Thursday, January 26, 2006

Dear George,   The great American sage, Oscar Hammerstein, once said, “If your are a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught.”  This is happening to us, right now, in Iraq.  While we teach them democracy, they teach us democracy lite.   Leave it to the Kurds, the most westernized people in Iraq, to show us the way.  They have just slapped journalist Kamal Sayid Qadir with a 30-year sentence for criticizing Kurdish political leaders.  His crime?  He called the Kurdish intelligence service a bunch of “criminals” and called its head a “pimp.”    And they did this without the benefit of a Patriot Act.  There’s a lesson here, George.  The next time someone calls you a numb-nutted son-of-a-bitch who can’t tell the difference between the truth and toxic waste, declare him an enemy combatant and renditate his ass somewhere nobody’s heard of.   We’ve a reputation to uphold, and we don’t want the Kurds thinking we’re wimps. The last thing we can afford is a democracy gap.   Your admirer, Belacqua Jones 8:50:22 PM    comment []

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