Lies and delusions
Just when I thought the Guardian might have been coming out of its anti-Bush hysteria, it prints a tissue of lies and insults and denials of reality that stagger even me. At some point one finds it impossible to believe that anyone can honestly think this way. The wishing away of the pictures of liberation in Baghdad in this screed becomes more than an emotional response, it appears as an intentional weapon to strike back at anyone who could possibly think Bush and the American military could ever anywhere do anything right. And it refutes itself, just as the leftists yesterday, so I heard (can't find the link) compared the toppling of Saddam's statues to the Taliban's destruction of the Buddhas at Bamiyan. Huh? Sometimes I just have to accept that people are speaking an entirely different language from the one that I use to describe reality. And they're doing it with evil intent. As far as I'm concerned, they can go join Saddam in his sewer and wait for the MOAB to come visit. Look at this idiocy:
Not even the smallest part of the anti-war argument rested on any illusion that a broken-backed third world regime could win a set-piece military confrontation with the most technologically advanced fighting force in history
Has this writer even been watching the news? Saddam was not defeated in a "set piece military confrontation". He was defeated because his fighters would not fight and because hardly any of his citizens respected him. Only foreign mercenaries stood up to the US military and their intent seems to have been more like that of a suicide bomber than a soldier. Notice also his equation of democracy with the UN. And how many members of the UN are democracies? Not a majority, not even on the Security Council. Certainly not on the Disarmament and Anti-Proliferation committees. And in how many countries has the UN effectively installed democracy? Hint: it's a whole number between -1 and +1. In many ways it's good for one's enemies to be blind and embittered. It's useful to be the only ones able to see the truth. But it's frustrating that some actual human being can live with a brain so screwed up as Seumas Milne's. Unfortunately, some of the same kind of cementheads run entire countries.
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Where's my oil?
We all know this war was fought only for the Iraqis' oil, right? So, when am I going to get my share? It's going to be great, not having to go down to the gas station any more. But wait a minute, where am I going to put it? Saddam had the second-largest proved reserves in the world. I must be due for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of gallons. Guess I'll have to put in one of those underground tanks.
We all know this war was fought only for the Iraqis' oil, right? So, when am I going to get my share? It's going to be great, not having to go down to the gas station any more. But wait a minute, where am I going to put it? Saddam had the second-largest proved reserves in the world. I must be due for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of gallons. Guess I'll have to put in one of those underground tanks.
The Nothing-but-spin Zone
The Iranians are as shocked as most other Middle Easterners about the victory for freedom in Iraq. But they've adopted immediately a bizarre set of conspiracy theories. Conveniently, these theories explain that Islamic armed might was not defeated by the armed might of the US. The armed forces were sold out by the leaders of Iraq, whom the Iranians have several hundred thousand reasons to hate. If the army had not been "stabbed in the back", the despised Satanic Crusaders wouldn't have stood a chance. This is convenient for Iran because it defuses criticism of armies like those of Iran. The Iranian army would not do any better against the US Army and Marines than the Vaunted Elite Republican Guard did. But the sellout theory allows the Iranians to keep living in their dream world.
The Iranians are as shocked as most other Middle Easterners about the victory for freedom in Iraq. But they've adopted immediately a bizarre set of conspiracy theories. Conveniently, these theories explain that Islamic armed might was not defeated by the armed might of the US. The armed forces were sold out by the leaders of Iraq, whom the Iranians have several hundred thousand reasons to hate. If the army had not been "stabbed in the back", the despised Satanic Crusaders wouldn't have stood a chance. This is convenient for Iran because it defuses criticism of armies like those of Iran. The Iranian army would not do any better against the US Army and Marines than the Vaunted Elite Republican Guard did. But the sellout theory allows the Iranians to keep living in their dream world.
I shoulda known
I should have known there was a reason why the great victory for freedom in Iraq is really a bad thing. I also should have known the Guardian would enlighten me. Of course. Anything that makes Arab intellectuals feel depressed has got to be a disaster, eventually. I mean, those intellectuals have called every turn in the history of the Middle East, right? The fall of Israel in 1967. The triumph of socialism in the world, vindicating the collectivism of generations of Arab intellectuals. The quagmire in Afghanistan. And now the fierce resistance of the oh-so-nationalistic Iraqis defending their bloody monster of a leader and his fiend-children. Well, I suppose sooner or later Arab intellectuals have to be right about something. But I won't hold my breath.
I should have known there was a reason why the great victory for freedom in Iraq is really a bad thing. I also should have known the Guardian would enlighten me. Of course. Anything that makes Arab intellectuals feel depressed has got to be a disaster, eventually. I mean, those intellectuals have called every turn in the history of the Middle East, right? The fall of Israel in 1967. The triumph of socialism in the world, vindicating the collectivism of generations of Arab intellectuals. The quagmire in Afghanistan. And now the fierce resistance of the oh-so-nationalistic Iraqis defending their bloody monster of a leader and his fiend-children. Well, I suppose sooner or later Arab intellectuals have to be right about something. But I won't hold my breath.
