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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: foundation who wrote (5978)	3/12/2003 9:40:32 AM
From: DWB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12231

After Iraq, attack Pat Buchanan by Ben Shapiro March 12, 2003 A few months back, I received a magazine in the mail. I hadn't ordered it, but there it was. "The American Conservative," the title blared in white-on-blue lettering. There were two problems: It was anti-American, and it definitely wasn't conservative. The articles railed against American "imperialism," the Weekly Standard and National Review, and Israel. Kevin Phillips ripped modern conservatism as "Wall Street, Big Energy, multinational corporations, the Military-Industrial Complex, the Religious Right, the Market Extremist think-tanks, and the Rush Limbaugh Axis." He urged readers to "support Democratic retention of at least the Senate." Two weeks later, another issue of The American Conservative arrived. This issue urged the Bush administration against considering pre-emptive war. An editorial by Taki Theodoracopulos accused neoconservative Bill Kristol of being a spy for Israel's center-right Likud Party. Theodoracopulos discussed "American arrogance" and fulminated against Israel. This was isolationist, anti-business, anti-Semitic, dumb economics garbage. And then I looked at the name of the editor: Patrick Buchanan. For many Americans, the Pat Buchanan wing of the conservative movement drives their deep-seated fear of conservatives. When you look at Buchanan's work in recent years, it's not hard to see why. His isolationist economic policy is myopic. In his column of Oct. 28, 2002, titled "The Poison Fruit of Free Trade," Buchanan goes on a ludicrous free-trade-bashing binge. Buchanan argues that because U.S. taxes are too high, we should raise tariffs in order to protect American industry. This argument is stunningly ignorant for a person of Buchanan's "renown." Raising tariffs would push up prices of imports, thereby raising prices across the board. Consumption of goods would fall. Thousands of jobs in American industries would be lost. Real wages would also fall. The best example of the effects of high tariffs is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which most economists feel prolonged the Great Depression and exacerbated its effects. Buchanan holds immigrants in contempt. Not just illegal immigrants -- even some who immigrate legally are not fit to be Americans in Buchanan's eyes. In his book, "The Death of the West," Buchanan writes that Mexican immigrants are problematic because they are "not only from another culture, but of another race," and that "different races are far more difficult to assimilate than different cultures." This is plain un-American. The color of your skin or the racial background of your parents should never disqualify you from becoming a true American. This is the most diverse nation on Earth, even if Buchanan would prefer that it not be. Buchanan's anti-Semitism is well known. He has referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory," in his magazine repeatedly attacks the "Jewish lobby" and blames Israel for the current intifada. But Buchanan's favorite targets are what he calls neoconservatives (read: mainstream conservatives), who are "bent on reckless wars, global free trade and open borders." In the latest issue of his magazine, Buchanan also weaves in his favorite anti-Semitic canard, that neocons are driven by concern for the Jews and want "to conscript American blood to make the world safe for Israel." "We believe the great conservative movement has been hijacked and put into services that would appall the Founding Fathers," Buchanan told the Washington Times in an interview about the magazine. "Neocons are the useful idiots of the liberal establishment," Buchanan reiterated in his Dec. 30, 2002, column. Buchanan, not the neocons, is the useful idiot of the liberal establishment. He and others like him (notables include Theodoracopulos) are used as straw men by the left. They make it much easier to characterize conservatives as racist and isolationist old white men. If conservatives wish to reach out to new constituencies, they must jettison the Buchananites. Buchanan's brand of "conservatism" is closer now to the far left than it is to the mainstream right, as shown by his selection of socialist and black nationalist Lenora Fulani for his Reform Party running mate in the 2000 presidential election. Buchanan's wisdom and patriotism must be questioned when his election to the presidency would have placed an enemy of the nation a heartbeat away from the leadership of America. The conservative movement has progressed beyond the ideology of Pat Buchanan. But if the conservative movement continues to tolerate him, even as a fringe character, it endangers the gains it has made. Oh, and by the way: Mr. Buchanan, take me off your mailing list.

