Fred Barnes: What If We Pulled Out?

The Weekly Standard ^ | 03/26/03 | Fred Barnes

[FITZ]

Hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement would be dashed again,

I think what he means (but it's late here and maybe I'm not thinking) is that that strengthening Palesininans --aka Arafat isn't going to bring peace or any kind of peace settlement (because their goal is to destroy Israel, not live with it in harmony). A peace settlement is more likely when it's clear that Israel will exist and the Palestinians will just have to deal with that.

[FITZ]

The possibility of democracy being planted in Arab states would also be gone.

He doesn't say "Islamic" states but "Arab" states. Islamic state is obviously incompatible with democracy. Maybe he's talking about some of the more secular states where freedom and democracy seeds could be planted ---but wouldn't be if we folded.

[My Favorite Headache]

Add me to your FredHead ping list please! Love Fred and Bill Krystol.

[Professional]

A few years ago, the Iraqi Olympians were 150-strong. Now it's a team of four.

I'd be the slowest, weakest, clumsiest athelete in all of Iraq during the Iraqi Olympic trials.

[Captain Beyond]

I think Fred is operating on the theory that Arafat is the palestinian Hussein. That if SH is removed and replaced with a democratic Iraq the same would happen if Arafat is removed and the peaceful palestinians then will enact a democratic government. Now if that is possibility or not I don't know mainly because of all the "Hate the Jews" indoctrination that has went on for some many years and that the Arab world has shunned them for the beginning. Jordan and the rest of the Arab world did not want nothing to do with the palestinian refuges except to use them as pawns against Israel.

[Captain Beyond]

That is when SH is removed. Sorry about that. Some times I forget to come back in from abstract thinking and go back to reality.

[Mystix]

ping

[Jen]

KVI-AM Radio show - Iraqi immigrant confronts 'Peace' movement activist

[yoe]

"...but apparently the fools acting as the Democrat Party's Brown Shirts cannot connect the dots. The irrationality of their position glares when exposed to the alternative they pose."

The alternative they pose is nothing short of socialism; they in no way reflect "democracy", i.e., for the people by the people. The only time the left concern themselves with “the people” is to garner votes. In between those times, they complain and they deride the opposition with tired old flatulent rhetoric, never giving birth to one new idea other than continued social engineering in all things public and private.

[ApesForEvolution]

I was off this site, but had to see what you were up to. Excellence as usual. Fred means well and is often on the $, but you nailed it. We are dealing some real vermin here. And there. And over there as well. G'night.

[Nevermore]

Yes! Yes! Yes! I agree with you 66%. (100% in principle.) I would only point out that we don't have to capture their TV. We only need to destroy their broadcast stations (or antennae) and then begin broadcasting from new ones behind our lines, on the same channels. And forcing the UN to deal with acknowledging a representative Iraq a.s.a.p. - one they know is going to supplant the dictatorship eventually - would drive the Snail-Eaters wild!

[jjm2111]

Bump for later comment.

[lsee]

Well said...

[MeekOneGOP]

That coach Fred mentions is right. Here is a related article, for those that haven't seen it yet!:

I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam (MUST READ!)

Excerpt:

We on the bus felt that we were sympathetic to the views of the Iraqi civilians, even though we didn't actually know any. The group was less interested in standing up for their rights than protesting against the US and UK governments.

I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He looked at me with an expression of incredulity.

As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.

It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I'm not with the CIA - I just can't help you."

Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from Saddam's tyrannical Iraq.

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