to say which side he backs in the war. No wonder a third of the French tell Le Monde in a poll that they want Saddam to win. Mr. Chirac is basking in 60% approval ratings, but he's paid for them dearly. Demonstrators in the street shout "long live Chirac, stop the Jews!"
In Belgium, where I live, I've witnessed both the defense and foreign ministers feed the beast of anti-Americanism, only to protest later that they want to defang it. Because theirs is a small country they may hope that their premeditated election-time actions may not get attention. But because Belgium is home not just to the European Union, but also to the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it would be a shame if their irresponsible behavior went unnoticed.
At a debate last month at the University Libre de Bruxelles, for example, I saw Messrs. Michel and Flahaut inflame a crowd with their comments. Belgians, said the foreign minister, are beginning to look on the U.S. as they once did the Soviet Union. "I am beginning to fear the U.S.," Mr. Michel added, his voice rising, to much applause from a crowd of about 2,000. Not to be outdone, Mr. Flahaut promised to do all he could to kick British Prime Minister Tony Blair out of the Socialist International.
By debate, incidentally, I mean a representative of Republicans Abroad and me on one side, and on the other the two ministers; two university professors acting as cheerleaders for the government; a journalist who was supposed to act as moderator; and Iraq's ambassador to Belgium. The Iraqi was twice interrupted by the crowd with applause, while I was accused of being a CIA agent. When one student got up to complain that a representative of Saddam's regime was being applauded while I was being booed, the crowd shouted her down.
But can anyone wonder at the crowd response, given such leadership? Mr. Flahaut called for bigger anti-U.S. demonstrations that weekend. The government needed them, he said. His government was doing more than just standing by. Just as in places like Communist Cuba, parents of some junior high students received requests for their children to attend the demonstration.
As for Mr. Michel, he personally quashed a revolt in his Mouvement Reformateur at a party meeting last month. One politician who was there told me the majority wanted the Belgian government to have a more nuanced policy and not to be in such opposition to the U.S. But Mr. Michel threatened and cajoled and got his way. This is why there hasn't been a back bench revolt in Belgium and France, though yesterday a Belgian politician tried to redress the balance by delivering letters of support to the British and U.S. embassies.
A senior Belgian official told me last week that Mr. Michel "now realizes he's gone too far, that he's made comments he ought not to have made, and is trying to calm things down." Too late. His government situated itself against the war and the U.S. out of a long tradition of subservience to the French and out of fear that otherwise its large Muslim population would riot. "The people then may react by voting for the far right," a Belgian official told me.
Understandable, perhaps. But how immoral to act in such a manner, and how dangerous.
These can't be good days for French and Belgian leaders. The increasingly visible joy of liberated Iraqis is making clear the moral bankruptcy of those who purported to take the high ground by prolonging Saddam Hussein's rule. The diplomatic blunders of Brussels and Paris are coming home to roost. This is how we got here. |
9:31:22 AM
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Has it occurred to anyone else that the weekend summit of 'Bad Herr Dye' Schroeder and Jacko 'The Worm' Chiraq with 'Don't Call Me Dobby the House-Elf' Putin unites the two historically most vicious anti-Semitic European nations with the current undisputed one, France?
And did I really here someone on CNN last night say, "this could be the beginning of a European-Arab alliance"?
9:16:51 AM
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A particularly fine WSJ editorial page reminder today, while the carpetbaggers of the UN hustle to get their hands on Iraq ... fact is, the UN is less than useless, and we need to wake up to the fact. Seeing the worst president in living memory -- even dumber than Carter -- endorsing the UN should tell you all you need to know.
Bill Clinton told an audience in Puerto Rico Saturday that "we ought to let the United Nations decide the future" of Iraq. The war, said the former President, "is a good thing if it is done right."
Those remarks caught our attention, and not merely because they meddle in President Bush's current negotiations with Britain and other nations. Mr. Clinton also happens to be on a Caribbean tour that included a stop in Haiti yesterday. And if ever there was a primer on how not to rebuild a liberated nation, Bill Clinton and the U.N wrote it in Haiti.
Recall that, under a U.N. resolution, U.S. troops restored "democracy" to Haiti during the Clinton years by removing military coup-leader Raoul Cedras. Jean Bertrand Aristide, who had been democratically elected, was returned to power. After six months of U.S. military presence, Mr. Clinton declared the effort a "remarkable success" and turned the reconstruction over to U.N. peace-keepers.
It's been downhill ever since. The source of the problem is clearly Mr. Aristide himself, who likes absolute power as much as the country's legendary Duvalier dictators. Washington knew what Mr. Aristide is made of, but the Haitian strongman used a combination of Haitian public funds, leftist rhetoric and the race card to win support from Mr. Clinton.
The U.N. stood by and watched it all happen, notwithstanding its good intentions. When the Senate elections were stolen in May 2000 by Mr. Aristide's Lavalas Party, even the optimists began throwing in the towel. In January 2001 the U.N. closed its Haiti mission and full-blown anarchy took over. Violence against Mr. Aristide's political opponents is now commonplace, judges and journalists are harassed and many have had to flee the country. We doubt the U.S. and its allies could do any worse in Iraq.
9:09:18 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Peter Savage.
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