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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jerry manning who wrote (24213)	4/13/2003 2:42:32 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 25898

Jennings Showcases "KILL Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld..." Sign MRC ^ \| Saturday April 12, 2003 \| BrentBaker Peter Jennings' affection for dissent. A night after he ignored the rally of 15,000 in New York City to support the troops, an event both CBS and NBC managed to squeeze into their 30-minute evening newscasts, in his end of show review of war photographs on Friday night Jennings highlighted a picture from Africa, far from the war zone, of a protest sign urging: "KILL Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld and Powell, NOT INNOCENT IRAQI CIVILIANS." Jennings non-judgmentally characterized that as "very strong stuff."

To: jerry manning who wrote (24213)	4/13/2003 2:43:54 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 25898

Bush's approval rating up in Newsweek poll (90% Support Keeping Troops In Iraq For Stability) UPI ^ \| 12 April, 2003 Posted on 04/12/2003 4:40 PM PDT by Happy2BMe WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- A poll by Newsweek magazine finds that President George W. Bush's overall approval rating has risen to 71 percent from 53 percent a month ago, just before the war began. The poll, conducted from April 10-11 and posted Saturday on the publication's Web site, also found that 93 percent had an overall positive view of the progress of the military operations in Iraq so far. The war had gone "very well" according to 73 percent of the respondents and "somewhat well" according to 20 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points

To: jerry manning who wrote (24213)	4/13/2003 2:45:06 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 25898

Iraqi officer reveals army chaos bbcnews.com ^ \| april-12-2003 \| bbcnews/Andrew Gilligan The Republican Guard did not offer as much resistance as anticipated A colonel in Iraq's Republican Guard says he received few orders from the country's leaders during the war. Speaking from his home in a prosperous area of Baghdad, he told the BBC's Andrew Gilligan that the coalition bombardment of Iraq badly affected troop morale, with soldiers wanting to desert every day. In one of the first insights into how the elite Republican Guard has acted during the war, he said Iraq's military leaders only agreed to fight the war in the first place because, if they had refused, they would have been killed. The colonel, whose unit was initially placed in the desert but then withdraw to defend the Iraqi capital, deserted about a week before Baghdad was taken. Out of contact The colonel, who commanded a force of about 600 men, said he had initially been told to stay in his position and "hide from the bombs". But it appears that once fighting started he was completely out of contact with Iraq's senior military leaders. "I didn't receive any order from the beginning," he said, adding that he was told that if the airport was still open, Iraq was still in the war. The coalition bombing sapped the morale of his soldiers - some of whom had not seen that kind of bombardment before. "From the beginning, I think that the balance of the air power is not equal. Something hit us. The aircraft... destroyed our tanks and equipment," he said. He said he did not force anyone to stay with the unit. "Every day, one, two, three. Every day one, two, three. Everyone he want to go, leave his gun and go away," he said. Speaking of the fear of Saddam Hussein he said in faltering English: "If they say to him we (do) not have power to face this army, it is not a good war, he maybe will kill him so they said 'yes' we will fight." 'Not worth it' He revealed that Iraqi soldiers had not wanted to fight in the streets of Baghdad because it was their city and home to their families. He added that in the Koran, God said soldiers had to win or die. "But when we see no one command us and tell us what's the planning, for what I will fight? I stay at home is better," he said. In the end, he said, the officers gathered round a fire and decided it was not worth fighting. The unit's troops changed into civilian clothes which they had with them, and went home. Our correspondent says he increasingly believes Iraqi officers followed orders, but did not really want Saddam Hussein to win and so did not make any serious attempts to defend Iraq.

