April 30, 2004

ANOTHER FOREIGN LEADER FOR KERRY

...Twenty-nine years after the end of the Vietnam war, communist military mastermind General Vo Nguyen Giap remains grateful to the Americans who opposed it...
See the rest here.

FOND FOOLISHNESS-UTOPIAN DREAMS AND IRAQI IRREDENTISM

The author of the following piece is a friend of Horsefeathers, Andrew Bostom, M.D.. Dr. Bostom is the editor of the forthcoming, Prometheus Books essay collection, "The Legacy of Jihad- How Muslim Holy War Transforms Non-Muslim Societies" This essay should be a cautionary tale for our present day utopians seeking to bring the benefits of Western democracy to the Arab Middle East. :

Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was a brilliant archaeologist and explorer, who traveled extensively in the Middle East, later becoming a British intelligence officer and diplomat in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Due to her unparalleled knowledge of the Middle East, Bell was made part of the delegation to the Paris Conference of 1919, and worked subsequently with British officials attempting to create the modern state of Iraq from three disparate ethnic and religious vilayets (i.e., Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra) of the collapsed Ottoman Empire. Bell, the most senior and important female Civil Servant in the entire British Empire during this period, also persuaded Winston Churchill to appoint Faisal, the recently deposed King of Syria, as the first King of Iraq. Her letters written from Baghdad, excerpted below, were originally published in a compilation, “The Letters of Gertrude Bell”, [Volume II, New York, 1927]. Bell’s brief, worried comments about the Assyrians foreshadowed their terrible plight, within seven years of her death. Eight decades later, her elegant prose still reveals a keen understanding of the irredentist forces which continue to grip Iraq, shaping present events.

Baghdad, January 4th, 1920

"…And this country, which way will it go with all these agents of unrest to tempt it? I pray that the people at home may be rightly guided and realize that the only chance here is to recognize political ambitions from the first, not to try to squeeze the Arabs into our mold and have our hands forced in a year -- who knows? Perhaps less, the world is moving so fast -- with the result that the chaos to north and east overwhelms Mesopotamia also.

Baghdad, March 14, 1920

It's a problem here how to get into touch with the Shiahs, not the tribal people in the country; we're on intimate terms with all of them, but the grimly devout citizens of the holy towns and more especially the leaders of religious opinion, the Mujtahids, who can loose and bind with a word by authority which rests on an intimate acquaintance with accumulated knowledge entirely irrelevant to human affairs and worthless in any branch of human activity. There they sit in an atmosphere which reeks of antiquity and is so thick with the dust of ages that you can't see through it -- nor can they. And for the most part they are very hostile to us, a feeling we can't alter…There's a group of these worthies in Kadhimain, the holy city, 8 miles from Baghdad, bitterly pan-Islamic, anti-British…Chief among them are a family called Sadr, possibly more distinguished for religious learning than any other family in the whole Shiah world….I went yesterday [to visit them] accompanied by an advanced Shiah of Baghdad whom I knew well.

Baghdad May 20, 1920

Meantime our Nestorians (Assyrians) are going back to their country which is all in Kurdish hands and far from anywhere we can help them. 6000 left last week. I look upon it with the gravest apprehension. I think the men ought to have been sent first to prepare the way and I fear there will be some awful disaster. If there is, we can't acquit our own conscience.
Baghdad, June 14th, 1920

We have had a stormy week. The Nationalist propaganda increases. There are constant meetings in mosques where the mental temperature rises a great deal above 113. The extremists are out for independence, without a mandate. They play for all they are worth on the passions of the mob and what with the Unity of Islam and the Rights of the Arab Race they make a fine figure. They have created a reign of terror; if anyone says boo in the bazaar it shuts like an oyster. There has been practically no business done for the last fortnight….

Baghdad, August 16, 1920

And now I'll tell you about the revolution. The committee of ex-deputies co-opted at the beginning of the week a number of people among whom were 4 of the leading extremists. On Wed. these 4 all refused the invitation and at the same time the police gave warning that there was to be a monster meeting in the big mosque next day, after which a procession through the town was to be organized. It would undoubtedly have led to disturbances and that was the object desired. For the extremists have seen the ground cut under their feet by the formation of a moderate constitutional party round the committee of ex-deputies and they have no card left but an appeal to the mob. The police were therefore ordered to arrest the 4 leaders. I think they must have bungled the matter for they only got one, the others got away to Kadhimain and are now, I hear, in Najaf. Orders were then issued forbidding the holding of meetings in Mosques, together with a curfew -- no one to be out in the streets after 10 p.m. The combined effect has been excellent as far as Baghdad is concerned. The town has returned to its normal life and I think there is scarcely anyone who doesn't breathe a sigh of relief. Most of them asked why it wasn't done sooner but I think that A.T. has behaved with great wisdom in the matter. He has waited until it was clear that if the agitation was allowed to continue the town would be given over to rioters -- most of those who attended the mosque meetings were riffraff of the worst sort -- and there he has struck for the protection of public security…The worst news is that Colonel Leachman has been ambushed and killed on his way from Baghdad to Ramadi. He was holding the whole Euphrates up to Anak single handed by means of the tribes, troops having all been withdrawn, and we don't know what will happen in those regions…

Baghdad, September 5, 1920

The problem is the future. The tribes don't want to form part of a unified state; the towns can't do with out it. How are we going to support and protect the elements of stability and at the same time conform to the just demand for economy from home? For you can't have a central government if no one will pay taxes and the bulk of the population won't pay taxes unless they are constrained to do so. Nor will they preserve a sufficient amount of order to permit of trade…

We are now in the middle of a full-blown Jihad, that is to say we have against us the fiercest prejudices of a people in a primeval state of civilization. Which means that it's no longer a question of reason….The unthinking people, who form the great mass of the world, follow suit in a blind revolt against the accepted order. They don't now how to substitute anything better, but it's clear that few things can be worse. We're near to a complete collapse of society -- the end of the Roman empire is a very close historical parallel. We've practically come to the collapse of society here and there's little on which you can depend for its reconstruction.

Baghdad, October 10, 1920

All the Nestorians (Assyrians) have been moved from Ba'qubah to a camp under the hills 16 miles or so from Mosul with the idea of getting them back to their own country. But it's now far too late in the year to think of their marching through the hills and as far as I can learn the local Kurds are all determined to oppose them to the death - not being wishful to give up their property which they have meantime annexed. It's not a cheerful prospect.

