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A War to Be Proud Of - [Christopher Hitchens at his best]
The Weekly Standard ^ | September 5, 2005 issue | Christopher Hitchens

Posted on 08/27/2005 4:51:10 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored

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To: snarks_when_bored

another bflr.

(sigh). i'll get to it someday.


141 posted on 08/29/2005 8:15:09 PM PDT by cgk (We'll have to deal w/ the networks. One way to do that is to drain the swamp they live in - Rumsfeld)
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To: snarks_when_bored

bump


142 posted on 08/29/2005 8:25:23 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Conservatives are from Earth. Liberals are from Uranus.(c))
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To: sirchtruth

Not only sit down and explain it to a bunch of third graders, but have to explain it over and over...because we have the nation has an attention span of the average third grader.


143 posted on 08/29/2005 8:32:55 PM PDT by carton253 (It's better to have a gun and not need it than not have a gun and need it.)
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To: Shazolene; patriciaruth; Peach
"State in one sentence for me one piece of information (hard fact) that will convince a high school drop out that Saddam was aiding and abetting al Qaida to attack the World Trade Center. "

How about two words: Salman Pak.

The training grounds outside Bagdad where they kept a 747 fuselage for the express purpose of training terrorists to take over an airplane using available weapons (ie boxcutters) - the tactic used on 9/11 - and which was visited by at least one of the 19 hijackers.

I would add that this information has been corroborated by the testimony of a former Ba'athist officer from the Iraqi Intelligence service. He has gone on record that they were training groups of Al Qaida at Salman Pak.

144 posted on 08/29/2005 8:50:15 PM PDT by tarheelswamprat (This tagline space for rent - cheap!)
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To: snarks_when_bored

Lengthy but well worth the read and consideration.


145 posted on 08/29/2005 9:40:25 PM PDT by zeaal (SPREAD TRUTH!)
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To: Peach
I understand your sentiments, but I do not agree.

This isn't a failure on the President's part to communicate... he has done that... over and over again.

What it is is a systematic attack on the truth. It is a deliberate campaign to undermine the administration and the war on terror. Not only by those who believe that the glory days of fighting the Vietnam war are back, but those who would destroy this country by making sure that we lose this war... any means possible...

There are not enough charts, articles...etc. that will overcome this attack in the long term. Short term yes, but it is the long term erosion that is doing the most harm.

As for slugging it out in the press... I would not advise that. He cannot win on that ground. That is why (in my opinion) he doesn't try. He is going to the people like Reagan did. And, despite the polls (which indicate what?), he is winning.

146 posted on 08/29/2005 10:15:20 PM PDT by carton253 (It's better to have a gun and not need it than not have a gun and need it.)
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To: tet68
(A belated) thanks for the ping, Tom.

We had to have our dog (of eighteen years) euthanised on Friday night, and I’ve been walking around in something of a funk since. I still occasionally ‘see’ her out of the corner of my eye, sleeping in her favorite spot next to my chair in the livingroom. Or I hear the jingle of the tags on her collar, or expect to bend down and pet her when I open the door to come into the house.

I asked to spend some time with her in an examining room before the vet administered the injection, and it was difficult to finally give him the go-ahead. Spent about half an hour petting her and saying good-by. What made it even more difficult was that, even though she was on pain medication and heavily sedated, whenever I would say a word that had some special meaning to her, her little tail still wagged and she would weakly raise her head off the table and look into my eyes. I continued to pet her and talk to her while the doctor administered the injection, and, when her little body stopped breathing, eighteen years of unconditional love and loyalty died along with her.

Give Digger a special (more special than normal) scratch behind the ears for me tonight, you hear? :)

Back to the subject at hand ...

I couldn’t agree more with your comment, ‘Hitchens is such a great writer, I'm glad his talents have finally found a cause worthy of them.

I have read articles of his with which I took great issue, and others that made me want to stand and applaud. This is surely among the latter, and may even be his best!

