Normally I don’t Bother

(Note this post is long, so I used an extended entry). 

Normally, I don't bother to comment on the Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson's polemics against George Bush, He is so obviously a rabid Bush-hater that he almost defies parody. But in this case, I happen to have read the transcript of the White House press conference he uses to launch his latest dishonesty and thought it might be a good idea to write on it. Robinson starts the attack this way:

"I hear a lot of talk about civil war" in Iraq, he allowed — much of it apparently from his own generals, who have been increasingly bold in using the once-forbidden phrase — but all that talk doesn't seem to penetrate very far. To the president, is all the bad news from Iraq just "talk" without objective reality?

The problem is that Robinson took the sentence he used from this:

You know, I hear a lot of talk about civil war. I'm concerned about that, of course, and I've talked to a lot of people about it. And what I've found from my talks are that the Iraqis want a unified country, and that the Iraqi leadership is determined to thwart the efforts of the extremists and the radicals and al Qaeda, and that the security forces remain united behind the government. And one thing is clear: The Iraqi people are showing incredible courage.

The United States of America must understand it's in our interests that we help this democracy succeed. As a matter of fact, it's in our interests that we help reformers across the Middle East achieve their objectives. This is the fundamental challenge of the 21st century. A failed Iraq would make America less secure. A failed Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will provide safe haven for terrorists and extremists. It will embolden those who are trying to thwart the ambitions of reformers. In this case, it would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales.

You know, it's an interesting debate we're having in America about how we ought to handle Iraq. There's a lot of people — good, decent people, saying, withdraw now. They're absolutely wrong. It would be a huge mistake for this country. If you think problems are tough now, imagine what it would be like if the United States leaves before this government has a chance to defend herself, govern herself, and listen to the — and answer to the will of the people.

1938, No, 1914, No, 1938, …..

George Santayana famously said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Today, Richard Cohen, writing in the Washington Post, gives a bit of a history lesson.

In his upcoming book about the horrors of the 20th century, "The War of the World," the British historian Niall Ferguson has a chapter called "The Pity of Peace." It is about 1938, when World War II loomed, and Britain — especially and importantly Britain — did precious little to stop it. The warnings of Churchill — "believe me, it may be the last chance . . ." — were ignored, and the government under Neville Chamberlain obstinately pursued a policy that forever after made the word appeasement one of the most odious in history. Somehow, though, it looks like 1938 all over again.

The events in the Middle East are often compared to 1914 and the start of World War I. That war — the Great War, the war to end all wars — is actually the all-purpose war. It not only began for what seemed like a trivial reason (the assassination of someone who wasn't a head of state) but it was fought with tenacity and brutality for what now seems no reason at all. In the end, millions died and the world was utterly changed. Why?

In a sense, Cohen is correct. There are forces here that are in play that have a strong resemblance to the events leading up to World War Two. Some elements closely resemble the events of 1914. There are also elements that resemble many other times in history. That is the big problem with reasoning by historical precedent.

Now France is having second thoughts . . . or cold feet . . . or mere questions. If it is the last, that's understandable. The French military is said to worry about the command structure, since this was a problem with the U.N. force in Bosnia in the 1990s. Command structure, though, was not nearly the whole problem in the Balkans. After all, Dutch soldiers were on the spot when Bosnian troops massacred Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. It is hard to this day to account for what happened.

If only questions about the command structure vexed the French, there would be little cause for worry. But there are ample signs that more is at work here than a table of organization. Maybe the French and other Europeans have just plain lost the political will. The upshot is that now there is no international force worth its name in Lebanon — certainly not one willing and able to shoot.

This inability of Europe to get its act together is what suggests 1938. Back then, Winston Churchill was hardly the only one who thought Hitler was intent on war. After all, the German leader was an ideological zealot and a murderer to boot. Still, England did little. Similarly, you don't have to have Churchillian prescience to see that what happened once in Lebanon can happen again. Hezbollah's avowed aim is to eradicate Israel. Listen to what it says. Pay attention. It will renew its attacks the first chance it gets. This is why it exists.

I have always thought that Santayana meant his famous words in the long view of history, over many centuries. It is also somewhat applicable in the shorter term, of course. So this may well be quite like 1938 right now, Cohen is not the first to see this possibility. It may be like 1914 as well. It could also be argued that it has aspects very like Vienna in 1683 for that matter.

Or it could be what we need to face up to today, remembering that which has passed before.

In a sense, Cohen is correct. There are forces here that are in play that have a strong resemblance to the events leading up to World War Two. Some elements closely resemble the events of 1914. There are also elements that resemble many other times in history. That is the big problem with reasoning by historical precedent.