Baghdad, November 1, 1920

Oh, if we can pull this thing off; rope together the young hotheads and the Shiah obscurantists, and enthusiasts like Jafar, polished old statesmen like Sasun, and scholars like Shukri -- if we can make them work together and find their own salvation for themselves, what a fine thing it would be. I see visions and dream dreams….

Baghdad, November 29, 1920

We are greatly hampered by the tribal rising which has delayed the work of handing over to the Arab Govt. Sir Percy(Cox), I think rightly, decided that the tribes must be made to submit to force. In no other way was it possible t make them surrender their arms or teach them that you mustn't lightly engage in revolution, even when your holy men tell you to do so…

Baghdad, December 18, 1920

The Council is aware and Sir Percy has constantly impressed upon them, the vital need of getting down to the formation of a native army to relieve ours. No Govt. in this country, whether ours or an Arab administration, can carry on without force behind it. The Arab Government has no force till its army is organized therefore it can't exist unless we lend it troops. Mesopotamia is not a civilized state, it is largely composed of wild tribes who do not wish to shoulder the burden and expense of citizenship…

January 30, 1921

…I had them to dinner tonight . It was the most interesting and curious dinner party I ever gave. Besdes the two Najdis I had Major Easdie, Saiyid Muhi ud Din and Shukri Eff. Al Arusi. The latter is one of the finest figures in Baghdad. An old scholar who comprises in himself all knowledge as such is understood by Islam -- he teaches Mechanics, using the Hadith (traditions of the prophet) as textbook and other sciences by like methods --a true Wahhabi, he neither drinks nor smokes…He found in Wahhabi Central Arabia the land of his dreams and looks upon it as the true source of all inspiration and learning….So we sat down to table…Shukri…hanging on Ahmad Thanayan's words while the latter described the immense progress of the extreme Wahhabi sect, the Akhwan (brotherhood), in Najd…Ahmad with his long sunken face lighted up by the purest spirit of fanatical Islam. 'The Imam, God preserve him, under God has guided the tribes in the right way,' -- 'Praise be to God,' ejaculated ?Shukri - "They are learning wisdom and religion under the rules of the Brotherhood,'-Shukri Eff: 'God is great,' - "Not that they show violence,' - "Ahmed Effend. 'God forbid.' - 'No such things happen among us as happened in Europe with the Inquisition and with Calvins' -(I must tell you incidentally that the Akhwan when they do battle kill all wounded and then put the women and children of their enemies, who are also infidels else they wouldn't fight the Akhwan, to death….)

May 29, 1921

I'm thinking of going to Sulaimaniyah at the end of the week for a few days -- to Kurkuk for a couple of nights and so on by motor. Sulaimaniyah has refused, on a plebiscite, to come in under the Arab Govt. and is going for the present to be a little Kurdish enclave administered directly under Sir Percy….The population is wholly Kurdish and they say they don't want to be part of an Arab state..

June 12, 1921

We can't continue direct British control though the country would be better governed by it, but it's rather a comic position to be telling people over and over again that whether they like it or not they must have Arab not British Government….

June 23, 1921

I'm told that Naji Suwaidi is in favor of a mandate rather than the proposed treaty, because a mandate gives us more authority! Faisal wants a treaty I know, so probably that's the way it will work out, and for my part I think it's quite immaterial. You can't run a mandate without the goodwill of the people, and if you've got that it doesn't matter whether it is a mandate or a treaty, but what rejoices me is the fulfillment of my dream that we should sit by in an attitude of repose and have them coming up our front door steps to beg us to be more active…

August 28, 1921

We have had a terrific week but we've got our King(Faisal) crowned and Sir Percy and I agree that we're now half seas over, the remaining half is the Congress and the Organic Law…It was an amazing thing to see all Iraq, from North to South gathered together. It is the first time it has happened in history….

        In the last years of her life, Gertrude Bell created, and was the first Director of the Baghdad Archaeological Museum; she died in 1926, and may have committed suicide. Bell’s utopian dreams for Iraq, what the historian Elie Kedourie termed her “…fond foolishness…thinking to stand godmother to a new Abbasid Empire...”, went unfulfilled. Indeed, one of her worst fears was realized: Muslim violence directed against the Assyrian Christian minority.
The 1930 Anglo-Iraq treaty under which Britain withdrew all its forces from Iraq by late 1932, deliberately excluded any guarantees for Assyrian autonomy or protection. The Assyrians concerns were trivialized, and their appeals condemned as inflammatory, as evidenced by these statements of the British High Commissioner for Iraq, Sir Francis Humphreys:
“Too much importance should not be attached to local sectarian dissensions, the explanation for which was often to be found in some purely trivial matter or incident… reports [i.e., of potential threats to the Assyrian community] can only serve to excite religious animosities, to estrange the Iraqi government, and to unsettle the Assyrians themselves, whose hopes of future welfare depend upon their being merged into the body politic of Iraq, being accepted as loyal subjects of King Faisal, and living in peace with their neighbors…”
Thus were the Assyrians sacrificed to Britain’s Muslim Arabophile policy. On August 11, 1933, less than a year after the British withdrawal, the “new” Iraqi armed forces, aided by local Arab and Kurdish tribesmen, began the wholesale massacre of Assyrians in the Mosul area (Simel, Dohuk). The carnage was described in a contemporary chronicle believed to have been written by Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII, a Cambridge University graduate and Patriarch of the Church of the East:
“The inoffensive population was indiscriminately massacred, men, women and children alike, with rifle, revolver and machine gun fire. In one room alone, eighty-one men from the Baz tribe, who had taken shelter… were barbarously massacred. Priests were tortured and their bodies mutilated. Those who showed their Iraqi nationality papers were the first to be shot. Girls were raped and women violated and made to march naked before the Arab army commander. Holy books were used as fuel for burning girls. Children were run over by military cars. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were flung in the air and pierced on to the points of bayonets. Those who survived in the other villages were now exposed day and night to constant raids and acts of violence. Forced conversion to Islam of men and women was the next process. Refusal was met with death. Sixty five out of ninety five Assyrian villages and settlements were either sacked, destroyed or burnt to the ground. Even the settlements which existed from the year 1921 and who had no connection in any way with the trouble were wrecked and all property looted by Iraq army and tribesmen.”
Before the end of August, 1933, 3000 Assyrians were murdered, and thousands more displaced.

