"a truth that burned inside the heart"

Jerusalem Post: In 1983, I was confined to an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire." Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan's "provocation" quickly spread throughout the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth – a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.

At the time, I never imagined that three years later, I would be in the White House telling this story to the president. When he summoned some of his staff to hear what I had said, I understood that there had been much criticism of Reagan's decision to cast the struggle between the superpowers as a battle between good and evil.
Well, Reagan was right and his critics were wrong...(Thanks to Pejman)

Three years later! Amazing.

You can bet your last dollar that, even as Copperheads heap scorn and vituperation on President Bush, and magnify any mistake made by America a hundredfold, there are poor wretches in concentration camps and prisons and refugee camps praying right now for America's help. 'Cause there ain't no other help available. And it's the job of the Democrats, and of leftists everywhere, to make sure that help doesn't come!

Prediction by Peggy

Reporters who regularly slammed Ronald Reagan while he was president are quietly seething now that they're forced to mouth platitudes about the man's greatness, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan said Sunday night.

"[Journalists] are willing, over the next few days, to concede what is so obvious that they have to concede it - his personal goodness, etc.," Noonan told Matt Drudge on his radio show.

But with a solid week of commemorations for the conservative icon still ahead, liberal reporters will barely be able to contain themselves, she predicted.

"I'll bet they start pulling a few political [stunts] - kind of letting their biases out a little bit more. And I'll tell you, there's going to be an explosion next weekend [after Reagan is buried].

"That will mean that the elite journalistic media will have gone through seven days of talking kindly about Reagan," said Noonan. "I would say that by next Friday night, they're going to blow."[link]

They will bring up Iran-Contra for sure. Here's another view of that affair. The poor poor Nicaraguans...due to Reagan's meddling they've been stuck having elections ever since! Instead of a trendy Commandante that Hollywood lefties and Jimmy Carter and J. Kerry could fawn over. How tacky.

Ever notice how, once countries like Nicaragua start having elections, they drop off the map? That is, the media map. They are not news any more. If you measured things by media exposure, Cuba would be bigger than all the rest of Latin America combined! And if you are tempted to feel angry when Hollywood nitwits fawn over Castro, stop a minute to feel sorry for them! He's all they have left, in the entire Western Hemisphere!! One garrulous old gray-beard with a wrecked economy.

If the Left is acting crazy these days, sympathize a bit, think how they must feel, as whole chunks of the planet just vanish before their eyes...

More on the New Map...

Phil Fraering posted this comment on my post about The Pentagon's New Map, by Thomas P. M. Barnett.

I have not read the book, but I find some of the author's reported conclusions to be unlikely; the major threats of the twentieth century came from modernized, "core" nations: Japan, Germany, (and to a lesser extent) Russia.

Also, many of the 9/11 hijackers were from the more "connected," educated, and wealthy parts of their societies. Take Mohammed Atta, for example; he had a degree in urban planning from a German college.

The modern world still provides as fertile soil for the true-believer fanatic as it ever did; if it didn't, Berkeley would look a lot different.

It wasn't modernization that changed things, but globalization. The first blooming of globalization was squelched in the 1930's by economic nationalism, by the high tariffs thrown up to protect against the Depression. If the developed nations had lowered tariffs after 1929, the Stock Market Crash probably would have been just another business cycle, and Naziism would have fizzled out. Russia was cut off from the flows that globalization brings until the 1990's.

The big by-product of our involvement in the world during the Cold War was to allow globalization to happen. In fact that's probably the real story. First Europe and Japan, then a variety of other nations grew strong economically because we shouldered most of the defense burden. (It was our best investment ever. No need to thank us; globalization is really America's Operating System adopted by the world, and we profit the most out of it.)

"speaking Aramaic without subtitles"

I liked this piece by Mark Roberts. But his idea is so far-out, most people will consider it to be something like science fiction. What if, maybe, maybe, Mr Tenet resigned for the same reason he said he was resigning for?

...Most politicians and pundits can’t relate to this because they put their careers first and their families second (or third, or fourth, or lower). These priorities are so deeply ingrained that they simply become a given. Thus when George Tenet claims to put fatherhood first, it’s as if he’s speaking Aramaic without subtitles. Most people just don’t get it.