The insight below is worth saving (in fact, it's priceless). We would do well to save it for those times when we cross paths (as all of us do) with a useful idiot (95%) or a genuine Marxist (5%) who has been leftist-indoctrinated regarding the liberation of Iraq. You know – those whose Iraq-mantra is limited to one or more of the following:

‘The Iraq war is being fought for Halliburton’ … or ...
‘Bush lied. We have found no weapons of mass destruction’ … or ...
‘There was no connection between Hussein and al Qaeda’.

We need not argue about the failures and the mistakes and even the crimes, because these in some ways argue themselves. But a positive accounting could be offered without braggartry, and would include:

(1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi's Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction--a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.

(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.

(4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.

(5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)

(6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.

(7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region--the Kurds--and the spread of this example to other states.

(8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy.

(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.

(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat.

At the risk of attempting to perfect perfection, I would add one more positive to Hitchens’ comprehensive list. Even though it would require the agreement of a potentially democratized Iraq, a permanent strategic U.S. military presence in that area of the Middle East would provide an excellent strategic defense positioning (much moreso than the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay affords us a presence among our enemies here in the west), for our own security as well as that of Israel.

I share Hitchens’ frustration with both Bush’s and Blair’s seeming inability to educate the citizenry on all ten areas of ‘victory’. But, then again, when one considers the power of the unelected/unaccountable media … and combines it with the fact that an administration, whose military’s performance has performed minor miracles, boasts a lousy PR machine, Hitchens’ ten items seem doomed to remain forever hidden from the line of sight of the average American.

The sad fact is that, even if you or I were to show Hitchens’ list of ten victories to a member of the passively uninformed Americans, odds are they wouldn’t even recognize a name, or an organization, on the list … and couldn’t identify even one of the mentioned countries on a map. And, even sadder, that pathetic fact wouldn’t even bother them.

Read those ten exceptional positives over again. And then ask yourself, ‘How many of my neighbors are even familiar with the names and places mentioned, or the terms used?’ Unless you live in a much more enlightened neighborhood than I, I suspect your answer will be, ‘Few, if any.’

I saw a blurb on FoxNews the other night, excerpted from the Tonight Show, in which Jay Leno asked a random woman on the street, ‘Can you tell me who took second place in the American Idol contest this year?’ Without hesitation, she answered, ‘Bo Bice.’ When asked who lost the 2004 presidential election, she hesitated a bit and then responded, ‘Was it Mondale?’

Brit Hume laughed as he signed off. By laughing, he wasn’t acknowledging (although I suspect that he knows) that there are more such women-on-the-street than most of us would like to believe. As a matter of fact (call me a pessimist if you like), I believe they far outnumber us. And, until we stop rewarding and encouraging the entitlement mentality ... and wall off our southern border ... we will find ourselves representing a smaller and smaller minority with each passing day.

Hitchens (and Krauthammer, and a dwindling number of others of their ilk) write painfully insightful commentaries warning us about the demise of this republic. But their efforts are more and more becoming synonymous with handing a kindergartener Orwell’s ‘1984’ or ‘Animal Farm’, and then asking him what it means to him and his classmates. He’ll invariably open the book, toss it aside, and run out to enjoy recess.

The adult preference for ‘recess’ over knowledge comes with a price.

As Hitchens so eloquently observes, ‘An apparent consensus exists, among millions of people in Europe and America, that the whole operation for the demilitarization of Iraq, and the salvage of its traumatized society, was at best a false pretense and at worst an unprovoked aggression. How can this possibly be? … Childishness is one thing … but puerility in adults is quite another thing, and considerably less charming.’

Hitchens blames both Bush and Blair for scaring people, rather than reasoning with them or enlightening them. I do take issue with him on that. If a kindergarten class is outside playing during recess and a teacher is informed that toxic fumes have been released by a nearby factory, does she tell them, with alarm, to run inside the school, or does she sit down with them and attempt to explain the chemical composition of, and biological effects of, toxic fumes in order to reason with them and compel them to seek shelter of their own accord?