--Andrew Bostom, M.D., M.S.

NOTE: I would like to thank Hugh Fitzgerald for kindly bringing to my attention “The Letters of Gertrude Bell”, [Volume II, New York, 1927], and also providing me with all the specific excerpts I have used save for the two letters regarding the Nestorians (Assyrians), i.e., the letters of May 20 and October 10.

NOTES FROM OUR THERAPEUTIC CULTURE

Helping victims of childhood trauma: Click here.

Hattip to Jonah Goldberg

April 29, 2004

HEROES AND HOLLOW MEN: PAT STILLMAN VS. JOHN KERRY

        The archetypal American male hero is not loquacious, not a smooth talker. Much as we may envy the British their Winston Churchills, our heroes are cut from a different cloth. In fact we tend to be suspicious of wordsmiths. We usually favor a plainspoken Ike over an Adlai Stevenson, darling of the literary intellectuals. Whether in films like High Noon, or in a Hemingway story, the heroic American male traditionally was the strong, silent type. As a Ring Lardner character once observed: “Shut up, he explained.” The American hero did his noble deeds and, like Shane, departed, never ever boasting, or calling attention to himself. To do so would violate the hero’s code and would devalue the heroic deeds he had done.
        In recent years the post-modern anti-hero has emerged. This is the self-centered athlete, preening and posturing and pointing to himself in the end zone, the tantrum throwing John Mc’Enroe, the Muhammad Ali wannabes, insisting “I am the greatest”. There’s no doubt Mc’Enroe and Ali were great athletes, but they were terrible custodians of their own greatness. They violated the code of the American hero. In their wake has come a new breed of self flattering, self promoters, not only in the sports world but in the world of business and the arts and even the sciences. Donald Trump has elbowed his way into the collective consciousness, riding a torrent of verbiage. He is heroic because he says so; the fact that his real world accomplishment consists of a bunch of ghastly buildings and money losing casinos is of no importance since his real achievement is his invention of a persona: the Donald. Remember Eliza Doolittle's exasperation with "Words, words, words, I'm so sick of words"? Well indeed words have almost emasculated the very idea of heroic masculinity. Almost, but not quite. Horsefeathers notes that Pat Tillman’s life and death corresponded to the high, heroic American ideal. He will live on as a hero in the collective unconscious of America precisely because he lived in accordance with the old virtues- the strong, silent, modest, manly ideal. He gave no interviews to newspapers, declined to speak with TV reporters and did not exploit his own fame. He died fighting, not arguing on talk TV. He left no memorable words, only deeds. Contrast him with John F. Kerry, the man who can’t stop blabbering about his wartime experience in Vietnam. Horsefeathers confesses to a visceral distaste for Mr. Kerry based on a first hand acquaintance with real battlefield heroes during the Vietnam war. Those men spoke reluctantly of their deeds and refused to call themselves heroes. They were doing their duty, to comrades and country. Even if we grant that Mr. Kerry did the deeds for which he received medals and ribbons, then it is an egregious betrayal of the code for him to repeatedly boast of his wartime service. If Mr. Kerry wants to credit himself with warrior courage, then he should behave like a man in the noble tradition of American heroes. It is truly sickening to learn that Mr. Kerry cannot refrain from referring to his Vietnam service regardless of the topic. The LA Times reports that: “ In one 24-hour period, he invoked his service:

• To fend off attacks by his Republican rivals;

• As evidence he will fight to expand healthcare;

• As evidence he understands the complicated landscape in Iraq;

• To explain his love of peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches.”

        John Kerry has become a caricature of himself, a national embarrassment. When he threw away his ribbons and/or medals, perhaps it was a rare moment of revealing honesty. His self-referential logorrhea about his exploits in 'Nam is clear evidence that he was always unworthy of them.

April 28, 2004

THE COSTS OF POLITICALLY CORRECT WARFARE

Hattip to friend of Horsefeathers, Ruth King.

Remind us again, Mr. Rumsfeld, why is Falluja not a pile of smoking rubble?

Subject: Fw: Sit. Rep. (Situation Report)

Here is another first hand Sit Rep from the lap top of 1stSgt Bill Skiles in Fallujah. Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, is in the thick of combat against the bad guys. The 1stSgt speaks of "extreme prejudice and violent action!"

Seamus,
I'm back and here we go..Now for an update.....Currently Co. "E" 2/1 has
40 wounded and 3 KIA's.....wild huh?...mostly small shrapnel and eardrums,
but had a Marine lose an arm and 1,a leg ...This place is too messed up to
explain...We have been living in the northwest of Fallujah for 3 weeks
now....Actually living in some homes we confiscated...across from us about
300 yards is the downtown area of Fallujah...We are shot at everynight. We
are mortared alot as well...We always are firing back with our snipers
and/or machine guns....It's almost surreal..We could be playing cards..we
hear gunshots and booms..we keep playing....no big deal...Today, I have to
tell you about TODAY and our gun battle. We started receiving sniper fire
from this Mosque/ tower...then some badguys threw grenades at our pos. on
our roofs...Marines got wounded and Marines fought these $%^%$ close in.
Frags were thrown and massive 5.56 was used in close prox. Anyway,my main
job is casualities evacuation and accountability...So, hearing I have
wounded, I jump in my hardened highback with my company corpsman and 4
security guys and rush to the scene...I've never been shot at so much in my
life....During the medivac, AK's were firing at us 10 yards away....I would
fire my M-16 with one hand while I was running back and forth....OH MY
GOD>>> I think Carl Lewis would be proud of my speed getting these boys
loaded up. Anyway, 8 wounded today, 1 died....I actually broke down and had
the chaplain say a prayer while I hugged this guys head....He was a good
Marine.....I am back in the rear tonight to rest my hurt back and rest my
%^%$# brain....NEVER have I had so much blood around me....But you know
what, PAYBACK is just around the %$#@# corner and I WILL not faulter. I WILL
get these boys ready to show no mercy and rid this town of this CANCER.
Extreme predjudice and violence of action....I really have nothing
intellegent to say...Just numb....I take these boys too personal
sometimes.....We ARE the purple Heart Company..152 strength, 40 WIA, 3
KIA...1/3 of the company with 5 months to go...Hell YEAH>>>>> God Bless our
Corpsman and our Chaplains...They make a big difference out here....and God
Bless Marine Corps fixed wing, Rotary gunships, artillery, mortars, machine
guns and Iraqi bodybags....Out for now...1st Sgt Bill Skiles

April 27, 2004

IRAQ IS NO PLACE FOR A CRUSADE: AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

“I say that freedom is not America’s gift to the world. Freedom is God’s gift to everybody in the world. I believe that. And I believe that we have a duty to free people. I would hope we wouldn’t have to do it militarily, but we have a duty.”

