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NOV. 4, 2003: THE TOUGH GET GOING
NRO ^ | 11/4/03 | David Frum

Posted on 11/04/2003 9:18:01 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection

Prodded by the news that the going in Iraq has gotten tough, the Senate has stopped flirting with the alternatives and done the right thing. Iraq will get is $87 billion outright, not as loans--and the work of reconstruction will continue and accelerate.

The Senate acted as it did because of the power of two decisive facts: (1) Both political parties approved and voted for the Iraq war; and (2) having started the job, the United States cannot afford not to finish it.

These are facts that everybody understands--even Howard Dean, the most antiwar of the major Democratic candidate. As he said on Crossfire on September 1: "We can't leave Iraq. We can't pull out, because if we do that, chaos ensues or else a fundamentalist Shiite regime may arise with undue Iranian influence, both of which would be more dangerous than Saddam Hussein."

If we're all agreed that the U.S. must prevail in Iraq--if we all recognize that the U.S. cannot cut and run--then it is just childish to wish away the commitment's costs. It wasn't administration pressure to which the Senate yielded: It was simple logic.

Chretien To Quit? A rumor is whizzing around Ottawa that Prime Minister Jean Chretien will leave office earlier than expected.

If so, Canada's longtime prime minister in waiting, former Finance Minister Paul Martin, may have slightly less long to wait.

In the ten years that Martin has conducted his quiet campaign for the top job in Canadian politics, he has managed to convince virtually every Canadian constituency that he will champion their hopes and dreams--just as soon as he gets into power. An important new book by one of Canada's finest political reporters casts painfully revealing light on these impossible promises.

Delacourt is obviously very fond of Paul Martin the man. That affection makes her portrait of Paul Martin the politician all the more devastating. She depicts a vacillating, indecisive figure, eager to please everybody * but most eager to please the activist constituencies of his party's left.

Canadians have understandably wearied of the complacent and often embarrassing Chretien. In replacing him with the earnest and hard-working Martin, they may, however, be about to make the same mistake as the frogs in Aesop's fable:
The Frogs were living as happy as could be in a marshy swamp that just suited them; they went splashing about caring for nobody and nobody troubling with them. But some of them thought that this was not right, that they should have a king and a proper constitution, so they determined to send up a petition to Jove to give them what they wanted. "Mighty Jove," they cried, "send unto us a king that will rule over us and keep us in order." Jove laughed at their croaking, and threw down into the swamp a huge Log, which came down in a splash. The Frogs were frightened out of their lives by the commotion made in their midst, and all rushed to the bank to look at the horrible monster; but after a time, seeing that it did not move, one or two of the boldest of them ventured out towards the Log, and even dared to touch it; still it did not move. Then the greatest hero of the Frogs jumped upon the Log and commenced dancing up and down upon it, thereupon all the Frogs came and did the same; and for some time the Frogs went about their business every day without taking the slightest notice of their new King Log lying in their midst. But this did not suit them, so they sent another petition to Jove, and said to him, "We want a real king; one that will really rule over us." Now this made Jove angry, sohe sent among them a big Stork that soon set to work gobbling them all up. Then the Frogs repented when too late.



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: appropriations; canada; davidfrum; funding; iraq

1 posted on 11/04/2003 9:18:01 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Perspective ping.
2 posted on 11/04/2003 9:19:47 AM PST by Pan_Yans Wife (You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.)
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