Now France is having second thoughts . . . or cold feet . . . or mere questions. If it is the last, that's understandable. The French military is said to worry about the command structure, since this was a problem with the U.N. force in Bosnia in the 1990s. Command structure, though, was not nearly the whole problem in the Balkans. After all, Dutch soldiers were on the spot when Bosnian troops massacred Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. It is hard to this day to account for what happened.

If only questions about the command structure vexed the French, there would be little cause for worry. But there are ample signs that more is at work here than a table of organization. Maybe the French and other Europeans have just plain lost the political will. The upshot is that now there is no international force worth its name in Lebanon — certainly not one willing and able to shoot.

This inability of Europe to get its act together is what suggests 1938. Back then, Winston Churchill was hardly the only one who thought Hitler was intent on war. After all, the German leader was an ideological zealot and a murderer to boot. Still, England did little. Similarly, you don't have to have Churchillian prescience to see that what happened once in Lebanon can happen again. Hezbollah's avowed aim is to eradicate Israel. Listen to what it says. Pay attention. It will renew its attacks the first chance it gets. This is why it exists.

I have always thought that Santayana meant his famous words in the long view of history, over many centuries. It is also somewhat applicable in the shorter term, of course. So this may well be quite like 1938 right now, Cohen is not the first to see this possibility. It may be like 1914 as well. It could also be argued that it has aspects very like Vienna in 1683 for that matter.

Or it could be what we need to face up to today, remembering that which has passed before.

Sign Of Things To Come

Today Hezbollah members simply forced their way into a UNIFIL base in Lebanon. The UN 'peacekeepers' did absolutely nothing to stop them.

Hizbollah mourners on a funeral parade shoved aside anti-tank barriers at a United Nations base in Lebanon yesterday in a demonstration of their new political strength.

The party had been told it would be allowed to bury three "martyrs" at the Naqoura town cemetery inside the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) compound, but only if there was no flag-waving or political sloganising.

When the chanting procession, several hundred strong, reached the gates, it found the way barred by cruci-form steel tank traps. Mourners argued with the French guards, but failed to gain entry.

A mob of young men then dragged the barriers away and the UN opened the gates. "They will eat us alive," said a middle-aged official as the throng surged in.

A column of black-shirted men carried the three coffins to the graveyard. They waved yellow Hizbollah banners and portraits of the movement's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and yelled anti-Israeli and anti-American doggerel.

Among the mourners was Naqoura's mayor, Hussein Darwish, a 59-year-old former teacher. "Israel is allowed to carry on raiding our country without Unifil doing anything," he said, referring to an abortive raid by Israeli commandos in the Bekaa valley the previous day. "Why do they try to stop us burying our dead the way we wish?" The angry scenes were seen as a troubling portent of what may happen when a boosted UN force begins deploying to police the delicate, week-old ceasefire.

"Until now we've had good relations, but I don't know what will happen after this," said Mr Darwish. "Every-one is waiting." Others among the mourners complained that when they sought shelter at the base during the bombardments of the month-long conflict, they were placed in open ground without bedding or water.

Unifil's hitherto easy dealings with the locals are partly due to its initial mandate, which only required it to observe and report. The new force will be expected to fill the space left by the departing Israelis and Hizbollah fighters, and police the border area, although its rules of engagement have not been finalised.

Kofi Annan's strategy has already failed. The Hezbollah terrorists aren't even laughing at the UN. They have nothing but contempt for the 'peacekeepers'.

Lace

In Which We Call On The Anchoress To Recant

The Anchoress has been "called out" on her support for Rudy Giuliani and challenged to renounce the former mayor of New York City. To "retract" her support. Apparently because Rudy is not perfect in every way on every topic.

This time, I’m not being “attacked,” but I can’t ignore being “called out,” so to speak. I feel a little like someone is standing on my front lawn spitting in both hands and dancing around like a boxer saying, “come on out, ye varmint and we’ll settle this like men!”

Or, at least, like Christians. One hopes!

As of this moment, I am not going to retract my support of Giuliani, because I see no one else “in the running” whom I trust to carry forth the war on terror as it needs to be carried.

I think sometimes we think these candidates are not human, and are not touched by the same circumstances as the rest of us, that somehow we peons “grow” in grace and are capable of change while politicians and celebrities do not grow, are not capable of change. But God raises up whom He will, and very often He uses the most flawed material to do His bidding. Ask St. Augustine. Ask Moses.