The President has said this over and over again. That he sees his job as doing God’s political work by bringing freedom to all people in the world. And we fear that Iraq has come to mean that for him. It is crusader cant, it has the ring of messianism, and it is chimerical. As foolish as the crusades of the past were.

We were with the President when he rose to the challenge of 9/11 and proclaimed the Bush Doctrine—that any nation or state that harbored, supported, or gave aid to terrorism in any form was as guilty as the terrorists and should be punished and eliminated. He came to see that Arab radicalism—jihadism—was all connected whether it came from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen or Iraq. Isolated acts of terrorism were never really isolated, but part of a loosely knit Arab conspiracy of terrorism. And he took the lead in going to war against this conspiracy.

After Afghanistan, he saw that Iraq was a probable source of great danger. Why? Because Saddam had the largest conventional army in the Middle East, a modern air force, modern armor, and a modern command-and-control structure. It was the sixth or seventh largest military force in the world. In the previous ten years it had attacked three of its neighbors. It had programs for WMD, many of which were destroyed after the Gulf War. And for the previous five years Saddam had refused to allow UN inspectors into the country, suggesting that his WMD programs were being reconstituted. Clearly he was a man who was completely ruthless and capable of doing extremely imprudent acts—like giving or selling WMD to terrorists. He had been a threat to his neighbors and now he had become a threat to the U.S. because terrorists could deliver destruction to the shores of the U.S. much more reliably than ICBM’s.

But somehow, in the course of planning the “regime change” in Iraq, the primary aim of getting rid of Saddam’s regime and its weapons became distorted into “nation-building” and making Baghad into a City on the Hill, a shining example of American democracy and American values, including equality for women and minorities, and getting rid of Sharia law and theocracy.

Only the most blatant arrogance and messianic outlook could have allowed such nonsense to go forward.

Except for the most sophisticated and westernized, Iraqis cannot understand or accept western political values. In the world of the Arab, tribalism trumps everything. Two Arab brothers may be at each other’s throats until an infidel comes on the scene, whereupon they immediately join hands and attack the infidel. That is the way Arab culture works.

America has achieved its primary aim in invading Iraq—to weaken it as a threat to its neighbors and the world, and to show the the rest of the Islamo-fascist world what is in store unless they curb their resident terrorists.

Now, President Bush, it is time to move on. Give up your misguided mission to democratize Iraq. Iraq should be free to turn down Western values. You can’t shove it down their throats. Let’s stick to realpolitik and get past the crusader mentality. If you do you will quickly realize that you are free to:

1. Kill all of America’s enemies in Iraq without being held responsible to any future Iraqi government. You can go into Najaf and kill al Sadr. Go into Falluja and kill all the troublesome insurgents without having to worry about hearts and minds—which you will never win anyway.

2. Declare that Iraq has been given this great opportunity to create whatever form of government it wants.

3. Declare that the United Nations can help it determine whatever form of government it wants. Why not saddle the UN with the mess in Iraq.

4. Move our forces to the Kurdish part of Iraq, which is largely autonomous anyway, and get them to allow us to build an airbase there. In this way we can say that we are “staying the course” in Iraq. We can protect our friends, the Kurds, and their oil fields. We will also be able to use the base for any operations against enemies in Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Saudi Arabia. Or to launch Special Operations forces when such opportunities appear. Such a base would stabilize the entire Middle East. In such a situation our forces would be both welcome and safe from insurgents while at the same time able to mount small offensive tactics, something our troops are best at.

Won’t such a strategy—leaving central and southern Iraq to the Sunnis and Shiites—lead to civil war in Iraq? Very likely. But the fact is that Iraq was never an integrated nation. It was cobbled together by a cadre of French and English bureaucrats after the First World War for their own respective national interests, and to pay off debts in their fragile relationships with the Arabs.

History has shown, again and again, that very often the only way to solve problems between states, nations, peoples, religions, tribes, and all groups of enemies is by war. The polite, highly civilized Western democracies which are just about to enter into a European Union, with a common currency, socialized medicine, and three-week ski vacations didn’t start out that way. From the fall of the Roman Empire in the Fifth Century until 1991—about 1600 years—there were political wars, civil wars, religious wars, and revolutions almost constantly. Even peaceful Switzerland, which hasn’t had a war since 1848, was at war for seven hundred years before the Swiss got tired of it. If you let them, these things have a way of working themselves out. It may take a few hundred years but eventually they do reach an equilibrium.

Mr. President, give up your crusade and let America get on with our war against terrorism.

April 25, 2004

FOUND AT LAST: WHITE MALES THE NYTIMES CAN CELEBRATE

They’re ex-Marines and they’re victims too!

Today’s NYTimes carries a very sympathetic report on the plight of sex video actors (Sex Videos on Pause, and Idled Actors Fret). The article features a gulf war veteran who “learned how to take orders as a marine”. We’re thus given to understand the equivalence between being shot at by enemies and having to endure the dangers of pornographic sex without even hazardous pay allotments. The article celebrates these men as hard working types, serious about their profession, who play second fiddle to the more highly paid women. They struggle along out of dedication to their art, despite being marginalized and deprived of recognition. Now in addition to contending with low pay, they have to worry about their health. What kind of a society is it that gives tax breaks to the wealthy and ignores the suffering of its working class? The article is accompanied by the requisite photo of a brooding, sensitive and troubled looking “Nick Manning” gazing into the middle distance. He remarks: “One more day without sex here, it’s ridiculous. We have nothing to do. Imagine if you couldn’t work for an indefinite period of time. It’s very odd for me.” And then there’s the ex-Marine, Jay Ashley. How unfair is this? Mr. Ashley, in his efforts at artistic verisimilitude “..did not wear a condom while filming, but always insisted on seeing his partner’s certificate of health..” Now he has to worry that he might have been infected by someone who had sex with another actor who didn’t have the proper certificate. Lest we despair completely, the Times drops in a note of reassurance: like soldiers in battle, an emotional band of brothers forms among the beleaguered: “Friends, enemies—everyone comes together in the adult industry when there’s any kind of a problem like this”, said Jim South, a talent agent with 31 years in the business.” Now that's a relief!