To: jerry manning who wrote (24213)	4/13/2003 2:46:07 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 25898

\| The Free Congress © Commentary: Contradicting CAIR: The Islamic School Book Controversy By Paul M. Weyrich April 9, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Muslim organizations have been working hard these past few months to present Islam as a peaceful, tolerant religion. Those who dare to dissent against such presentations of Islam will run afoul of the `Political Correctness' crowd, who view westernized Muslims to be representative of the entire religion and its followers. They are engaging in wishful thinking about Islam: If only they knew what they do not know. They are quick to smear people such as Robert Spencer, Adjunct Fellow with the Free Congress Foundation, as intolerant bigots because they dare to ask probing questions about Islam and do not settle for public relations spin. These preachers of PC tolerance would do better to challenge those Muslims who are propagating scurrilous falsehoods about Christianity and Judaism in the private Muslim schools right here in the United States. The news media's emphasis on the war has diverted attention away from stories that would receive greater attention in normal times, and one such story was printed last week in The New York Daily News. What the Daily News' investigative reporter, Larry Cohler-Esses, wrote in a story about their three-month investigation of the textbooks used by Muslim schools in the New York area would create a media firestorm ordinarily. Cohler-Esses wrote that the books "are rife with inaccuracies" and contain "sweeping condemnations of Jews and Christians." One textbook cites the Qur'an as saying in reference to Jews: "You will ever [sic] find them deceitful, except for a few of them." Another textbook makes the assertion that the Jewish religion "even teaches [Jews] to call down curses upon the worship places of non-Jews whenever they pass by them!" But Christians fare little better in these textbooks either. One called "What Islam Is All About" says, "The Christians also worship statues." One publisher contacted by Cohler-Esses said the material needed to be revised, even though it took a call from a Daily News reporter to obtain such an admission. Let's hope the Daily News will be watchful and see if the publisher follows through on his promise to do so. The publisher of "What Islam Is All About" insisted that the assertions made by his books were not inflammatory. Even before 9/11 there were Americans concerned about Islam and that its most devout followers would bring harm to America. A reading of these textbooks should certainly make more Americans aware that Islam is a religion that will be slow to change its ways. Muslims generally regard the Qur'an as being the literal words of Allah himself. Therefore, as long as Muslims continue to regard the Qur'an's ultimatum toward non-believers to mean either conversion, submission, or death, there will be some Muslims who will continue to act violently toward Jews and Christians. There is a special challenge in dealing with that news story for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which will hold its annual leadership conference in the Washington area later this month. One of the topics to be considered at their meeting is a growing link between conservative Christian and Jewish organizations. It is a connection that certainly makes sense given the hateful words and violent actions of Muslim extremists, on the West Bank, in the Sudan, in Europe and even here in America, against Christians and Jews. CAIR is the organization that has been spending big money on an advertising campaign. Its initial bunch of advertisements sought to present all Muslims in America as everyday people who live normal American lives. Only under pressure, does CAIR deliver the most mincing acknowledgement that some have been terrorists and it would prefer to just ignore the fact that Muslims who profess violence toward non-believers are still on the streets and in the mosques. The New York Daily News story provides even more honest-to-goodness proof that CAIR is failing to tell the whole story about Muslim life in America. Yet, CAIR self-righteously continues to regard any criticism of any Muslim as bigotry. But CAIR has to answer some tough questions about itself, ones that Spencer has been raising in recent months. They include: Who is supplying the money for CAIR's expensive advertising and public relations campaign? How much money does CAIR receive from the extremist Wahhabi sect of Islam? What tangible effort has CAIR made, if any, to divorce Islam from its extremist elements? If CAIR is really committed to America's security, then when will it clearly and definitively repudiate the theology of violent jihad? A tough, honest examination of this organization by the news media is long overdue. Unfortunately, it is very easy for most journalists to shy away from such a difficult assignment. It is just not `politically correct,' certainly with CAIR's own media representatives, to ask probing questions about the organization. CAIR can stay mum about itself if it wants. But evidently, based on the reporting about the New York schoolbooks, printed exhortations of true hate are being read by young, impressionable minds in Islamic private schools and that should concern us all. Paul Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.