Mark Steyn: Keeping Up the Pressure

The Spectator [UK] ^ | December 31, 2003 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

Timing is everything. Leafing through our issue of two weeks ago, I feel it would be kindest to draw a veil over page 26 (“Correlli Barnett says that the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq serve as object lessons in how not to conduct an anti-terrorist campaign”), but that guy buried away on page 38 seems shrewder than ever:

“It’s been a good year. Twelve months ago, Saddam Hussein was sitting on his solid gold toilet. He’s now on the run, moving every few hours and unlikely ever again to feel even a standard black plastic seat against his bottom.”

There didn’t seem to be many “facilities”, as the British landladies say, in Saddam’s hut, never mind down the spider hole. And, when he was asked if he’d like to use the bathroom during his first interrogation by US soldiers, the great dictator, in a sporting attempt to stick to the letter as well as the spirit of my prediction, declined. “How,” he demanded of his captors, “can I urinate while my people are in bondage?”

I’ll drink to that. It seems the year is ending even better yet. In fact, in the last fortnight the good news came so that thick and fast that we Bush stooges in the media barely had time to re-type the White House press releases: Saddam surrenders; lots of big-time Baathist dead-enders rounded up by the Americans, and various small-time Baathist dead-enders more brutally dispatched by their countrymen; Gaddafi throws in the towel on his WMD program, and scuppers Iran’s and North Korea’s in the process; France, Germany and Russia cave to Jim Baker on forgiveness of Iraqi debt…

No doubt Prof Barnett thinks this is further proof of how swimmingly things are going for Osama. The rest of the naysayers seem to have settled on the BBC/Reuters/New York Times tack that, even if these are all positive developments, they’re nothing to do with Bush. It’s all pure coincidence. The contortions of this position were summed up by Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, the aloof goof who’s made such a hash of his Presidential campaign. Struggling to come to terms with Libya’s decision to fold, Senator Kerry declared:

“An Administration that scorns multilateralism and boasts about a rigid doctrine of military preemption has almost in spite of themselves demonstrated the enormous potential for advances in the war on terror.”

I think Senator Kerry is trying to say that the good news would have been more impressive if, instead of Libya abandoning its nuclear, biological and chemical problems effective immediately, Bush had reached out to the French so they could tie it up at the IAEA and the Security Council for a half-decade or so and eventually agree to Libyan disarmament verifiers going in to Tripoli circa 2012.

Nonetheless, the Administration is winning “almost in spite of themselves” — which is more than Kerry can say. And as a Bush campaign slogan that’ll do. For whatever reason, things are going America’s way, and likely to continue to do so. The only real argument is about the speed at which they do. How good 2004 is can be measured by how well some of the following turn out:

1) Saddam’s trial

In a nutshell: A courtroom in Baghdad: Good. A courtroom in the Hague: Bad. Iraqi and coalition judges: Good. International jet-set judges: Bad. Swift execution: Good. Playing Scrabble with Slobo in the prison library for the next 20 years: Bad.

Bet on Bush and the Iraqis to get their way. As for whether Iraq has a justice system under which Saddam can be tried, I suggest we look to the great king of Babylonia, Hammurabi, whose Code of Laws, the world’s first ever written legal code from circa 1780 BC, stands up pretty well. I’m not a Babylonian legal scholar but I note that Saddam’s digging of a subterranean hiding place in his hut appears to be in clear breach of Law No 21: “If any one break a hole into a house, he shall be put to death before that hole and be buried.” Suits me.

-snip-

[lambo]

Quiddy, your link goes to Steyn-online, not the Spectator. I haven't been able to get into the Spectator's website for over a week. Have you?

Answer me that and I won't mention your posting habits this time. ;-)

Happy New Year.

[lambo]

Pokey, when you recover from the celebrations, could you ping the list? This is a great way to start the new year.

[lambo]

I'm sorry, I neglected to congratulate you on this find. Your posts are uniformly worth reading.

[MEG33]

Wonder how many partners a nation needs to be multilateral?Six?sixty? Another great Steyn.

[quidnunc]

The Spectator site has been down, Steyn even mentioned it in Monday's 'Mark's Mailbox' column.

I hope that it is temporary and has nothing to do with Hollinger's management problems.

[MEG33]

Have a great New Year!

[MJY1288]

Mark Steyn is the best, nobody does a better job of explaining things in black & white for all to see, as he does

Thanks for posting this

Cheers

[lambo]

I had the same thought. I once did some legal work for Conrad Black when he was still Conrad Black. He's done very well by the Spectator the last few years, and I can't imagine it being taken over by a pornographer or -- worse still -- al Fayed. I won't allow myself to contemplate the possibility that such an institution could conceivably close its doors after 175 years.

[Nick Thimmesch]

m

[infowarrior]

There is more than a whiff of Ann Coulter here...

Of course, the best usually learn from one another, even if only subconciously...

the infowarrior

[Ichneumon]

There is more than a whiff of Ann Coulter here.

One moment while I go take a cold shower.

[NRA2BFree]

Ping!

[T-Bird45]

Thanks for posting -- love Steyn, especially when he agrees with me: As for whether Iraq has a justice system under which Saddam can be tried, I suggest we look to the great king of Babylonia, Hammurabi, whose Code of Laws, the world’s first ever written legal code from circa 1780 BC, stands up pretty well.

This was exactly what I said in a thread a few weeks ago on Saddam's future.

[expatpat]

Steyn back to close to his best, again.

[Tax-chick]

You should feel humiliated. It is humiliating when you invest your pride in a total loser.

Remember this line for the day after the Presidential election :-).

[Ohioan]

1) Saddam’s trial

In a nutshell: A courtroom in Baghdad: Good. A courtroom in the Hague: Bad. Iraqi and coalition judges: Good.

For coalition judges to take part in such a Trial would hardly be constructive--either for purposes of future international relations, or for discouraging terrorist recruiting. The idea is not only legally inappropriate, it is insulting to the people, I thought we were trying to appeal to.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site