Best of the Web Today - October 12, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO
Fighting the Last War
"In a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader said the United States 'ran and left their agents' in Vietnam and the jihadists must have a plan ready to fill the void if the Americans suddenly leave Iraq," the Associated Press reports from Washington:
"Things may develop faster than we imagine," Ayman al-Zawahri wrote in a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam--and how they ran and left their agents--is noteworthy. . . . We must be ready starting now." . . .
"More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media," he wrote.
The translation of the letter, in PDF, is here.
Is Iraq another Vietnam? Zarqawi thinks so, as do "antiwar" politicians here in America and many in the media. And in this respect, at least, Iraq does resemble Vietnam: America's enemies and domestic opponents of the war, acting in sync if not in concert, are attempting to defeat the war effort "in the battlefield of the media."
But there the similarity ends. For one thing, the media are nowhere near as monolithic, or as powerful, as they were during the Vietnam era. Arguably the war in Vietnam was lost when Walter Cronkite declared as much after the Tet Offensive. Cronkite's lapse into advocacy was, as Newsweek's Howard Fineman argued in January, the beginning of the end of "the notion of a neutral, non-partisan mainstream press." Cronkite and his successors squandered the public trust they had earned, with the result that no journalist today--no, not even your humble columnist!--comes anywhere close to wearing the mantle of "most trusted man in America."
For another, there is no serious antiwar movement today. Antiwar protests in 2005 consist of the same crackpot rent-a-mobs who long before 9/11 were disrupting meetings of groups like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. Cindy Sheehan is a case in point: Sold by the media as a grieving Everymom, she turned out to be an America-hating lunatic. Thus, as we noted Monday, there is no move among American politicians, outside the Angry Left fringe, to withdraw from Iraq or defund the effort there.
But what about those public opinion polls that show a majority of Americans think liberating Iraq was "a mistake"? The same polls show a majority opposing a precipitous pullout. This seems to be a contradiction, but it really isn't. The idea that Iraq was a "mistake" reflects anxiety about another Vietnam-like defeat; the opposition to withdrawal reflects a determination not to let that happen.
In short, those who hope for another Vietnam appear to have succeeded, for the moment, in persuading most Americans to fear another Vietnam. But that is a far cry from persuading them to accept another Vietnam.
Then Again, Maybe Not
"Where's bin Laden? Quake Could Help--or Hinder--the Search"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 11
Weasel Watch
"France's former U.N. ambassador has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program," the Associated Press reports from Paris:
Jean-Bernard Merimee, 68, who also was ambassador to Italy from 1995-98 and to Australia in the 1980s, is suspected of having received kickbacks in the form of oil allocations from the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He was also a special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2002. . . .
Merimee was France's permanent representative to the U.N. from 1991-95. He was one of the world body's most prominent diplomats, in part because France occupies one of five permanent seats on the powerful U.N. Security Council.
If John Kerry* were president, America would be subjecting itself to a "global test" administered by the likes of Merimee. Though depending on where he's being held, Merimee may be wishing France itself could pass the global test. This from London's Daily Telegraph:
The European Council's commissioner for human rights has described conditions in the prison in France's most august court building as the worst he has seen.
Alvaro Gil-Robles said the cells in the historic Palais de Justice in Paris were squalid and inhumane.
Describing them as "dungeons," he said: "It is incredible that people are imprisoned in such conditions, without ventilation and without natural light. I have never seen a worse prison." Mr Gil-Robles, 60, an academic lawyer and Spain's former national ombudsman, spent 16 days in France last month inspecting prisons, detention centres and mental hospitals.
Perhaps as a humanitarian gesture the U.S. could offer to hold Merimee at Guantanamo Bay.
* The haughty, French-looking star of the new film "Inside the Bubble," who by the way confessed to committing war crimes in Vietnam.
Stable Condition
"The official investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat turned up inconclusive, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Wednesday," reports the Associated Press:
Qureia said a special committee formed to investigate the death of the longtime Palestinian leader would issue a report later Wednesday.