Thus the resignation of George Tenet holds up a moral mirror, inviting us to examine our own values. How do we weigh family and work? What comes first in our lives? What comes first in our society? However we might answer this question for ourselves, we should know that the people of greatest influence in our society generally put family second (or lower), and they expect us to do the same...

It sounds very believable to me, being very much a family person. On the same subject, I recommend Karen Hughes' recent memoir, Ten Minutes from Normal. It's good reading, and it centers on her decision to move back to Texas, because her family was very unhappy in Washington.

This is wandering off the subject, but I just remembered it. One (of many) interesting things in the book about Bush is an example of how he tests people to see if they really believe what they are saying. (I've heard he does that, but hadn't read any examples.) On Hughes' first day as press secretary for Bush, who is running for Governor of Texas, she enters his office with a bunch of phone slips. And explains that they are questions from reporters that need to be answered. He immediately says "Don't answer them!"

She writes: "My whole life as a press secretary passed before my eyes." Summoning up all her courage, she delivers a passionate speech on the importance of being straight with reporters, and answering their calls the same day, and then eventually realizes he's pulling her leg. I found that very funny, "Don't answer them!"

A Time For Choosing

A famous speech by Ronald Reagan, 1964

I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this.

It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government."

This idea? that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."

This is the book you MUST read...

If you have nothing else on your summer list, read The Pentagon's New Map, by Thomas P. M. Barnett. You owe it to yourself...

Among other reasons, because this is the most optimistic book I've ever read. Not because he minimizes the difficulties facing mankind, but because he points out something I've been vaguely groping towards. If nations reach a certain point of prosperity and "connectedness," they don't slip back! (So far.) They stop fighting wars with their neighbors. They continue to grow economically. They move towards more democracy and freedom. So there are victories in our struggles that can be permanent. That can pay back whatever we invest in them a hundredfold, because that place becomes a permanent plus on the world's balance sheet.

...Let me tell you what we get when we do these difficult things. What America gets in return is the end of war as we know it. It gets a global economy with nobody left on the outside, noses pressed against the glass. Most important, it gets a definition of what constitutes the finish line in the global war on terrorism. In sum, shrinking the Gap gets us the final piece to the puzzle that is global peace. The end of the Cold War solved the threat of global conflict, and America's continued willingness to play Leviathan has effectively ended state-on-state war. What stands between us and the goal of making globalization truly global is the threats posed by the forces of disconnectedness—the bad individual actors that plague the Gap. Defeat them by denying them the Gap as their own and the Core wins this war on terrorism, plain and simple...

Even if you don't agree with it, this book will expand your thoughts. And Barnett is a very good writer, with fascinating stories to tell, and lots of detail on how things work in Washington and in the Pentagon.

There were a lot of "ah ha" moments for me in this book. I'll try to blog some more soon.

Also, it's not a pro-Bush screed. You don't have to be a bagel-eating Neocon to enjoy it.

"A day of peace and happiness in Najaf..."

Mohammad writes:

:: At last, a day of peace and happiness in Najaf after two months of fear and blood.
I can't describe how happy the Najafis were when they appeared on TV welcoming the IP forces that started to patrol the streets after Muqtada's militia left the city. I don't know if that scene was shown on western media or not but to me, their celebrations were similar to those Najafis had when they got rid of Saddam a year ago. I Hope this joy lasts for a long, long time.

A lot of of Copperheads were obviously delighted by Muqtada Al Sadr's rebellion. They said we had failed in Iraq, because there is violence and disorder. They claimed we had suffered a defeat.

I disagree totally. But it's hard to argue with those people, because I don't share their underlying premise. I don't think our goal is to bring order to Iraq. I think (just my humble opinion, not an official position of the Secret Neocon Brotherhood) our goal is to teach the Iraqis how to do it themselves. And for that, some disorder is a good thing. The people of Najaf, the people of Iraq, have learned a big lesson. Remember, the people of Najaf were getting rich from the resumed pilgrim trade. Al Sadr put a stop to that, and now it's going to start up again. Lessons that hit the pocketbook tend to sink in.

The next Iranian-backed would-be tyrant will have a much harder time of it. The Iraqi "immune system" is stronger now. Al Sadr, and the Falluja rebels, did Iraq and us a favor. A test hard enough to strain the good guys, but not enough to break them. Our Marines were icy professionals in Falluja, but Jeez, think about the next urban scrap they get into! Every move we made in Falluja is going to be studied and criticized and analyzed for years to come. (One can't even imagine Syria or Iran doing that) Guys who fought there will be teaching in ever-more realistic MOUT training facilities in the years to come.