To: foundation who wrote (5978)	3/12/2003 10:32:50 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12231

Iraqis Reject Deadly Drone Claim by U.S. By NIKO PRICE Associated Press Writer March 12, 2003, 8:12 AM EST AL-TAJI, Iraq -- A remotely piloted aircraft that the United States has warned could spread chemical weapons appears to be made of balsa wood and duct tape, with two small propellors attached to what look like the engines of a weed whacker. Iraqi officials took journalists to the Ibn Firnas State Company just north of Baghdad on Wednesday, where the drone's project director accused Secretary of State Colin Powell of misleading the U.N. Security Council and the public. "He's making a big mistake," said Brig. Imad Abdul Latif. "He knows very well that this aircraft is not used for what he said." In Washington's search for a "smoking gun" that would prove Iraq is not disarming, Powell has insisted the drone, which has a wingspan of 24.5 feet, could be fitted to dispense chemical and biological weapons. He has said it "should be of concern to everybody." The drone's white fuselage was emblazoned Wednesday with the words "God is great" and the code "Quds-10." Its balsa wood wings were held together with duct tape. Officials said they referred to the remotely piloted vehicle as the RPV-30A. Latif said the plane is controlled by the naked eye from the ground. Asked whether its range is above the 93-mile limit imposed by the United Nations, he said it couldn't be controlled from more than five miles. Latif said the exact range will be determined when the drone passes to the next testing stage. Ibn Firnas' general director, Gen. Ibrahim Hussein disputed assertions by Powell and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer that the drone was capable of dispensing biological and chemical weapons. "This RPV is to be used for reconnaissance, jamming and aerial photography," he said. "We have never thought of any other use." The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, complained this weekend that chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix didn't mention the drone in his oral presentation to the Security Council on Friday. Blix mentioned the drone in a 173-page written list of outstanding questions about Iraq's weapons programs last week. While small, Blix said, drones can be used to spray biological warfare agents such as anthrax. He said the drone hadn't been declared by Iraq to inspectors. But Iraq insisted it declared the drone in a report in January -- and Hussein held up its declaration to prove it. The confusion, he said, was the result of a typo: The declaration said the wingspan was 14.5 feet instead of 24.5 feet as stated by Powell. "When we discovered the mistake we addressed an official letter correcting the wingspan," he said. He showed that letter to reporters as well. He suggested inspectors had already seen the drone when the correction was made, but said: "No one of the inspectors noticed the difference." "We are really astonished when we hear that this RPV was discovered by inspectors, when it was declared by Iraq," Hussein said. "Nothing is hidden." Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the U.N. weapons inspectors, said the United Nations was investigating the drone's capabilities, and said he was unsure whether Iraq reported the drone before inspectors found it on an airfield or after. Iraq seized on the issue of the drone -- along with early reports from Washington that Iraqi fighter jets threatened a U.N.-sponsored U-2 reconnaissance plane on Tuesday -- as proof that Washington is trying to mislead the world about Iraq's weapons programs in its push for war. "You can imagine the exaggerations the Americans are capable of," said Maj. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison with U.N. weapons inspectors. The United States has been searching for a way out of an impasse created by its demand that Baghdad be given an ultimatum to disarm or face war, which has so far failed to gather enough support in the Security Council. Amin said the United Nations advised Iraq of one U-2 flight Tuesday, but that two U-2s entered Iraq's airspace. Multiple flights are permitted under a U.N. Security Council resolution approved last November, but the United Nations agreed to inform Iraq in advance. U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Iraq launched fighter jets, which threatened one of the planes. Amin disputed that, saying the jets "did not take any measures." Iraqi workers in al-Taji, meanwhile, were destroying three more Al Samoud 2 missiles Wednesday, banned by the United Nations because they can fly farther than allowed, and two trucks full of components for the missile, said Odai al-Taie, a senior Information Ministry official. Before Wednesday's destruction, Iraq had destroyed 55 of its approximately 100 missiles, as well as 28 warheads, two casting chambers, two launchers and five engines -- all associated with the Al Samoud 2 program. Tools and computer software used for launching have also been destroyed. Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press newsday.com