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To: LindyBill who wrote (19584)	12/12/2003 10:21:37 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793578

David Frum has this analysis. Those Iraqi Contracts Sometimes a reader of the New York Times just has to stand back in silent admiration, like a police detective studying the scene of the crime after a particularly ingenious burglary. The Times’ coverage of the Iraqi contracts has been especially artistic. On Wednesday, the paper reported that non-coalition partners were to be excluded from $18.6 billion worth of US military contracts. On Thursday, it followed up with a long lachrymose story heavily sourced from the State Department about how this act of White-House-approved vindictiveness was dooming hopes for German, French, and Russian debt forgiveness for Iraq. A couple of under-emphasized details might, however, have left readers with some rather different perceptions. The fact is that Germany, France, and Russia have already been pressed by the United States to forgive Iraq’s debts, most insistently at an October conference in Madrid. All three refused, as they have refused to provide significant aid to the new Iraq. So who’s kidding whom here? The idea that the allies-only rule might somehow “embarrass” President Bush’s attempts to obtain economic assistance for Iraq is pure State Department wishful thinking. To the contrary: the swift and firm application of an attention-getting two-by-four may well be the only method to persuade the ill-intentioned three to offer any assistance. There’s a more profound question at issue here. It is always hard for the human mind to adapt to the fact of change. For half a century, Germany has been a firm and faithful ally of the United States; France, an often annoying but still ultimately reliable friend. It’s natural to hesitate to absorb the evidence that these relationships may be coming to an end--that Germany is edging away from the old alliance and that France has for reasons of its own opted to pursue a policy of rivalry and even hostility to the United States. But if it is natural to hesitate to accept unwelcome new realities, it is dangerous to deny them. In Iraq, France was Saddam Hussein’s ally, not America’s--and France now wishes the United States, Britain, and the rest of the coalition to fail in Iraq, not succeed. It is useful for the French government and others to be made aware that Americans have observed this hostility--and that America’s future policy toward France and others will take this hostility into account. As for Iraq’s debts, they are a matter between those who chose to lend money to Saddam Hussein--principally France, Germany, and Russia--and the new government of Iraq. The United States will of course wish to see Iraq and its creditors negotiate some settlement. But it’s also true that when debtors and creditors cannot agree, debtors sometimes simply default--refuse to pay. And what will those creditors do if Iraq does default? Invade? nationalreview.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (19584)	12/12/2003 10:23:24 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793578

Malvo is not a "terrorist." He's one of two "lone gunmen." Being black and Muslim and scaring people doesn't make him a terrorist. Terrorists belong to international organizations with political aspirations. We don't call Americans terrorists. The Manson Family were not terrorists. The Symbianese Liberation Army were not terrorists. The Baader-Meinhof gang were terrorists. Actually, some did call the Weather Underground terrorists. And that's about as close as Americans ever got to the term "terrorist".