April 24, 2004

PAT TILLMAN'S HEROISM: A PROBLEM FOR THE NYTIMES

        Leave it to the New York Times to find a way to spin the heroism of Pat Tillman into an indictment of the war and America. How do they do this? Some genius in the newsroom suggested to the editors that they pair the Tillman story with the story of Nicole Goodwin, a black homeless army veteran of the Iraq war. There they are, pictured side by side on page 1. Goodwin’s all too familiar story of black family pathology, which includes her becoming pregnant out of wedlock, having the child, fighting with her mother and others who offer her places to live, turning to the welfare state to rescue her, would not make it to the front page were it not for her military service. Ms. Goodwin's 3+ months in Iraq "...helping to supply soldiers with things like toilet paper..." allows the Times to turn her into a hapless but heroic victim of our uncaring society. After describing the events of her life in a passive voice-- unfortunate things just seem to happen to her--with no personal agency or responsibility involved, the story culminates with mother and child being shunted from hotel to hotel by heartless bureaucrats. This is the perfect NYTimes story. It features the ideal sad looking victim: a black woman, a single mother deserted by the father of her child, and an idealist who wanted to follow in the footsteps of her fellow Morris High School alumnus, Colin Powell, but who never expected that joining the Army might mean going to war. The culminating paragraph is an all out effort to jerk the tears out of the readers’ eye ducts: "...A war veteran wearing a backpack, pushing a stroller and carrying a baby stayed in another strange hotel room last night, mostly because the city of her birth does not know what to do with her. Welcome home..."
        The juxtaposition of this story with the account of Pat Tillman is yet another example of the New York Times pushing forward its agenda. It’s Vietnam time again. Let’s remind everyone that Tillman died defending a country that does terrible cruel things to its young black female veterans. From the perspective of the N.Y.Times editorial board, his heroism was in the service of our oppressive, uncaring, racist, sexist society. Besides, Tillman was a white, male, football player and we all know that we can’t attribute heroism to such products of privilege. For the NYTimes our heros must be hapless victims of the white patriarchy. Nicole Goodwin is perfect, for in celebrating her victimhood the NYTimes can simultaneously trivialize and devalue Pat Tillman's heroic sacrifice.

April 23, 2004

PAT TILLMAN: AMERICA'S SON

"...Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man..."
--To An Athlete Dying Young: A.E. Housman

        In our celebrity culture where self absorbed fools make millions, where athletes preen and prance and tell us how great they are, Pat Tillman's life was absolutely extraordinary. He turned away from the seductions of money and fame to protect all of us, including the jerks, blowhards and narcissists we love to watch on the idiot box and on the movie screen. How many of us, having worked as hard as he did to achieve success, fame and fortune as a professional athlete, would give it all up for the chance to risk one's life on a distant, barren hillside, fighting for our freedom?

A Father's Prayer
by General Douglas MacArthur
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, "I have not lived in vain".

BEWARE CHRISTIAN FORBEARANCE IN MIDDLE EAST POLICY

The sum of virtue is to be sociable with them that will be sociable, and formidable to them that will not.—Thomas Hobbes

The current American Enterprise Magazine is running an article by its editor, Karl Zinsmeister, called “The Guerilla War.” It is an excerpt from his forthcoming book “Dawn over Baghdad: How the U.S. Military is Using Bullets and Ballots to shape a new Iraq.” In it he describes the daily challenges and frustrations for our men and how they cope with them. He describes his embedded life with the forces and their commanders and paints a blunt but even-handed picture of what was going on when he was there in the early part of 2004. The details he writes about provide some clarification for the events that are taking place at this time in Falluja, Baghdad, and the Shiite sections of Iraq.

Over and over, Commanders of the forces in Falluja must patiently reprimand troublesome imams, who give sermons that stir up violence against the American forces. “ ‘Please God, kill the Americans, destroy them, and make them gone from Iraq.’ …. ‘We will point our weapons, blood, and ourselves against the Jews and Americans.’ ”

The American officers warn the clerics repeatedly that there will be serious consequences if they continue, the clerics smile deceitfully and nod compliance and do the same thing the following week.

Zinsmeister records the following interchange between the commander of a rifle company whose job it was the previous night to protect a meeting of the military and the locals. Upon leaving that meeting the convoy missed being blown to pieces by a 155 mm artillery shell wired with a blasting cap and buried beneath the only road out of the meeting place. The blast came just between two humvees. The armored windshield of the closest vehicle was shattered, and two soldiers sustained concussions and hearing loss.

“At the Battle Update Brief the next day, the commander of the company that provided the security for the council meeting—a wiry, nervous, intense captain named Caliguire—tells the battalion commander bluntly that he thinks it is tactically dangerous to put soldiers, at an advertised time every week, into a IED [improvised explosive device] location with only a few exits. This is just an invitation for a carefully pre-planned attack.

“‘Sir, that is the fifth time the platoon hit by that lED has been blasted. They've been very lucky, and they keep getting up and dust themselves off, but it's only a matter of time until our string runs out. We're taking awful chances to guard these damn council meetings. We're just inviting them to have bombs waiting for us.’

“Drinkwine, a mild and reflective upstate New Yorker who is on the intellectual side of the commander spectrum, hears him out and lets some other officers comment. Then he answers in his placid and careful way. ‘Look, we've got no choice. That's the only location where these meetings can be held, and we need to have them regularly each week so people come to think of them as part of the fabric of the city's life.

“‘And I want you to remember something: By getting this governmental body up and running we are beating our opponents. We are showing this whole city that we will not be intimidated. We are showing them that a new era is coming. We are showing them that there is a more productive way. And the enemy's only response is a bomb that mostly hurts an Iraqi family. That's pretty pitiful in the face of what we're accomplishing here. An historic transformation is taking place in this city, and we're in combat to protect it. We've just got to keep fighting through the resistance.

“‘And listen: I want you officers to tell your troopers that. I want you to tell them why we're doing this. Many of your Joes have no idea what's going on inside that building, and whether it's worth the risks we're taking to be there. Remind them as they're standing exposed on rooftops or walking the streets for four hours why these meetings matter. You tell them we are planting powerful seeds that will change this country forever, so our sons don't have to come back here in the future.’”

