Dec 14, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Howard Dean's website:
This development provides an enormous opportunity to set a new course and take the American label off the war. We must do everything possible to bring the UN, NATO, and other members of the international community back into this effort.
Sure, why should America--and George W. Bush--get the credit? Why not let those who opposed the war, like the French, Germans, the U.N., and Howard Dean get some credit and glory too!
Comments Senator Joe Lieberman, (D-Conn.) on Howard Dean via his website:
Saddam Hussein was a homicidal maniac, a brutal dictator, who wanted to dominate the Arab world and was supporting terrorists. He caused the death of more than a million people, including 460 Americans who went to overthrow him. This is a day of glory for the American military, a day of rejoicing for the Iraqi people, and a day of triumph and joy for anyone in the world who cares about freedom, human rights, and peace....This news also makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place.
From Cox and Forkum:
Dec 14, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From FoxNews ["World Leaders Thrilled at Saddam's Capture", December 14, 2003]:
...Iraq's interim government has established a special tribunal to try Saddam and other members of his regime for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States still hasn't decided what to do with Saddam, though Blair said Saddam could be "tried in Iraqi courts for his crimes against the Iraqi people." Ahmad Chalabi , a member of Iraq's Governing Council, said Saddam would be tried.
...In Yemen, Mohammed Abdel Qader Mohammadi, 50, said he was surprised Saddam didn't fight his capture. "I expected him to resist or commit suicide before falling into American hands. He disappointed a lot of us, he's a coward."
...The Spanish government, another supporter of the war, also hailed the news. "The time has come for him to pay for his crimes," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, an outspoken supporter of the war to oust Saddam, despite widespread opposition at home. "He is responsible for the killing of millions of people over the last 30 years. He is a threat to his people and to the entire world," Aznar said.
And the French? From Cox and Forkum:
Dec 14, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Yahoo News ["Arabs share little of world joy over Saddam's capture"]:
Though officials in Kuwait hailed the arrest of the dictator who ordered the invasion of their emirate in 1990, those in other Arab states were subdued...
Perhaps worrying that they--who are dictators--might be next?
Many people in the streets of Cairo and Beirut openly cursed a victory for a United States they see as an arrogant and unjust power, while some even refused to believe their eyes and ears.
Refusing "to believe their eyes and ears"--i.e. rejecting the facts--is the only way that the principled support of freedom becomes "arrogance", retaliation against a genocidal maniac becomes "injustice", unsettling the status quo of appeasement of dictatorships becomes "unsettling world peace", and suicide bombers of innocent children become "freedom fighters."
...Eyes riveted to the television screen in a Cairo coffee shop, customers worried about this "American victory" and feared it would ensure the re-election of President George W. Bush next year...
Obviously Dean backers.
...Mustafa Bakri, the pro-Saddam editor in chief of the independent Egyptian weekly Al-Osbou, said on the television: "It's a black day in the history of the Arabs. It's a humiliation."
Only for Saddam Hussein and those Arabs--and "Old" Europeans, Chinese, Russians, CNN and BBC reporters, etc.--who supported him. For those Arabs who actually support freedom it is a day to rejoice--another dictator is effectively dead.
..."It's Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Aznar and Sharon who should be put on trial," said Bakri, who organized several solidarity trips from Cairo to Baghdad before US troops invaded in March.
Have you considered bringing this up with the Hague? (The Hague--the so-called European "world" kangaroo court--would even guarantee not to kill Saddam. Now as for George W. Bush...)
...In Beirut, Doha Shams, a journalist with the leftist newspaper As-Safir, said: "It's great to be finished with Saddam but when will Bush's turn come? He is threatening world peace."
How did he do this? By allieing himself with over 50 plus countries and capturing the Butcher of Baghdad?
..."Thank God that he has been captured alive, so he can be tried for the heinous crimes he has committed" against the Iraqi and Kuwaiti peoples, said [Kuwaiti Information Minister Mohammed Abulhassan], who was Kuwait's UN representative at the time of the invasion.
No thank the American Armed forces.Dec 14, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Mark Steyn points out on the U.S. government making "the axis of weasels ineligible for Iraqi reconstruction contracts" is that the U.S. is "not talking about frosting the French, Germans, Russians and Canadians out of Iraq entirely." Anyone from those countries are free to invest and develop Iraq, what is at issue according to Steyn is:
...whether the American Defence Department should use American taxpayers' money to offer American government contracts in Iraq to companies from countries that actively obstructed and continue to obstruct American policy in Iraq....The best thing for the people of Iraq, according to Mr Martin and , and Herr Schroder and M de Villepin, was that Saddam should be allowed to go on killing and torturing them for another decade or three...The assumption was that there would be no price to pay: after the war things would revert to normal...
....On Iraq, France, is on the other side - Saddam was their man, to the end. Germany is in a state of semi-derangement - a third of Germans under 30 believe that America organised the 9/11 attacks...One can think of several terms for folks...but "allies" isn't one of them - unless "allies" is now a synonym for, respectively, saboteurs, poseurs, nutters and enemies. ["Payback time for the axis of weasels" Mark Steyn, UK Telegraph]
Dec 13, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Suppose you have just turned 10 years old, and the President has decided to come to your birthday party.
You'd be excited, right? And if he decided to say a few words, you'd no doubt be honored, in a 10-year-old way.
But suppose he chose your birthday party to give a speech--you might begin to think he cared more about the propaganda opportunity than about you. And if he went on for two hours with his speech, well, you'd probably conclude that he had nothing but contempt for you and your birthday, and was trying to humiliate you.
No, it wasn't George W. Bush, it was Fidel Castro:
"This revolution does not depend on one individual, or two, or three," Castro declared in a speech of more than two hours at a birthday celebration in the courtyard of Elian's school in the child's hometown of Cardenas, about 85 miles east of Havana. [Havana Journal]
If this tells you what such a man is like, consider what it means for him to hold total, absolute, and arbitrary political power.
