Iraq's Brain Drain

Things are getting better in Iraq, right? Riverbend, an Iraqi blogger in Baghdad, comments on this today, March 19th:

It's like Iraq is suffering from intellectual hemorrhaging. Professors and scientists are being assassinated right and left- decent intelligent people who are necessary for the future of Iraq. Other scientists are being detained by the Americans and questioned about- of all things- Al-Qaeda. It seems like everyone you talk to is keeping their eyes open for a job opportunity outside of the country. Whatever the reason, the brains are slowly seeping out of Iraq. It's no longer a place for learning or studying or working… it's a place for wealthy contractors looking to get wealthier, extremists, thieves (of all ranks and origins) and troops… read more

WMD AWOL from Bush Speech

Bush celebrated the 1 year anniversary of his vendetta invasion of Iraq by giving a speech in which WMD was mentioned once. Here it is:

Our coalition is also confronting the dangerous combination of outlaw states, terrorist groups and weapons of mass destruction.

WMD check:

Afghanistan: 0
Iraq: 0
Pakistan: Not applicable, good buddies
Israel: Unmentionable


WMD: Bush's Lewinsky

Fidel Finds God, with Greek Assistance

As if America doesn't have enough foreign policy headaches- what with Spain's new defiance and misgivings among other allies, not to mention the Kosovo fiasco and Al Qaeda getaway- we have warming relations between Cuba and key ally and Olympic host Greece.

We cover this entertaining recent story here:

"...Just 2 months after welcoming the Greek Orthodox Church to Cuba, legendary leader Fidel Castro has accepted a Greek offer to visit that stronghold of Byzantine monasticism, Mt. Athos. All questions of faith aside, Castro indisputably does have the beard for it.

...The Greek decision comes as a further kick in the pants to the foundering Bush Administration. Following Madrid’s terror tragedy, the new Spanish government has taken a more critical view of the warmongers in Washington, and threatened to pull troops out of Iraq. Other countries are now having their misgivings, as the US continues to flail and the world grows no safer. In this new political climate, former no-no’s like being civil with Castro are apparently being toppled, as other countries begin to realize they can in fact follow their own policies and wishes without incurring the iron hand of the emperor- one who in his nakedness is justly being beset by derision and mockery from all sides."

If you check out the newspaper photo we link to in the full article, you will see that Fidel does indeed look quite monastic. But it's unlikely they allow cigar smoking on Athos...

Our Last War on Spain

Murray Polner reminds us of the continuing relevance of William Graham Sumner, particularly his 1898 essay "The Conquest of the United States by Spain." Some choice snippets from Sumner:

It has become almost a doctrine with us that patriotism requires that we should hold our tongues while our interests, our institutions, our most sacred traditions, and our best established maxims have been trampled underfoot. There is no doubt that moral courage is the virtue which is more needed than any other in the modern democratic state, and that truckling to popularity is the worst political vice.
...

More...

Maybe I Misread

Keep those filthy big-spending liberals from giving WMDs to the kids and STDs to the Islamofascists. Or something like that. Make checks payable to the Boy Bombardier.

Lying by Inertia

From Serbian daily "Blic," March 19, 2004 (UNMIK summary)

A woman, representative of UNMIK Police told Blic on condition of anonymity that she could only repeat the statement given by the spokesman of UN Police Derek Chappell about the tragic death of three Albanian boys. Chappell said that three Albanian children drowned in the River of Ibar in an attempt to cross the river and that no Serbs with dogs had made them jump into the river. (emphasis NM)
When we mentioned to her that the world media continued quoting the statement by another UN Police spokesperson, Angela Joseph - who is, by the way, sharing the office with Chappell - and the person that reported about Serbs with dogs forcing the boys into the river, she told us that she could not comment on that.
Just to mention that it was almost impossible to make a telephone contact with UNMIK representatives. Whenever we said that we were journalists from Belgrade, local telephone operators, Albanians, would disconnect the line. For that reason we were forced to present ourselves as foreign journalists.
Blic tried to forward to the world media UNMIK's official statement. Editor of BBC European news Bill Hayton thanked us for disclosing that fact to him and said that he "does not believe a 13 year-old-boy, but that he has not received any other news while he has to explain to the world public why the clashes occurred." (emhasis NM)
In spite of the fact that we forwarded official information about the tragic accident in which three boys lost their lives and in spite of the fact that BBC and CNN initially expressed their intention to change their initial reports, they have not done so. Their viewers are still listening to the stories about evil Serbs and their dogs. More...

Arab Press Snubs Powell

As Powell walked into a press conference in Baghdad today, an Arab journalist stood to read a statement of protest for the killing by American troops of two Iraqi journalists, cameraman Ali Abdul Aziz and reporter Ali al-Khatib at a checkpoint yesterday.

"We declare our boycott of the conference because of the martyrs," Najim al-Rubaie of Iraq's Distor newspaper said in a statement read at the start of the news conference as Powell and Iraq's U.S. governor Paul Bremer looked on.

"We declare our condemnation of the incident which led to the killing of the two journalists...who were killed at the hands of the American forces."

Cameraman Ali Abdul Aziz and reporter Ali al-Khatib had approached American troops at the checkpoint and secured permission to film at the Burj al-Hayat hotel, scene of a rocket attack.