Scared is something we understand. Analyzing a large number of geopolitical occurrences and their potential consequences we’re too busy for.

Your quote in response #90 is beautiful! It speaks volumes … and so simply. So how come frogs (a la this one in the milk, and the proverbial one in the water that slowly heats from cold to boiling, etc.) are so useful in pointing out critical human political insights? Adding this profound (in its simplicity) quote to the others, I am developing a newfound respect for frogs. :)

He was killed in the great war alas, but some of his war poetry lives on, although a pitifully small amount it is.

What a terrible tragedy … which makes me await your package even more eagerly. Will be sure to set aside sufficient time to absorb its wonderful contents. :)

~ joanie ..

147 posted on 08/29/2005 10:51:23 PM PDT by joanie-f (If you believe God is your co-pilot, it might be time to switch seats ...)
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To: tarheelswamprat

I believe that Saddam was training al Qaida terrorists in their airplane.

But that is heresay as far as the MSM is concerned.

The testimony of one man is not enough.

Your sentence reads: One Iraqi alleges that terrorists were being trained at Salman Pak.


148 posted on 08/29/2005 11:50:27 PM PDT by patriciaruth (They are all Mike Spanns)
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To: carton253; NormsRevenge; Grampa Dave; Marine_Uncle; Brad's Gramma
What it is is a systematic attack on the truth. It is a deliberate campaign to undermine the administration and the war on terror. Not only by those who believe that the glory days of fighting the Vietnam war are back, but those who would destroy this country by making sure that we lose this war... any means possible...

There is a book...regarding the attack .....

*******************************************

Unholy Alliance : Radical Islam and the American Left

And a very good review:

*********************************

Vastly Illuminating, September 25, 2004

Reviewer: Kat Bakhu (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I had long wondered why people on the Left had the propensity to speak more positively about people who would slit their throats than they do about their own country, which affords them more freedom and opportunity than anywhere else. David Horowitz has answered that question thoroughly and convincingly in his Unholy Alliance. Where I felt bewildered and confused, I now feel crystal clear. Unholy Alliance is such a great book.

It begins with the leftist movements at the beginning of the 20th Century, and works its way up to the present day, exploring the anti-American attitude of these movements in detail. Horowitz shows that the enemies of the US back then are largely the same group today, operating under the same misperceptions, making the same mistakes, and pursuing the same impossible utopia.

Individual chapters are included on the Patriot Act (I was persuaded that it is a GOOD thing); the democratic flip-flop on Iraq once G.W. Bush implemented what they agreed with Clinton needed to be done; the driving components of the current anti-war movement; as well as chapters on individual personalities who are major spokespeople of the Left. Horowitz covers a lot of ground, and he covers it concisely and clearly. Unholy Alliance is richly informative without ever being boring or plodding.

This book is so illuminating that I simply cannot do justice to it here. I love people who reason so clearly that they help me get my own reasoning clear. Horowitz is just that type of person! In the terrain of mindless clichés (no-blood-for-oil, etc.), he is a breath of real fresh air.

**********************************************************

We are at War....over there and HERE!

149 posted on 08/30/2005 6:43:10 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Thanks for the book tip...I'm going to order it from the library today...


150 posted on 08/30/2005 8:12:58 AM PDT by carton253 (It's better to have a gun and not need it than not have a gun and need it.)
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To: patriciaruth

There are MANY sources for Salman Pak, including US intel sources, aerial photos, etc.

It is known that the site was used to train al-Quaeda. There is some evidence that one of the AQs went on to become a 9-11 hijacker. This last is the weak link in the chain, as we're talking 'evidence' vs 'proof.'

One cannot apply courtroom rules of proof in war. It's a great way to get killed.


151 posted on 08/30/2005 9:00:22 AM PDT by Shazolene
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