"What they concluded is that medics could not find a reason for the death," he said.
Why not just call it divine intervention?
Mutiny on the Committee
We picked up rumblings of this at the National Review dinner last week, but couldn't report what we'd heard without endangering our source. Now, though, it's in the New York Times:
As the White House seeks to rally senators behind the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers, lawyers for the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee are expressing dissatisfaction with the choice and pushing back against her, aides to 6 of the 10 Republican committee members said yesterday.
"Everybody is hoping that something will happen on Miers, either that the president would withdraw her or she would realize she is not up to it and pull out while she has some dignity intact," a lawyer to a Republican committee member said.
All the Republican staff members insisted on anonymity for fear of retaliation from their supervisors and from the Senate leaders.
The Washington Times reports the same thing:
Republican staff lawyers on the committee--normally the ones building the case to confirm a Republican nominee--say they are despondent over Mr. Bush's choice and some are actively working to thwart her.
"I don't know anybody who is buying what the White House is selling here," said one Republican staffer.
"They're putting out a bunch of positive rhetoric, but they're not putting any substance behind it," said another.
Since her nomination last week, Republican staffers privately have complained bitterly that Miss Miers isn't verifiably conservative. In one staff meeting last week in the office of Judiciary Committee chief counsel Michael O'Neill, a staffer reportedly cried in disappointment.
One scenario for a Miers defeat is that the she or the White House makes an effort to reassure conservatives, coming as close as possible to guaranteeing that she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. If two Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are unpersauded and vote against her, and the Democrats all vote "no" because they can't abide the anti-Roe assurance, the committee will reject her 10-8.
Mickey Kaus has a great face-saving compromise: "How about appointing Miers to a federal appeals court? She's qualified. Bush could say that while he knows Miers he understands others' doubts--and he knows she will prove over a couple of years what a first-rate judge she is. Then he hopes to be able to promote her." The president could even create a vacancy for Miers by nominating Edith Jones or Janice Rogers Brown to the high court.
Helen Thomas, Call Your Agent
"Anthropologists Uncover Ancient Jawbone"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 11
Say What?
"Outer Space Fish Balls Real Chinese Take-Away"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 12
The World Needs More Lerts
The Reuters Foundation has a Web site called Alertnet.org, which provides Reuters stories to nonprofit organizations that work in emergency relief. Its slogan: "Alerting humanitarians to emergencies." A sample headline: "Britney Spears Pulls Costume Bra From eBay Auction."
Not Too Brite--CXCVIII
"A Chinese man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional medicine in Asia, has been killed and eaten by his animals," Reuters reports from Beijing.
Oddly Enough!
(For an explanation of the "Not Too Brite" series, click here.)
The Rival of My Rival
It turns out that, contrary to our item yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton may actually be a lifelong Yankees fan of sorts. A June 2000 Daily Howl by Bob Somerby quotes a 1994 Washington Post article, which reported that Mrs. Clinton "as a kid was a 'big-time' fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees." Somerby speculates as to why little Hillary Rodham, growing up near Chicago, might have had an affinity for the Yanks: "If you're for the Cubs, you hate the [White] Sox, and no one used to torment the Sox like those implacable Yankees."
On the Blink
Here's some pioneering journalism from the Washington Post's Dana Milbank:
It's only 6:17 a.m. Central time, and President Bush is already facing his second question of the day about Karl Rove's legal troubles.
"Does it worry you," NBC's Matt Lauer is asking him at a construction-site interview in Louisiana, that prosecutors "seem to have such an interest in Mr. Rove?"
Bush blinks twice. He touches his tongue to his lips. He blinks twice more. He starts to answer, but he stops himself. . . .
When Lauer asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was "trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression," Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt.
When the questioning turned to [Harriet] Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer--along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling. . . .
The president, now on more comfortable terrain, delivered a brief homily about "the decency of others" and "how blessed we are to be an American." Through the entire passage, he blinked only 12 times.
Leave it to Dana Milbank to blow the lid off an important story like this. |