Lt. Col. Drinkwine’s speech—noble, idealistic, fair-minded and heroic—is meant to inspire his men with ideas supplied him from on high: the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House. He is the iconic image of the American soldier. He could have been played by Gary Cooper and the speech could have come out of “High Noon,” or “Shane,” because that’s the way we Americans are or would like to be. That’s why in the show down scenes in American westerns the white-hatted guy never shoots first.

MEANWHILE, IN ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST…

John Burns, the New York Times correspondent in Iraq, and several of his staff were charged with being spies and arrested by the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr a few days ago. They were detained for eight hours and eventually released. He describes the situation:

“The group of detained men slept fitfully and were awakened by the
sound of an approaching car. The security officials who had arrested
them came through the door, smiling broadly. ‘Everything is O.K.
now,’ they said, without further explanation. ‘You can go home.’

“As the detainees were taken back to the mosque, the driver, who gave his name as Khadem, gave a hint of his thinking. With magnesium flares fired by militia outposts lighting the night sky outside Kufa, the man, who said he was 40 and a technical college graduate, explained how he had had spent two years in prison under Saddam Hussein for belonging to a banned Shiite religious party.
But when he was asked if he had not welcomed the American forces who toppled Mr. Hussein almost exactly a year ago, as many Shiites did, he turned suddenly combative. ‘It was God who finished Saddam, not the Americans,’ he said. ‘The Americans broke all their promises to us, and they have brought their infidel beliefs to Iraq. We hate them, and they are worse than Saddam.’”

Col. Drinkwine; Khadem. White hat; black hat. The disparity between the way they think and the way they see the world suggests that they could never occupy the same universe of discourse; could never communicate even if they had a choir of translators.

For the past year, since the so-called end of the Iraq war last April, U.S. policy has been to repair and democratize Iraq at great cost to our country in blood and treasure. At this time there is drinkable water, electric power that works as well or better than before the war, and the oil industry is producing more oil than before the war. Most important, there have been improvements in the development of a modern constitutional process, but only in the minds of the most sophisticated people in Iraq. In the rest of Iraq, except for the northern Kurdish sector which has had a long history of friendliness to Americans, there is hatred and resistance to America and its aims.

The disgusting and savage outburst of anti-American hatred and barbarous cruelty that appeared on TV screens world-wide a few weeks ago cannot be forgotten. In the Sunni Triangle, and in Falluja in particular, we have been faced with stubborn resistance to every attempt at fair and just treatment of the Sunni people. Most of the military casualties suffered in Iraq in the last year have come from Sunni insurgents. And what was astonishing and sickening was the behavior of the jackals who came along after the four civilians were murdered and dishonored the bodies and danced for joy at the sight.

No less astonishing is the following that the fanatical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has attracted by his anti-American militancy. And true to the Arab custom—my enemy’s enemy is my friend—the Shiites and Sunnis now enjoy a common enemy: the U.S.

These events involving the ordinary people of Iraq and not the elite and politically sophisticated of the country seem to be a convincing demonstration that there is no hope for Iraq as an object of political and social reform, or even cooperation on their own behalf. In that country tribalism trumps everything else. There is and will always be a blood feud between them and us.

We have accomplished a great deal in Iraq in the past year:

We overthrew the regime.

We destroyed Saddam’s power to make serious weapons and pass them on to terrorists.

We helped create an interim government.

We raised a large sum of money from America for rebuilding Iraq.

We have assisted in the creation of an administrative bureaucracy.

We have restored a large part of the utilities and oil structures.

We have put pressure on the Arab world to reduce its support for terrorism, and compelled Libya to give up its weapons programs.

In short, we have put Iraq on the road to stability and democracy. We have achieved our nation’s strategic goals and satisfied America’s misguided hunger to see itself as altruistic.

HOWEVER:

We will never succeed in making Iraq into a model democracy. The Iraqis do not want what Americans want. We cannot make them over in our own image. They don’t want freedom. They want a highly religious community governed by their own leaders—some religious, some secular. It is no longer our responsibility.

We should recognize that we have no friends among the majority of the Arab Iraqis. They will misinterpret every event so as to see us as the enemy.

In Kurdistan alone are we seen as friendly allies. It is time to stop trying to be neutral amongst the warring Iraqis and take sides with our friends, the Kurds.

We should work out a deal with the Kurdish leaders to establish an airbase in Kurdistan. This would be in their interests as well as ours. We would protect them and their oil from Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Turks.

At the same time this would be a golden opportunity which was won in a brilliant war. We must not give it up. We’ve got boots on the ground which gives the US incalculable leverage and power amongst Middle Eastern nations. Our continued presence would be a constant threat to our enemies and reassurance to our friends. Our military presence would multiply our diplomatic power tenfold. We would be able to have constant monitoring of signal and human intelligence in powerful ways from this vantage point. We would have the capacity to mount small and large-sized incursions by Special Forces when necessary. And finally our sustained military presence would stabilize the region politically.

April 22, 2004

MORE DEATHS IN THE WAKE OF NOBLE DREAMS: THE EXAMPLE OF THE U.N.