"My brother had asked US forces if they could film the Burj al-Hayat hotel and they told him it was fine. Moments later, a Volvo did not stop at the checkpoint and the soldiers opened fire," said the cameraman's brother Haidar Abdel Aziz.

"My brother and his colleague wanted to leave, they ran to their car and an armoured vehicle opened fire on them."

An American military spokesman claimed the journalists had "tried to run the checkpoint."

After the statement was read, more than 30 Arab journalists stood and walked out of the conference.

"I also regret the loss of life, the two journalists that they commemorated here by their action, I regret any loss of life," Mr Powell told the remaining reporters.

The deaths of Abdul Aziz and Khatib are the second and third since The May 1 "Mission Accomplished" date, the first being Reuters' Palestinian cameraman Dana Mazen, shot by American troops in August.

With the latest deaths, the Iraqi conflict has now claimed the lives of 16 journalists, 6 of whom were killed by American troops.

16 GIs Die in Iraq This Week as 2 Marines Killed Today

As the media focuses on the anniversary of the start of the war, very little attention is being paid to the accelerating death toll of US soldiers.

This morning, two US marines were killed while on patrol.

This brings the total killed to 16 since March 13.

Two US soldiers were also killed yesterday in Afghanistan.

Pristina: All Serbs are gone

According to Orthodox priest Miroslav Popadic, special units of UNMIK police evacuated him and the last handful of Pristina Serbs to the besieged enclave of Gracanica.
Burned out of their ghetto, they had sought shelter in the parish hall basement next to the torched church of St. Nicholas. As of 9:12 PM (3:12 PM EST) on March 18, 2004, there are no more Serbs in Pristina.

Kosovo Ombudsman: "Intent to cleanse all Serbs"

Serbian Orthodox Church's electronic information service carried the statement of Kosovo Ombudsman Marek Nowicki late Thursday. All emphasis mine:

Ombudsman office, Pristina, Kosovo
Statement to the Media, 18 March 2004

I once again take the opportunity to appeal to the Albanian part of the population of Kosovo, not only as Ombudsperson in Kosovo, but also as a man who has been living among and working with people from Kosovo for the last four years. Throughout these years, I have been trying to help you by raising your problems and questions with the responsible people in UNMIK and the local administrative structures. I tried to be a people’s advocate and at the same time the friend of all Kosovans.

I had done all of this because I had assumed that you, the people of Kosovo, had chosen to take a path leading to a prosperous future for you and your families, a future in which you would live in a society that would be based on openness, tolerance and the protection of the rights of others.

The recent developments have, however, suggested that not all members of the Albanian community in Kosovo really want this prosperous future. Instead, the current pictures of horrible violence and heinous criminal acts against members of the Serbian community and the international security forces create the impression in and outside Kosovo that there exists the intent to cleanse this land from the presence of all Serbs, in total rejection of the idea of a multi-ethnic cohabitation in Kosovo.

However, there is still time to turn back from this dangerous and violent path of action, which will and can only lead to a dead-end. I cannot do more than to ask you to reconsider your present attitude, in the hope that even if you do not agree to listen to others, you will at least take into account the concerns and serious objections of the Ombudsperson.

Marek Antoni Nowicki
Ombudsperson in Kosovo

Gary Nolan?

Apparently, Gary Nolan is the Libertarian candidate for U.S. president. I'm a libertarian (I don't belong to the LP) and I have no clue who this guy is.

What happened to this Russo guy? Last I heard, he was....uh....running.

To be honest, I lost interest in this entire LP farce after they invited Neil Boortz to speak at their convention, which was no hardship for me anyway because I rarely pay any attention to the LP.

Irony MOAB

"In a morning meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Bremer warned the Iraqi leaders that they risked isolating themselves and their country if they continued to snub the United Nations."


NY Times

Abu Who?

The media seem to be taking pretty seriously the claim by alleged al Qaeda franchisee Abu-Hafs al-Masri /al-Qaeda Brigades that they're calling off attacks on Spain for the time being and are targeting Japan, Italy, Britain or Australia -- The Australian's headline: "Al-Qa'ida puts us on target list." Yet this alleged group also claimed responsibility for last year's huge US/Canada blackouts, which the FBI claims is absurd. In fact Abu al-HM isn't connected to any known act of terror, & some experts question the group's existence.

Meanwhile France has been threatened in a letter signed by a previously unknown alleged Islamist group. Some news reports claim that the letter is signed "Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise" and others "the Brigade of Movsar Barayev." About this letter, France's interior minister said: "The specialized services believe that the phrasing does not correspond to the rhythm typically used by extremists in these kinds of messages.'' He later suggested that French right-wingers could be responsible.

The alleged group's namesake, Movsar Barayev, was the chief Islamist leader in Chechnya, before he was killed in the Moscow theater siege. Barayev's successor is quoted as saying: "There is no such thing as a 'Brigade of Movsar Barayev.'" Meanwhile, the Socialists have accused the French PM of fearmongering before the regional elections.

Dr. Seuss on Jappeasement

As Jonah Goldberg asks on today's Corner, "Who woulda thunk it was possible to like him more? Check these out."

(I've changed the title and link, of course, but note that his link and mine are to the same Web site. Let's put all of this "appeasement"-screeching in its proper context.)

Hey, America!

A post from an Aussie to Americans.