And I suspect the American, (and British and Australian and Polish, etc.) people have learned a valuable lesson. Leftish news media and politicians bent every effort to create panic and despondency and doubt. I suspect the world's immune system is stronger now.

I was thinking of voting for Kerry because he's a Free Trader, but....ooops!

The Washington Times, Kerry Trading Places On Trade: The trade agreement that the United States and Central American countries signed Friday could become a casualty of election-year posturing, with Sen. John Kerry leading the deal's push over the political precipice. This is a shame, because the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) bolsters prospects for the region's development while expanding markets mainly for U.S. agricultural producers and fabric-makers.

    In Mr. Kerry's latest incarnation, he has criticized America's trade deals in general and CAFTA in particular. This positioning is surprising, since Mr. Kerry had consistently supported major trade initiatives....

If you listened to their rhetoric you would think Democrats care about little brown-skinned people in little brown-skinned countries....but you would be wrong.

(via Judd)

Bizarro World

The ever provocative Dave T posted this quote

To make a long story short, the results of a second Bush administration would be as follows: A bankrupt United States possessing a broken military -- as Phillip Carter has recently reported for the Prospect, it will take years to reconstitute the supplies that have been cannibalized for the Iraq venture -- faces off against a nuclear-armed Iranian regime that’s seen its two regional adversaries replaced with failed states in which Iran-affiliated warlords wield disproportionate influence.

This is a sort of Bizarro World where everything is the opposite.

We've seen this so many times. Left-leaning Westerners believing the propaganda of totalitarian experiments long after the people living there ceased to believe it, long after the "People's Paradise" has become a hollow shell, ready to collapse into the impoverished mess it really is. Saber-rattling, parades and mass demonstration are not signs of strength—except to comfortable Westerners wistful for orderly places without the mess and confusion of freedom and capitalism.

Even cooler than "dot-com?"

By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
Iraq is making its first claim for an internationally recognized presence on the Internet.

Iraq's media commission and the U.S.-led administration in Iraq want to set up Web addresses using the domain code ".IQ" as the final tag. That would mean addresses for Web pages would be distinctively identified on the Internet with Iraq's own country code...[link]

(Thanks to Jeff Jarvis)

"A people which forgets its past cannot build a bright future..."

Good speech by Silvio Berlusconi. Thank you, Mr Prime Minister!

CONTEST! ... Gratuitous References, Superfluous Digs...

I invented, in this post, an imaginary "gratuitous reference to Abu Ghraib." Something we are seeing in the press way too often these days. Tom Bowler suggested a contest. I like it. Then Lyle mentioned another oft-seen gratuitous dig at the President: "...seeking to reverse his declining poll numbers..."

And I'm sure you can think of others. In what many see as an attempt to subtly distance himself from the shadow of his father, President Bush today hailed National Broccoli Month.

So, in a spirit of inclusiveness, all superorogatory jabs at the President are eligible! Invent!

"So what's in it for me?" you ask. That's a pretty selfish attitude in wartime, pal! But in fact, you can win big! Glory, of course, is the only prize sought by a Preux d'Homme Littérateur, but in addition you can win a Random Jottings Coffee Mug! This is a very rare item! In fact it is so rare, it was only thought of half an hour ago. But it will probably eventuate sometime soon.

Update: The problem with this contest is that the New York Times may win! Read this, by Tom Smith, on the NYT's reporting on the President's commencement address at the Air Force Academy. a sample:

...The president's remarks appeared to try to strike a balance between frightening Americans and offering himself as the only choice to lead the nation out of danger and to shore up his credentials as commander in chief in an election year when polls show support for the Iraq war and his presidency declining...

The President's speech, by the way, is well worth reading.

Not gold but only men can make...

Take a look at this Memorial Day post by Athena. It has, among other things, the number (or estimates) of battle deaths and wounded for all our wars. Also "other deaths in service" starting with the Mexican War. Interestingly, WWII is the first war where battle deaths are higher than "other deaths in service."

There's also this poem:

A Nation's Strength

What makes a nation's pillars high
And it's foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

A small point cleared up...

Here's an interesting report from Iraq. Worth reading.