        The one true lesson of the twentieth century is that human nature cannot be changed by social engineers, no matter how grand the effort. Nazism and Communism both sought to remake human beings and left millions dead in their wake. Nevertheless the dream persists and is impervious to facts. Horsefeathers predicts that the emerging truth of the United Nations' organizational complicity in Saddam's totalitarian enterprise will not weaken the devotion of its supporters. The United Nations exists as a dream in the minds of those yearning for utopia. John Kerry will continue to praise it and condemn our "failure" to enlist its support in the Iraq war. He will continue to argue that it is we who failed, through our belligerent conduct, we who need to apologize and be nicer, more willing to "share". As he said on Meet the Press: "Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world..."One can see, once again, in the 'let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya' views of John Kerry, that facts are trivial things when measured against utopian faith. The fact that the U.N. itself was riddled with bribe takers, both individuals and governments with a financial stake in keeping Saddam's terror apparatus functioning, will not raise doubts in the minds of true believers. Despite the fact that millions were murdered in Communist Russia and China, the dream of Communism is regarded by many as a noble one that unfortunately fell into the wrong hands. So too with the U.N. Some may regretfully acknowledge that there were some individuals who misused the organization, but will cling ever more tightly to the faith itself.
        Claudia Rossett's diligence in exposing the details of the corrupt oil for food program makes the point that it wasn't just a matter of a number of bribe taking individuals, but rather the very nature of the U.N. itself: "...The final perfidy, though, is not personal but political. The U.N., in the name of its own lofty principles, and to its rich emolument, actively helped sustain and protect a tyrant whose brutality and repression were the cause of Iraqi deprivation in the first place. What can this mean? The answer may be simply that, along with its secrecy, its massed cadres of bureaucrats beholden to the favor of the man at the top, its almost complete lack of accountability, external oversight, or the most elementary checks and balances, the UN suffers from an endemic affinity with anti-Western despots, and will turn a blind eye to the devil himself in order to keep them in power..."
See the rest here.
Horsefeathers further predicts that Ms. Rossett will not get the Pulitzer Prize she deserves for her reporting. Unlike Walter Duranty reporting on Stalin's Russia, she doesn't endorse the nobility of Kofi Annan and his corrupt organization.

April 20, 2004

NOT IN THE N.Y. TIMES

This is one example of a remarkable story of 21st century engineering know-how, coupled with timeless heroism. Why are such stories not to be found in the MSM?

Barrier around Fallujah intended to stop insurgents' supplies, mobility
Submitted by: 1st Force Service Support Group
Story Identification Number: 200441912541
Story by Lance Cpl. Samuel Bard Valliere

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq(April 19, 2004) -- Marine Corps and Army engineers finished construction of a barrier around much of Fallujah April 15, 2004, which blocks off the majority of pathways leading into or out of the city, and is expected to deter insurgents from bringing in weapons and gear.

Fallujah, a hotbed for insurgent activity, is the focus of I Marine Expeditionary Force's Operation Vigilant Resolve, launched April 4 to re-establish security in the city and to account for the March 31 murders of four U.S. civilians.

Built on the north and south sides of the city, the 5-foot high berms stretch 2 1/2 miles each.

The 7th Engineer Support Battalion's A company worked in conjunction with members of the Army's 120th Engineer Battalion to build the northern half of the berm, supporting the 1st Marine Division, which is manning the boundaries of the city.

Division engineers also completed a similar barricade on the southern side of Fallujah.

Since their defensive positions are limited by the flat landscape, the Division asked CSSB-1 to construct a barrier that would provide cover from enemy fire and also limit the enemy's access to the city.

"They had set up positions behind natural obstacles," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Wayne D. Duree, 30, platoon commander for the company, who led the building effort on the northern side of the city. "This gave them a few more options about where they could move."

The battalions didn't have sufficient manpower to observe the entire perimeter, which enabled anti-coalition troops to enter the city through man-made paths and even tunnels built into an old railroad station that could not be monitored.

Intentionally made short enough to see over, the berms are not intended to serve as a wall that will stop all people traveling by foot. Instead, it simply elevates everyone above the horizon, sky-lighting their silhouette, so Marines can identify them. Yet, it is high enough to block all vehicle traffic.

"Vehicle traffic is how they bring in supplies; they aren't taking the main roads," said Duree, a Houston native. "This deters reinforcements. They're going to have to work for it."

The engineers worked from dawn until dusk for three days, as they piled dirt on ground riddled with natural depressions as large as 20-feet wide and 5-feet deep. The engineers opted to navigate around them to prevent an accident from happening with the heavy bulldozers.

"We had to go around the depressions and work with the landscape," said Duree. "So the berm isn't straight."

Working close to the fertile soil of the Euphrates River brought with it yet another challenge. Had the heavy equipment been brought into some of the muddier areas around the city, it would have sunk and been rendered immobile. Consequently, in those areas, barbed-wire fencing was erected instead.

Under constant threat of enemy attack, the company provided their own security during construction, having humvees loaded with Marines and heavy-machine guns move with the dozers as the northern berm was built.

Despite an ongoing cease-fire in the city during a series of recent peace talks, the Marines endured small-arms fire from insurgents on the first day of the operation. The Marines and soldiers quickly suppressed the assault and encountered no other threat for the duration of the construction. In fact, Duree said, they saw quite the opposite.

In some places along the berm, the atmosphere was friendly. Children came out of their homes and waved to the toiling troops.

Working under the direction of the 1st Force Service Support Group's Combat Service Support Battalion 1, the engineer battalion assists in accomplishing CSSB-1's six-sided mission to aid ground troops in Fallujah during the operation. Providing Division Marines with supplies, maintenance, transportation, engineering, health services and general support, CSSB-1's troops are always on call to help.

GOODNIGHT CHESTY, WHEREVER YOU ARE

        Just when Horsefeathers was verging on despair about a culture that celebrates victimhood and metrosexual narcissim, while demanding Oprah moments of apology from the President, along comes a young man like Sgt. Kenneth Conde, Jr. to give us hope.:

Marine fought for several days, despite gunshot wound

CAMP HURRICANE POINT, Iraq(April 17, 2004) -- Sgt. Kenneth Conde Jr. didn't even realize he was shot until someone told him.

In the mid-afternoon hours of April 6, Conde's unit, 3rd Mobile Assault Platoon, Mobile Assault Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, received orders to help evacuate two casualties from Company G wounded during a firefight in the city of Ar Ramadi.

"There were ambushes going on everywhere," 22-year-old Conde said. "We were able to get to the casualties and get them loaded up into our vehicle."

But in combat, the plan rarely survives first contact. What was supposed to be a simple in-and-out mission rapidly changed when the 27-man platoon came under fire. Machine gunners laid down suppressive fire from the tops of the trucks and cleared a path for the convoy to maneuver.

"The platoon turned down what we call Easy Street," explained the Orlando, Fla., infantryman. "That's when we saw another squad and a company."

Marines down that street were engaged in a vicious gun battle with enemy forces. Shots rang out from every direction. There was no way for Conde's convoy to get through without putting up a fight.

"There were people everywhere and we couldn't really tell where the firing was coming from," he said.

Conde knew the Marines couldn't defeat an unseen enemy. He needed to locate the enemy before destroying him. Rifle in hand, he headed down the street to do just that.

"The insurgents are like ghosts," he said. "They have the element of surprise because they can hide. They see us but we can't see them. I knew we had to get out to see where they were shooting from."