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
The Guardian or the CIA?
We have two reports tonight, one from that fount of all supercilious wisdom, the UK Guardian, blabbing that Saddam has escaped the attack on him in a restaurant in Baghdad. I must say I don't see why he would have chosen just this moment for a family outing. But, hey, he's the Führer. And who could doubt the Guardian's neutrality and objectivity? /sarcasm, as they say on Lucianne.com. NOT that I'm saying that all Brits are like the Guardian twits. Too many died to secure Basra for that to be true. But I must mention they've done a fabulous job. Well, Drudge won't let me go to the other article, about how the CIA is positive Saddam is dead. That would be nice. Even nicer because it would show up the Guardian. But I can't get there. Wait. Let me try a few other places. Backsoon. Ah, WashTimes. maybe this has as much as is available. OK to bed and wait for the plumber.
We have two reports tonight, one from that fount of all supercilious wisdom, the UK Guardian, blabbing that Saddam has escaped the attack on him in a restaurant in Baghdad. I must say I don't see why he would have chosen just this moment for a family outing. But, hey, he's the Führer. And who could doubt the Guardian's neutrality and objectivity? /sarcasm, as they say on Lucianne.com. NOT that I'm saying that all Brits are like the Guardian twits. Too many died to secure Basra for that to be true. But I must mention they've done a fabulous job. Well, Drudge won't let me go to the other article, about how the CIA is positive Saddam is dead. That would be nice. Even nicer because it would show up the Guardian. But I can't get there. Wait. Let me try a few other places. Backsoon. Ah, WashTimes. maybe this has as much as is available. OK to bed and wait for the plumber.
Beyond the Middle East
There's a lot of talk, in the last days of the Mesopotamian campaign, about the effect of democracy on the despotisms of the Middle East. It's a grand experiment, an audacious stroke, some say, to eliminate socialist/fascist collectivism from the Levant. But doesn't it have a wider application? It seems to me that the point of the Worldwide War on Terror is that America will not allow threats to arise from ANY quarter, whether East Asia or South America or Central Asia or Africa, that can endanger the progress of democracy and capitalism. As an objectivist, perhaps I'm projecting. But Ayn Rand always maintained that a truly free state, in a world of autocracies, had the right and the duty to suppress or at least neutralize collectivism wherever it might be prudent to do so. So those who are trying to contain the application of the Bush Doctrine - those who cooperate with terrorists will have tanks show up in their palaces - to the Middle East are making a major logical error. And America is the only country who can do this. Every other powerful country has ineffective controls on the military and an insufficiency of culture. God bless America.
There's a lot of talk, in the last days of the Mesopotamian campaign, about the effect of democracy on the despotisms of the Middle East. It's a grand experiment, an audacious stroke, some say, to eliminate socialist/fascist collectivism from the Levant. But doesn't it have a wider application? It seems to me that the point of the Worldwide War on Terror is that America will not allow threats to arise from ANY quarter, whether East Asia or South America or Central Asia or Africa, that can endanger the progress of democracy and capitalism. As an objectivist, perhaps I'm projecting. But Ayn Rand always maintained that a truly free state, in a world of autocracies, had the right and the duty to suppress or at least neutralize collectivism wherever it might be prudent to do so. So those who are trying to contain the application of the Bush Doctrine - those who cooperate with terrorists will have tanks show up in their palaces - to the Middle East are making a major logical error. And America is the only country who can do this. Every other powerful country has ineffective controls on the military and an insufficiency of culture. God bless America.
Mr. Saddam, meet Mr. Bomb
I'm going out on a limb and saying that Saddam is now the inhabitant of a sixty-foot-deep crater in the Al Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad. I know, we've thought this before, but somehow this time it just seems right. Apparently he didn't have a tunnel all the way to the Syrian border. The palaces and airports are all occupied by gum-chewing 20-year-old GIs. Kinda reminds me of the US Army going into Berchtesgaden in 1945. But Hitler didn't have as much gold and gimcrackery as Saddam. And no reports indicate he ever had an edition of Mein Kampf done up in his own blood. Just never occurred to him, I guess.
I'm going out on a limb and saying that Saddam is now the inhabitant of a sixty-foot-deep crater in the Al Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad. I know, we've thought this before, but somehow this time it just seems right. Apparently he didn't have a tunnel all the way to the Syrian border. The palaces and airports are all occupied by gum-chewing 20-year-old GIs. Kinda reminds me of the US Army going into Berchtesgaden in 1945. But Hitler didn't have as much gold and gimcrackery as Saddam. And no reports indicate he ever had an edition of Mein Kampf done up in his own blood. Just never occurred to him, I guess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)