One thing I found noteworthy, because I've heard the same story:

...I read another article by a New York Times reporter who compared the term "Haji", which some soldiers have used when referring to an Iraqi person, to the term "gook" used as a derogative in Viet Nam. Again this is not the case. I have asked several Iraqis, including Police Officers and interpreters who have said they feel honored to be called a "Haji" because it refers to some who has made or is trying to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Again, it seems that trying to put down the military is more important than getting the facts straight...

I suppose someone might turn Haji into an insult, but it seems unlikely. Anybody hanging around an Arab country knows it's a term of respect.

Gratuitous references...

Best of the Web has started featuring gratuitous references to Abu Ghraib inserted into news stories. At first I found them infuriating. But on second thought, they are good news. Those guys are obviously desperate! The news media thought they had a new Watergate, that would propel them into the stratosphere of moral preening, and also bring their party back into power. But if they have to push the story in such a ridiculous fashion, then obviously the plan isn't working. It's just another news story.

Here's my imaginary gratuitous reference...

CONGLOMERATED PRESS, JUNE 2, 2004: President Bush, seeking to turn attention away from the growing scandal of abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, sent a message of congratulations to Winifred Wilson, of Oblimquit, Maine, who is 110 years old today. Miss Wilson was a Red Cross volunteer during WWI, an conflict which brings to mind the disturbing stories of abuse and torture perpetrated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Winifred Wilson attributes her long life to "always looking on the bright side," and avoiding fatty foods..

softball....

There's something just unbelievable in today's Best of the Web. Just scroll down to the section: Salon Asks the Tough Questions. It's about a John Kerry interview in Salon. But Taranto doesn't post any answers. Just the questions. It's devastating.

You've heard of softball questions? This is softball taken to a new level, sort of like when you teach a child to bat, and you wrap your arms around him and hold the bat with him and help slap the ball into left field...

If you read my blog, you know why. It's the seventy-year cycle, and time's run out on the clock. Democrats are desperate, and they are acting crazy.

a culture of experimentation...

Don't miss this piece on Falluja in OpinionJournal. It explains a lot of what's going on:

...What they needed to do was drive wedges into the enemy ranks--divide and conquer. From studying the enemy, the Marines realized the insurgents can be separated into five disparate groups with widely varying goals: foreign fighters (some of whom are very skilled bomb makers), religious extremists, violent criminals released from prison by Saddam and willing to kill for money, Saddam loyalists (those Col. Coleman described as "bloody up to their elbows" in the old regime) and former military personnel.

The Saddam-look-alike former general who turned up to help coalition forces in Fallujah notwithstanding, that last group offered the best opportunity. It turns out there are a lot of former military personnel in Fallujah. These are mostly Sunni men who were professional soldiers and are patriotic and proud of their military service. Many sat out the invasion last year believing the coalition's promise that if they abandoned Saddam, they would have a future in the new Iraq. But since the fall of the regime, the coalition hadn't provided them with any opportunity for meaningful work. As a consequence, many were joining the insurgency.

That's when a former Iraqi general stepped forward and promised the Marines that within 24 hours he could assemble 300 Iraqis ready to battle the insurgents. The next day he met his promise and within a few days the ranks of the brigade swelled to 900 men. Col. Coleman tells me there are so many former Iraq soldiers willing to fight insurgents that the "Fallujah Brigade" could easily grow to several thousand if the Marines would let it....

What particularly interested me is the way the Falluja Brigade is considered an experiment:

...The Fallujah Brigade, however, doesn't have free rein. The Marines constantly test it to make sure it is fulfilling the coalition's goals. These tests include submitting to civilian rule, taking large-caliber weapons off the streets, ensuring the rule of law is prevailing in the city, working with and positively influencing city fathers, and adhering to all the Geneva Conventions and rules of war that the Marines themselves must follow. So far the brigade is passing these tests...[so much for "turning the city over to the general"]

This may sound strange to you, but I don't have a lot a faith in government planning. Nor am I much impressed with the critics of the planning for Iraq, since most of them are touting some wonder-plan that would have made the whole thing a breeze. I don't buy it.

What I find impressive and encouraging is when I see a culture of experimentation and trial-and-error. Feedback. When the people actually in contact with the problem are allowed to try different things, and learn from what works. I've heard that this is characteristic of the culture of the Marine Corps. If you try something and it flops the commander is likely to say, "Well, you learned something, didn't you?"