The sergeant called upon Cpl. Jared H. McKenzie and Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Cox to leave their vehicles and follow him to the front of the convoy.

"Wherever Sergeant Conde goes, that's where we go," said Cox, of Saint Peter's Mo. "No questions asked. We just follow him."

The three of them darted past the trucks looking for enemy positions on the rooftops.

"We walked up to the third block past the vehicles and spotted a guy shooting at us from one of the rooftops," Conde said. "One of the gunners, Lance Cpl. Matthew Brown, took that building out with his machine gun."

Conde, McKenzie and Cox kept searching for the enemy. They exposed themselves to the fire - the only way they could get a good look at enemy's firing positions. As they pushed forward, Conde was able to take out two shooters, but then things took a turn for the worse.

"I was running and I watched as I got shot in the left shoulder," Conde said. "I remember seeing a red mist coming from my back."

Even though he saw himself get shot, it didn't occur to Conde to quit fighting.
"I didn't really realize I had been shot until one of the Marines said something," he added.

According to McKenzie, Conde fired several shots, killing a combatant, before falling to the ground. He then managed to get back to his feet and fire a few more rounds at the enemy before falling again.

"We helped him up so he could get to the corpsman to get bandaged up," McKenzie, 22-year-old from Bonaqua, Tenn. "We made sure to kill the guys who shot him."
The corpsman treated Conde, who only wanted to get his gear and get back to the fight.
Conde's Marines were out there and he knew his place was alongside them.

"We stayed and fought until every one of the insurgents was dead," Conde said.
Before the day was through, 3rd MAP also raided the house of a former Ba'ath Party member and seized a large weapons cache.

Over the next few days, Conde's unit participated in several other firefights until the violence died down. All the while, he nursed his wound, not giving into the pain and refusing to leave his Marines.

Only when his arm went numb, making it difficult to hold his rifle steady, did he finally give in and step out of the fight.

Back at the camp here, Marines asked Conde why he chose to stay and fight even after being shot.

"I told them that I couldn't just leave the fight when I still could keep going," he told them.

But his actions didn't surprise his fellow Marines.

"He always told us that he would lead us from the front, and that we would never do anything if he wasn't doing it too," Cox explained. "After being in that firefight with him, I will always know that he is true to his word."

Semper Fi!

April 19, 2004

FREE ROPE FOR THOSE WHO WOULD HANG US

        One of the more bizarre aspects of the P.C. culture we live in is our willingness to submit to demands for democratic freedoms by those who would use those freedoms to annihilate us. Here is yet another "spiritual leader" of Islam, living in the West, benefiting from its freedoms, while urging our destruction.
        "...If they believe in democracy, who are they afraid of? Let Omar Bakri benefit from democracy!" The Muslim cleric explained why it is alright to slaughter the non-Muslim citizens of such democracies: "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity."
         If there is any doubt about the goal, Sheik Bakri Muhammad clears things up: "...Asked about his comments that he wanted to have the banner of Islam at 10 Downing Street, Muhammad said, "Yes, it's my dream. I believe one day that is going to happen. Because this is my country, I like living here..."
See the rest here.

April 16, 2004

CONTEMPORARY LIBERALISM: THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE

        Human nature constantly seeks to transcend its own limitations. Some of civilization’s greatest accomplishments—for one modern example, aerial flight—have been produced by this effort. Still, each of us realizes our bodies cannot fly unassisted by machines. If we don’t, we are likely to wind up committed to the funny farm. Yet when it comes to utopian political ideas there seems to be no similar awareness of the difference between wishful fantasy and reality. Reading John Kerry’s latest critique of our government’s Iraq policy demonstrates the imperviousness of such fantasies when confronted with real world evidence. One wonders what planet Mr. Kerry dwells on when he argues, with an apparently straight face:"...the administration must make the United Nations a full partner responsible for developing Iraq's transition to a new constitution and government..." So our problems in Iraq are due to our failure to make the UN (the same UN whose functionaries fled at the first signs of trouble) our full partners!
        The United Nations as described by John Kerry, is the perfect embodiment of contemporary liberalism’s detachment from reality. The planet he dwells on is the planet of perfection, of human beings freed from irrational desire and living in perpetual harmony. No one gets committed to a mental hospital for advocating the socialist dream of a perfect egalitarian world, even though a century’s experience taught that the dream brought misery to millions and was unattainable by actual human beings. Call it the madness of everyday life. Such beautiful dreams are regarded by contemporary liberals, not as symptoms of madness, but as evidence of the nobility of the dreamers. Similarly, liberal utopians speak of the UN as if it were not the utterly corrupt organization it has become in the years since its idealistic founding. Don’t expect the John Kerrys of the world to notice and condemn the corruption of the UN’s oil-for-palaces program, a Mafia like scam responsible for countless innocent dead Iraqis. After all, the UN is too busy skimming off profits and passing resolutions condemning Israel to actually do something useful in places like Rwanda. So what if Palestinian children are being fitted out with bomb belts; the UN has important things to do- like delegitimizing Israel, holding conferences to equate the liberation movement of the Jewish people, Zionism, with racism, and following the lead of Libya as head of its Human Rights committee. While the UN has become a forum for tyrants promoting hatred of Jews and America, John Kerry speaks of it as an admirable, rather than criminal organization, that can confer legitimacy on our coalition efforts in Iraq. Reality contradicts his noble fantasy, so reality must be ignored. The United Nations has become a forum in which tyrants are granted equal legitimacy with democracies and where backward thugocracies like Cuba and Libya can prattle about human rights. It has fomented anti-semitism and hatred of America for years. It provides an upscale lifestyle, not for the oppressed, but for the likes of Kofi Annan and his son. Yet this is the organization John Kerry argues is ideally suited to confer legitimacy on our efforts in Iraq.
        The truth is that President Bush, for months, (misguidedly, in Horsefeathers' view) sought to confer our stamp of legitimacy on the UN—and that fraudulent institution, the repository of infantile dreams of universal peace---rejected his efforts and made a mockery of its own resolutions. Mr. Bush tried to infuse some hard headed realism into an organization more concerned with the New York upscale life of its diplomats than with the real threats to civilization emanating from totalitarians. In the war of ideas, the UN fantasists-our State Dept. utopians and Mr. Kerry, are on the side of civilization’s enemies.

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