[Tolik]

Victor Davis Hanson moral clarity huge BUMP  [please freepmail me if you want or don't want to be pinged to Victor Davis Hanson articles]

If you want to bookmark his articles discussed at FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-victordavishanson/browse

His NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp

[ThePythonicCow]

bttt

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[dix]

read later

[sphinx]

The Kurds — who time and again have proven themselves the most supportive of American efforts — know that Turkey will not tolerate an independent Kurdistan on its borders.

Ok, I don't know the region and this may be a silly thought. However, the Kurds have long sought independence. Always, always this is said to be unacceptable to Turkey, Iraq, and Iran for the same reasons that Polish independence was, prior to 1918, unacceptable to Germany, Austria, and Russia. But we do not, at the moment, particularly care what Iran thinks, and partition may be the best option for Iraq. That leaves Turkey.

So: have the Turks a price? Or alternatively, what about a Kurdish autonomous region within Turkey? The Kurds would presumably want some sort of guarantees that the Turks would behave themselves, but this should be possible to arrange; this is not the 16th century anymore, at least in Turkey. So again: have the Kurds a price?

[Tolik]

Notable quotes/excerpts:

We are reminded daily not of the birth of the first consensual government in the history of the Arab world, but only that nine months after the military defeat of the Baathists, there is still resistance to the American reconstruction; and that the number of American soldiers, killed in major combat operations and afterward, has now surpassed 500.

Things in the Middle East are hard precisely because the stakes there are gargantuan. But so are the rewards: The sanctuaries and patrons of murderers, suicide bombers, and terrorists are shrinking with the destruction of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Autocracies like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria are terrified of consensual government in Iraq precisely because they are aware of its implications for their own deprived citizens.

Meanwhile millions — from Libya and Pakistan to North Korea and Iran — watch intently. They wonder whether this new United States is about to run out of gas and return to the old appeasement of the last twenty years, [...  or] is this new — and often unpredictable — United States going to completely change the rules of engagement, to prevent the conditions that would lead to another September 11?

 

[SunStar]

BUMP FOR LATER READ

[RottiBiz]

Outstanding article bump!

[beckett]

Surely someone in the administration should have been explaining to the American people daily the historical nature of our victory, the critical issues now in play worldwide, and the humane nature of our sacrifice — if only to offer some counterweight to the monotonous negativism of National Public Radio, Nightline, the New York Times, and the Democratic contenders. Instead we have had mostly silence — reticence seen not as Olympian magnanimity, but rather as a sign of weakness that only emboldened critics and fueled the hysteria.

This is a major complaint of mine as well. The lack of eloquence, indeed the ongoing inarticulateness, in this administration is a critical flaw and a failure of leadership. Leaders must articulate the goals of the mission. It is a core function of the job. GWB, with certain exceptions in major policy addresses, just doesn't seem to have it in him to articulate his message day in and day out.

[onedoug]

Our efforts in Iraq to remove a genocidal murderer and inaugurate democracy are not a "quagmire," but one of the brightest moments in recent American history — and we need not be ashamed to say that, again and again and again.

I'm displaying my flag at home today because of this sentance.

[redrock]

"Meanwhile millions — from Libya and Pakistan to North Korea and Iran — watch intently. They wonder whether this new United States is about to run out of gas and return to the old appeasement of the last twenty years, when crafting nukes on the sly, blowing up Americans, and terrorizing innocents earned (at the worst) a televised remonstration expressing "concern" and "disappointment."

Needed repeating....

redrock