Is Giuliani the perfect man? No. Will be he a perfect president? Hell no, no such creature can exist. But I do trust him to bring us strict constitutionalist SCOTUS judges. I trust that he’ll say issues like gay marriage and abortion, etc, belong to the states, which they do. I frankly think overall he will be a better president than anyone currently on the scene.

Would I prefer that Giuliani’s leadership skills fell completely in line with my creed and my own values? Of course I would. But you know, I go to church every Sunday and see huge lines of people receiving Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, and I know that most of them haven’t been to confession in ages. Some Catholics have fits about that – “how dare they consume the Flesh and Blood of Christ unworthily,” they gasp. While it would be nice to know that every Catholic is receiving Holy Communion only while in a state of grace – which is the ideal – I am aware that perhaps the only way some souls may ever be touched by grace at all is via the reception of Christ in the Eucharist, consumed unworthily (who among us is truly worthy), but by that act given intimate access. The less-than-perfect avenue can still be the opening in which Christ imparts His grace.

God works as God will, regardless of our sensibilities. I believe that God is not done with Rudy Giuliani, just as he is not done with you or me or Mel Gibson. As my Li’l Bro Thom says to me: Grace builds on nature. And all those high-falutin’ social issues won’t matter diddly squat once Iran is armed and aiming its big guns at the West, demanding we convert or die.

If someone better than Rudy Giuliani comes along, I’ll be open to looking at him or her, but right now, I don’t see it. Right now the entire world under siege and that siege must urgently be put down. If we are not safe, all the rest of our concerns will never be addressed, because we’ll be too busy fighting for our lives (and frankly, for our faith, because once the “convert or die” Islamofascists have managed to level a few cities and terrify too many Americans into acquiescence, their next step will be to put us under the burka, or under the sword.)

Well, that's all very well reasoned and written, isn't it? But I fear that the Anchoress is dodging the real issue here. Blue Crab Boulevard is immediately calling for a complete and utter renunciation by the Anchoress. She must immediately declare her complete withdrawal of all support for Topo Gigio. We have never trusted him.

Why? We haven't a clue. It just sounded funny.

Italy Steps Up

Italy is willing to both commit 2,000 troops to the UNIFIL peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon and lead that force. The Italian Prime Minister,Romano Prodi, made the offer to Kofi Annan. It is still up to the UN to decide, but it certainly would be a better choice than the perfidious French.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Monday his country was ready to lead a U.N. force in southern Lebanon, where the fragility of a week-old truce was underlined when Israeli forces fired at Hizbollah guerrillas.

"I confirmed the Italian willingness (to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan)," Prodi told reporters, adding that Annan would make a final decision on the command of the force this weekend.

The Lebanese government welcomed Italy's offer of 2,000 troops, the biggest commitment any country has made yet. Israel has already said it would be happy if Italy led the force.

Italy's right-wing opposition warned the deployment could prove a "kamikaze" mission.

I still think the entire effort is doomed to failure under the inept leadership of the UN, but it is a good thing that some European nations are willing to do more than grandstand and double deal.

Fund Drive For Crazy Horse

The privately funded effort to carve a mountain in South Dakota into a memorial to the Sioux warrior is launching it's first ever national fundraiser. The man who started the work on the monument, Korczak Ziolkowski, died in 1982. His widow Ruth and their family have carried on the effort ever since.

The sculpture was started by the late Korczak Ziolkowski, who dreamed of honoring American Indians by carving a 563-foot-high likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy Horse into a granite mountain in the southern Black Hills.

The work began 1948. Ziolkowski died in 1982.

His widow, Ruth Ziolkowski, and their family have continued the work.

The sculpture now brings in millions of dollars every year, mainly through admission fees, and the family has held to Korczak's admonition to refuse government help to complete the project and instead rely on private enterprise.

Visitor numbers have grown to more than 1 million annually, the face of Crazy Horse is complete and the complex of buildings at the carving's base now includes a museum, education center and restaurant.

The goal of the national fund drive is to work toward the mountain carving's completion and expand cultural and educational programs at the memorial.

Crazy Horse plans to announce the fund drive Oct. 7, said Fred Tully, development director. The goal is to raise $16.5 million over the first three to five years and then another $10 million, he said.

There is much more about the sculpture and the sculptor at the Crazy Horse website. One absolutely fascinating little fact I found there is that Ziolkowski landed at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion and was later wounded.

Junk Science

Bruce Kesler over at Democracy Project is surprised that more attention is not being paid to a new study that shows that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is nowhere near as widespread in Vietnam veterans as has been reported. (Bruce sent me an email about his first post, but it was at the height of the Lebanon fighting and I just didn't get around to linking it). He's absolutely right that this is an important debunking of "Conventional Wisdom". There are so very many myths about Vietnam, it's almost impossible to keep up with all of them as they get shot down over the years.