I was similarly impressed with the CERPs program. We gave our commanders a pile of cash and told them to solve problems in their area. By all reports it has worked very well. The article mentions that the Marines have $500 million to spend in their area. That's smart! (And I'll bet none of it gets embezzled, and little of it gets wasted. Trusting people is the secret of efficiency.)

In fact, I think what we should do is give Bechtel and other similar contractors $10 billion or so each, and tell them to forget the red-tape and just do what's needed! I bet we would get far more bang for our bucks that way. Of course that would hand the Copperheads a political weapon to use against the administration and capitalism. Hmmm. I got it—find a War Democrat and put him in charge! Someone like Zell Miller. Or maybe Armed Liberal.

#158: Hardly worth mentioning...

KRUGMAN TRUTH SQUAD

Things are becoming desperate over at Paul Krugman Headquarters. In Dooh Nibor (06/01/04) he takes a week old "leak" from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and spins it into yet another "tax cuts for the rich" tirade. The trouble is this memo has already been batted around between the Kerry Campaign and the OMB for days now. It's old news to anybody who has been paying attention. Furthermore, the memo itself turns out to be just a mechanical projection that serves as a starting point for budget analysis. It is not a decision document. Here's how the OMB's J.T. Young put it to Reuters in response to Democratic claims of massive spending cuts.

"This memo is a process document only. It is a routine, normal part of the budget process. It merely allows us to begin the process of putting together a budget... It is not a decision document. While we intend to hold the line on spending and cut the deficit in half over the next five years, it doesn't mean we can't adequately fund our priorities as is done in the president's current budget as well as in his past budgets."

This is the end of the story. There was no story. Only Krugman could get away with column on the cheap like this because his editors at the Times aren't paying attention either.

[The Truth Squad is a group of economists who have long marveled at the writings of Paul Krugman. The Squad Reports are synopses of their discussions. ]

[Me, I'm in favor of "tax cuts for the rich." My campaign slogan will be, "The more you earn, the lower your tax rate!" ]

Travels...

I jut talked with Charlene, who is in Salt Lake City, traveling Eastwith our oldest son Rob, who's off to college at UND. (The other kids and I will fly to Grand Forks when their schools are out, and we will drive back with various sightseeings and diversions.) anyway, Charlene says in Nevada you see big initials painted in white on various mountains. They are the initials of local towns. There's one town called "Battle Mountain," with a giant BM painted on the mountain.

CAFTA

good news on the free-trade front

....The United States has signed a trade agreement with five Central American countries. The five are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Trade ministers from the six countries signed the agreement in a ceremony Friday at the Washington headquarters of the Organization of American States. The new treaty is known as the Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA....

...The Central America Free Trade Agreement is similar to NAFTA. It would bring the Bush administration one step closer to its goal of creating a free trade area. The area would include every country in the western half of the world, except Cuba. The Bush administration is hoping to reach an agreement on the Free Trade Area of the Americas by January two-thousand-five. CAFTA would end taxes on more than eighty-percent of industrial and other goods exported from the United States to Central America. It also would cut taxes on more than fifty-percent of American farm products to Central America. Taxes on most other goods also would be ended over time...

A request...

Tim at CPT Patti has a request. About a documentary film...

...Of his film he says it shows soldiers as who they are. Human beings. See, Mike seems to trust us to be able to handle the fact that human beings are imperfect. So his film isn't one that portrays the US Soldier a la John Wayne. But, more importantly in my mind, it shows soldiers being imperfectly GOOD as well as being imperfectly bad...something that CNN can't seem to do.

So far no one will buy Mike's film for showing on TV or other outlet. It isn't that it isn't good. They've told him it is very good! But they think we the public want more of the same crap they show on CNN day in and day out. (I'm guessing prison scandal movie producers are probably in bidding wars for their films).

So here is my special request. I volunteered to pray that a buyer would come forward to buy Mike's film. Really, honestly say a prayer to that effect.

And I'm asking if you will do the same...

Accurate as death upon the stone...

AT THE BRITISH WAR CEMETARY, BAYEUX

I walked where in their talking graves
And shirts of earth five thousand lay,
When history with ten feasts of fire
Had eaten the red air away.

I am Christ's boy, I cried, I bear
In iron hands the bread, the fishes,
I hang with honey and the rose
This tidy wreck of all your wishes.

