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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (504777)	12/5/2003 11:05:27 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 769670

Thomas Sowell The high cost of busybodies, Part IV newsandopinion.com \| During the gasoline shortage that began in 1979, motorists were often waiting in long lines of cars at filling stations — sometimes for hours — in hopes of reaching the pump before the gas ran out. The ways that Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan proposed to deal with this situation speaks volumes about the difference between the left and the right. Senator Kennedy said: "We must adopt a system of gasoline rationing without delay," in "a way that demands a fair sacrifice from all Americans." Ronald Reagan said that we must get rid of price controls on petroleum, so that there won't be a shortage in the first place. One of his first acts after becoming president was to end federal price controls. Lines at filling stations disappeared. Despite angry outcries from liberals that gas prices would skyrocket as Big Oil "gouged" the public, in reality prices came down within months and continued falling for years. More taxes were piled onto gasoline by the government but the real cost of the gas itself hit a new low by 1993. "Fairness" is one of the great mantras of the left. Since everyone has his own definition of fairness, that word is a blank check for the expansion of government power. What "fairness" means in practice is that third parties — busybodies — can prevent mutual accommodations by others. Busybodies not only prevent farmers from selling their land to people who would build housing on it, they prevent people on waiting lists for organ transplants from paying someone to donate a kidney or a liver that can be the difference between life and death. Like Ted Kennedy, the organ donation bureaucracy is preoccupied with imposing their notions of fairness on people who are on waiting lists. And, like Senator Kennedy, they have no interest in freeing people to reduce or eliminate the shortage, which could make fairness in rationing a moot issue. Such thinking — or lack of thinking — is not new. Back in the 18th century, Adam Smith wrote of politicians who devote "a most unnecessary attention" to things that would work themselves out better in a free market. What is conventionally called "the free market" is in reality free people making their own mutual accommodations with other free people. It is one of the many tactical mistakes of conservatives to use an impersonal phrase to describe very personal choices and actions by people when they are not hamstrung by third parties. When the issue is posed as "the free market" versus "compassion for the poor," which do you think is likely to win out? Our bloated and ever-growing welfare state — from which the poor get a very small share, by the way — answers that question. The fatal attraction of government is that it allows busybodies to impose decisions on others without paying any price themselves. That enables them to act as if there were no price, even when there are ruinous prices — paid by others. Millions of people's lives are made worse in innumerable ways, in order that a relative handful of busybodies can feel important and superior. Artificially high land prices in those places where busybodies reign politically, based on land use restrictions, make housing costs a crushing burden on people of average incomes. Some of the busybodies imagine that they are preventing "over-crowding" or "traffic congestion." But what they are really doing is moving the crowding somewhere else, since people have to live somewhere, regardless. As for traffic congestion, that is made needlessly worse because of long-distance commuting by those people whose incomes will not permit them to live in the artificially more expensive communities where they work. It is not uncommon in liberal California communities for many commuters to spend 3 or 4 hours a day in their cars, fighting traffic — all for the greater glory of those with the mantra of "open space." Because of the innumerable problems caused by busybodies who devote "a most unnecessary attention" to things that would be better without them, the rest of us should devote some very necessary attention to these busybodies and their sloppy arguments. URL:http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell.html

To: calgal who wrote (504777)	12/5/2003 11:05:50 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

AFTER NEARLY A YEAR in the Iraqi hornets' nest, 130,000 U.S. troops continue to patrol the village streets, capture and kill loyalists of Saddam Hussein, and help build a post-totalitarian society in the heart of the Middle East. But as of March 2004, those troops who maintain today's tenuous occupation are coming home. To take their place, new Army active and reserve units are on their way with more than 20,000 Marines in tow. The force in Iraq is expected to decline to nearly 105,000 at a time when many--especially on Capitol Hill--are clamoring for more troops. The Pentagon says it will reduce the number of military forces in Iraq as it accelerates the training of native Iraqi security forces. And while this may look on the face of it to be a sign that the Pentagon is growing weary of its mission in Iraq, it's instructive to look at the breakdown of where these troops will be and what they'll be bringing with them before making a judgment on how robust America's overall military presence will be in Iraq. Nine battalions of Marines are heading to Iraq in March--21,000 in all. While the Corps is tight-lipped on which units are heading over, many will undoubtedly come from regiments who've already seen action there. They will primarily be based in western Iraq, including the volatile towns of Ramadhi and Fallujah. Additionally, the Army's 1st Infantry Division and 1st Cavalry division are deploying to Iraq in March, along with 37,000 reservists and Guardsmen. Carrier aircraft at sea and helicopter gunships at nearby land bases will provide the usual aviation coverage. Joining the force will be the Army's new Stryker brigade, a lightweight motor infantry unit that utilizes state-of-the-art armored vehicles and highly trained troops to pack a larger punch in a smaller, more deployable package. This will be the first combat deployment of the "transformational" Stryker brigade--named after the eight-wheeled vehicle that is the unit's centerpiece--and by all accounts the soldiers are champing at the bit to prove to the skeptics they have what it takes to fight America's war on terror. Both the Marines and Army are huddling together their best minds to develop training that builds on lessons learned from the units who have fought the war and occupied Iraq, as well as the experiences of other nations and the lessons of history. The Marine Corps, in fact, is in the middle of a revision of its "Small Wars Manual"--a sort of encyclopedia for occupation forces--that dates back to 1930s. Most of the junior and senior leaders going over to Iraq have read the manual or at least know of it as a timeless resource for the mission they will soon face. Additionally, the Pentagon's top scientific testing office has organized a joint working group between the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command, and other services and agencies to develop new tactics to protect convoys, repel and deter attacks, and counterinsurgent groups. Not only will the forces who deploy to Iraq next spring have the benefit of hindsight in their preparations and training, but they will also be armed with the latest technology to detect and repel the roadside ambushes and guerrilla attacks that have so far claimed the lives of 191 U.S. soldiers. weeklystandard.com