Nonetheless, this is worth checking out. When even the New York Times sees it as an important and authoritative study, it bears looking into. It is important to remember the way this myth has colored so much of what is perceived as "truth" so that the upcoming myths about Iraq can be debunked sooner.

Once Again

Mark Steyn demonstrates why his columns appear in so many media outlets. In a brilliant column in the Chicago Sun Times, Steyn points out, in one phrase, what the defeatists simply refuse (or are unable) to understand.

Nitwit Democrats think anything that can be passed off as a failure in Iraq will somehow diminish only Bush and the neocons. In reality — a concept with which Democrats seem only dimly acquainted — it would diminish the nation, and all but certainly end the American moment.

Defeatism can still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In blindly seeking to damage the president, the damage to the nation is becoming serious, even life-threatening. I think Joe Lieberman sees that, I even think some of the more responsible centrist Democrats see that.

I do not believe the left wing does.

Covert Enemies

Michael Barone has a powerful critique of certain elements within our own society that he calls covert enemies. Sadly, many of them are not really covert at all.

Our covert enemies are harder to identify, for they live in large numbers within our midst. And in terms of intentions, they are not enemies in the sense that they consciously wish to destroy our society. On the contrary, they enjoy our freedoms and often call for their expansion. But they have also been working, over many years, to undermine faith in our society and confidence in its goodness. These covert enemies are those among our elites who have promoted the ideas labeled as multiculturalism, moral relativism and (the term is Professor Samuel Huntington's) transnationalism.

At the center of their thinking is a notion of moral relativism. No idea is morally superior to another. Hitler had his way, we have ours — who's to say who is right? No ideas should be "privileged," especially those that have been the guiding forces in the development and improvement of Western civilization. Rich white men have imposed their ideas because of their wealth and through the use of force. Rich white nations imposed their rule on benighted people of color around the world. For this sin of imperialism they must forever be regarded as morally stained and presumptively wrong. Our covert enemies go quickly from the notion that all societies are morally equal to the notion that all societies are morally equal except ours, which is worse.

This kind of thinking is, sadly, widespread. As Barone points out, our society is excoriated for its past practice of slavery. No mention is made that this self-same society was the only civilization in history to stand up and stop the practice. The British and American navies had stopped the African slave trade even before the US Civil War.

The US and Western civilization is not flawless and has made historical blunders many times. On average, however, it has tended to improve lives and increase freedoms over time as it has evolved.

Read the whole thing. It is worth taking the time.

Ispirational Posters

Feeling down? Need something to pep you up and inspire you? Tired of those silly inspirational posters that are popping up just about everywhere, though? Blue Crab Boulevard, through the magic of internet email and our vast network of ever-vigilant informants (Ok, he's actually just one person with nothing better to do) have found the cure for inspirational poster overload. Star Trek Inspirational Posters!

Go on over. You'll laugh.

UNIFIL To Get “Teeth”

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Kofi Annan is seeking to give the UNIFIL peacekeepers "teeth".

 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to recommend Monday that the rules of engagement of the enhanced UNIFIL force to be deployed in Lebanon include opening fire on Hizbullah where necessary, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While UN Security Council Resolution 1701 mandated an enhanced UNIFIL force to help the Lebanese Army deploy south and along the border with Syria, it did not spell out the operational procedures of this force.

Israel has been pushing for the need for an effective force, arguing that one of the criteria would be the ability to open fire on Hizbullah if the force saw, for instance, Hizbullah launching rockets toward Israel. This matter came up at a meeting Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held last week in New York with Annan.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a telephone conversation in the afternoon with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Sunday, said that Israel would like to see Italy lead the force, a change from the widespread expectation that France would be heading it up.

According to a statement issued from Olmert's office, the prime minister told Prodi that Israel viewed Italy's sending troops as "vital" to the implementation of the resolution and that this would be an important contribution to "peace and security in the Middle East."

Olmert told Prodi that it was not only important that Italy lead this force, but also that Rome send troops to monitor the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop the rearmament of Hizbullah.

It would appear that people are taking Kofi Annan's words in a figurative sense. However, Blue Crab Boulevard has obtained exclusive information that shows that Annan meant the word 'teeth' literally. The UN has placed an emergency order with Billy Bob's Joke and Costume shop for 15,000 sets of these beauties:

The idea appears to be that if Hezbollah fires, the UN response will cause the terrorists to die laughing.