On your geometry of sleep
The chestnut and the fir-tree fly,
And lavender and marguerite
Forge with their flowers an English sky.

Turn now towards the belling town
Your jigsaws of impossible bone,
And rising read your rank of snow
Accurate as death upon the stone.

About your easy heads my prayers
I said with syllables of clay,
What gift I asked, shall I bring now
Before I weep and walk away?

Take, they replied, the oak and laurel.
Take our fortune of tears and live
Like a spendthrift lover. All we ask
Is the one gift you cannot give.

-- Charles Causley

Some oddities found by clicking around...

Click here for instructions on making an ORIGAMI GODZILLA .
And here for a BARCODE CLOCK you could add to your web page. And other barcode art.
(via Zannah)

And if you are going to build a model airplane, don't furf around. A 23" wingspan will give you some real lift. Eight turbine engines...you may never use all that power, but good to know it's there. Bomb capacity...still classified. And yes, it flies.

(Via Boing Boing)

Good news in bad packages...

Cori writes:

THE GLASS THAT'S ALWAYS HALF EMPTY

I'm starting to believe that the New York Times will wait to mention projects or programs in Iraq that reflect real progress, certainly real change in people's lives since Saddam's time, until they can figure out a way to put a negtive spin on their admission.

The wind-up here is a bit long, but bear with me: the pitch is pretty good.

Thus although the CPA has been mentioning for some time that there are literally hundreds of local councils, freely elected, all over Iraq, the real beginnings of democracy not just in Iraq but in the Arab world, (and that in all these elections the Islamists keep losing) only now do they get front page coverage in the Times -- tempered by as much bad news as possible...

One thing that's been worrying me about Iraq is that we didn't appear to be doing much to promote local small-scale democracy. It seemed like a glaring omission.

But we have! It's been happening, just not getting much attention. The NYT article Cori references spins things to look as horrid as possible, but it is happening. And the article casts a sort of shadow or reverse...I mean, it doesn't quote anybody who is happy or excited about this stuff. Righhht. That may seem credible in Manhattan, but not to me. It conjures up in my mind a whole bunch of other people whose quotes never made it out of the reporter's notebook, or were stripped out by some editor in New York. I hardly know whether to thank the Times for the info, or revile them for coloring it to look as bad as possible.

Negative death-numbers won't melt those hearts of stone...

Katie at Resplendent Mango writes:

Win Without War -- Umm...no... If there was one thing I could drill into the heads of the loony leftists (pointy things not withstanding) it would be the fact that we are not necessarily at peace just because we're not at war. Nor is that faux-peace necessarily better than war. By some estimates, 11,000 Iraqis have died from unnatural causes in the past 14 months. As opposed to approximately 36,000 a year under Saddam. Now, I understand that the Left believes that the US is evil as a matter of faith, but I fail to understand how 25,000 people not dying in the past year, people that would have either starved, or been raped and killed, or dismembered, or buried in mass graves, or some combination thereof, is a bad thing. And that doesn't even count the people who's hands or ears or heads weren't cut off by Saddams thugs. The women who weren't raped by Uday and Qusay. The Olympic soccer players who will not be tortured if they fail at Athens. And now soldiers and government workers are being paid adequately. We spent 12 years trying to Win Without War, and if you're keeping score at home, 12 years times 36,000 people a year is 423,000 people. Give war a chance.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Ed over at Captain's Quarters calculates the number of children dying yearly in Iraq was 50,000. 12 years times 50,000 kids a year is 600,000. Children. And then there were the adults, like the 300,000 Shia who were killed after Gulf War I. Or the conscripts who were forced to fight and die in Saddam's wars against Iran and Kuwait. Or the people that he killed for their beliefs, race, or no reason at all. And that was WINNING?

Of course saying things like this assumes the Ultras opposed the Battle of Iraq out of conscience. In fact the opposition was purely a matter of politics. If Bush is for it they are opposed. Plus they knew that once battle was joined, they would constantly be forced into verbal contortions, having to pretend to be American, and pretend to "support the troops."

Having to pretend that sullen silence in the face of allied success was merely "not being jingoistic." And pretend that the spring in their steps and the rosy glow on their cheeks once the Abu Ghraib photos hit, was merely because they loved their country and wanted to correct her hideous faults.