Considerettes

DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe is concerned by infighting among Democrat presidential candidates. Now, it’s bad enough when politicians in the same party start making personal attacks on each other, but when McAuliffe realizes it, and actually says something about it, it must really be getting rough.

After all, this is the guy who painted such a rosy picture of last November’s election outcome even when the Republicans made so many historic gains and wins. If he recognizes a problem, it must really be awful.

Bob Beckel was a deputy secretary of State in the Carter administration, and national campaign manager for Walter Mondale. He’s also in favor of the war in Iraq. Best part:

Having had several painful discussions with some of my closest friends, many of whom I’ve worked with for 30 years, I come away with the crux of the problem with their argument against this war. They all agree that Saddam Hussein is evil, but believe that thousands of Iraqi civilians will be killed by our troops and bombs. I don’t know how many civilians have already died or surely will in the weeks ahead, not to mention our own troops.

There is only one certainty in this whole miserable situation. If Hussein is left in power, thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilians will be killed

But anti-war protesters call that “peace”, don’t ya’ know?

In the US, perhaps there still is hope for the peace movement. None other that Nat Hentoff, writing for the Village Voice, says that, even if you don’t buy the WMD reasons for going into Iraq, or if you do believe that it’s all about oil, there is still at least one very, very good reason to take out Saddam anyway:

As I told The New York Sun in its March 14-16 roundup of New Yorkers for and against the war:

“There was the disclosure . . . when the prisons were briefly opened of the gouging of eyes of prisoners and the raping of women in front of their husbands, from whom the torturers wanted to extract information. . . . So if people want to talk about containing [Saddam Hussein] and don’t want to go in forcefully and remove him, how do they propose doing something about the horrors he is inflicting on his people who live in such fear of him?”

Hentoff admits his lack of admiration for Bush (no real revelation there), but he goes on to savage the UN and Bill Clinton for not acting. And he lauds Tony Blair for his speech to the House of Commons laying out the humanitarian case for taking out Hussein.

What’s most heartening to me about this article is that it’s not a conservative piece preaching to a conservative choir in a conservative magazine. It’s a Vietnam protestor who understands what the term “peace” really means writing to an audience many of whom need to learn it. This is cause for hope.

The London Times is reporting some very disturbing news from that bastion of European sophistication, France:

• British war graves were desecrated in northern France, painted with, among other things, “May Saddam prevail and spill your blood”.
• This is apparently not an isolated case of French extremism. A poll in Le Monde says that a third of the French are hoping for a victory by Saddam Hussein.

The French anti-war movement has been exposed to be as much a pro-Saddam movement as anything else. If they’re really for peace, why would they prefer a murderous dictator be left in power? That’s not peace! That may be the absence of a fighting war involving an outside country, but it’s by no means peace.

It’s about time the “peace” protestors defined their terms. There’s been war going on in Iraq for decades. But it’s all been internal, and apparently this doesn’t fit the definition of “war” for far too many. But, as has been noted, as many, or more, people have died every year in Iraq since the Gulf War than died in the Gulf war itself! Allowing that to continue, and in fact hoping it does, is the height of hypocrisy and contradicts any supposed peaceful intentions on the part of those who wish for that.

And this from an alleged “ally”. The next question is; how much of that sentiment has permeated the US “peace” movement?

What a week to have been away from the blog! So much went on:

• The top sellers of arms to Iraq have been Russia, France and China. Imagine that. The US, by the way, ranks way down in the list (1% of Iraq’s purchases vs. Russia’s 57%, France’s 13% and China’s 12%). Hopefully this will quiet those who seem to think America was the prime, if not only, seller of weapons to Hussein. We didn’t hold a candle to the Axis of Weasels.
• Another human shield admits how wrong he was. He posted a very detailed desciption of his time in Iraq. Best quote: “I had been demonstrating against the war thinking I had been doing it for the very people I was here with now and yet I had not ever bothered to ask them what they wanted.”
• The anti-war crowd has been saying for months that Saddam didn’t pose a threat to anyone, and now they’re saying (as exemplified by this weekend’s Peter Arnett Gestapo Iraq TV interview) that Iraq is a more formidable force than they’d ever imagined. Can’t have it both ways.
• Looks like Iraq has at least some Al-Qaeda backing. Does this surprise anyone? (Yes, yes, I mean “except the anti-war crowd”.)

…and a bunch more, but you get the idea. It’s been quite a ride.

I’m learning the Java computer language this week, so entries will be minimal.

A (former) human shield for the country of Iraq got a serious upside-the-head wake-up call while he was in Baghdad. It’s definitely worth the free registration to read the London Telegraph. Best portion:

It hit me on visceral and emotional levels: this was a real portrayal of Iraq life. After the first conversation, I completely rethought my view of the Iraqi situation. My understanding changed on intellectual, emotional, psychological levels. I remembered the experience of seeing Saddam’s egomaniacal portraits everywhere for the past two weeks and tried to place myself in the shoes of someone who had been subjected to seeing them every day for the last 20 or so years.

Last Thursday night I went to photograph the anti-war rally in Parliament Square. Thousands of people were shouting “No war” but without thinking about the implications for Iraqis. Some of them were drinking, dancing to Samba music and sparring with the police. It was as if the protesters were talking about a different country where the ruling government is perfectly acceptable. It really upset me.

Reality. What a concept.

My essays pages is now listed at The Liberal Dose web site. He’s got lots of great links to other conservative sites, and has a section where he opines on various subjects.

Less than 24 hours after weapons inspectors left Iraq, Scud missles have been fired from Iraq into Kuwait in response to our cruise missle strike.

Wait a minute…weren’t Scuds supposed to be banned? Am I supposed to believe that, mere hours after folks looking for them left, banned weapons are already being used? Gosh! How could that have happened?

Folks, weapons inspections, of the UN variety, were patently not working. They required cooperation by Hussein–cooperation that never materialized except when it served his purpose. They would never have worked so long as he was in power.

However, weapons inspections of the Coalition variety do appear to be making progress.