Encouraging Murder

One of the first apologists who started floating ideas that the arrests in London of people involved in the plot to bomb airplanes was manufactured is Azzam Tamimi. His allegations were printed in English newspapers and picked up by the AP. The Daily Mail has the details of a cheerful little pep talk he gave to a crowd of Muslims.

A British-based Muslim radical appeared to back suicide bombing yesterday when he claimed that dying for your beliefs was 'just'.

Dr Azzam Tamimi told an 8,000-strong crowd that standing up for your principles was the 'greatest act of martyrdom'. The 51-year-old was speaking at the ExpoIslamia convention in Manchester.

The Palestinian-born academic – who previously boasted he would carry out a suicide bombing in Israel – also repeated his public backing for Hamas, which remains banned in the UK.

He said: "The greatest act of martyrdom is standing up for what is true and just. Martyrs are those who stand up and stand up in defiance of George Bush and Tony Blair. You stand up to them and you say desist. Stop this injustice. Stop this oppression."

Dr Tamimi claimed the war on terrorism was a war on Islam. "We are Muslims in Europe, not European Muslims," he added.

"Being fair and just means finding the middle path. The middle path is not rubbing shoulders with Tony Blair and George Bush."

The crowd erupted with cheering and applause when he said that Israel had been defeated by Hezbollah. He continued: "Hamas is making sacrifices for you. We tell this government Hamas is not a terrorist group. It is elected by the people of Palestine. We are not terrorists. We are defenders of the truth. Fighting those who invade Muslims is a just cause.

"The government is trying to turn the war on terror into the war on Islam."

Apparently, Dr. Tamimi has a PhD in double speak and hate-mongering. With a minor in encouraging murder.

Isn’t It Ironic?

Irony: 1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning — called also Socratic irony
2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play — called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

Does the problem of Islamic fascism stem from a lack of irony in the Muslim religion itself? Roger Scruton asks that question in the Opinion Journal.

This readiness to take offense is not yet terrorism–but it is a sign of the deep-down insecurity of the Muslim psyche in the modern world. In the presence of Islam, we all feel, you have to tread carefully, as though humoring a dangerous animal. The Koran must never be questioned; Islam must be described as a religion of peace–isn't that the meaning of the word?–and jokes about the prophet are an absolute no-no. If religion comes up in conversation, best to slip quietly away, accompanying your departure with abject apologies for the Crusades. And in Europe this pussyfooting is now being transcribed into law, with "Islamophobia" already a crime in Belgium and movements across the continent to censor everything at which a Muslim might take offence, including articles like this one.

The majority of European Muslims do not approve of terrorism. But there are majorities and majorities. According to a recent poll, a full quarter of British Muslims believe that the bombs of last summer in London were a legitimate response to the "war on terror." Public pronouncements from Muslim leaders treat Islamist terrorism as a lamentable but understandable response to the West's misguided policies. And the blood-curdling utterances of the Wahhabite clergy, when occasionally reported in the press, sit uneasily with the idea of a "religion of peace." All this leads to a certain skepticism among ordinary people, whose "racist" or "xenophobic" prejudices are denounced by the media as the real cause of Muslim disaffection.

….

Whenever I consider this matter I am struck by a singular fact about the Christian religion, a fact noticed by Kierkegaard and Hegel but rarely commented upon today, which is that it is informed by a spirit of irony. Irony means accepting "the other," as someone other than you. It was irony that led Christ to declare that his "kingdom is not of this world," not to be achieved through politics. Such irony is a long way from the humorless incantations of the Koran. Yet it is from a posture of irony that every real negotiation, every offer of peace, every acceptance of the other, begins. The way forward, it seems to me, is to encourage the re-emergence of an ironical Islam, of the kind you find in the philosophy of Averroës, in Persian poetry and in "The Thousand and One Nights." We should also encourage those ethnic and religious jokes which did so much to defuse tension in the days before political correctness. And maybe, one day, the rigid face of some puritanical mullah will crack open in a hesitant smile, and negotiations can at last begin.

Would cracking a smile help? I don't know. What I rather hope is that the second meaning of the word is not already in use: "the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning".

Manatee Scouts Rhode Island

A manatee scout for the animal uprising has been spotted off the coast of Rhode Island.

The manatee was seen Sunday in Greenwich Bay off the coast of Warwick. The large marine mammals are usually found only in the warm waters of Florida and the Carolinas.

DEM dispatcher Michael Mahoney said the manatee seen in Rhode Island appeared healthy.

It is not known whether the manatee is the same one seen earlier this month near Manhattan Island in New York. That manatee was tracked as it swam north along the coasts of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.

We will point out that we have been warning about these creatures. They are only pretending to be gentle. The sharks get all the blame!