Remaking Iraq

May 28, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

The defence secretary also issued a new warning to Iran not to interfere in the reconstruction of Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld said Iran was "being unhelpful today with respect to Iraq". "Iran should be on notice; efforts to try to remake Iraq in Iran's image will be aggressively put down," he said. Mr Rumsfeld's comments about Iraq came amid further accusations from Washington that Tehran has been harbouring fugitive members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Concessions Encourage Bombings in Saudi Arabia

May 26, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

How did Islamic terrorists react to the U.S. announcement that it would withdraw its troops from Saudi Arabia--a central demand of Bin Laden? With bombings that killed at least 7 Americans.

The terrorists interpreted the U.S. withdrawal as a concession to Bin Laden's demands and as proof of U.S. weakness. From their perspective, the U.S. withdrawal shows that terrorism pays, and that the more they terrorize Americans the more they stand to gain.

The lesson to be learned is that concessions--apparent or real--will not change the minds of Islamic terrorists committed to destroying the United States and its influence in Muslim countries. Concessions only embolden them. If the United States wants to end Islamic terrorism it must not appease terrorists--but ruthlessly and methodically destroy them.

Iranian Dictators Against a Bush Re-election

May 26, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Clearly, there is no prospect of an imminent American attack on Iran at present. But with all these issues brewing, an eventual confrontation is something that obviously cannot be totally ruled out. Iranian officials say the leadership's policy is to avoid offering anything that might be regarded as a provocation. At the same time, there is a conviction here that if the Americans want to attack Iran they will do it anyway. So there is much emphasis here on preparing for any such eventuality, with military and political leaders making almost daily declarations of military preparedness. "If Bush is re-elected, the Americans will certainly put pressure on us, economically and politically, perhaps even striking at military targets," said one senior Iranian official. ["Analysis: Iran-US rift widens", BBC News, May 25, 2003]

Related: The Road to Victory Goes Through Tehran

Saddam, Not U.S. Embargo, Killed Iraqi Children

May 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Baghdad - Throughout the 13 years of UN sanctions on Iraq that were ended yesterday, Iraqi doctors told the world that the sanctions were the sole cause for the rocketing mortality rate among Iraqi children. "It is one of the results of the embargo," Dr. Ghassam Rashid Al-Baya told Newsday on May 9, 2001, at Baghdad's Ibn Al-Baladi hospital, just after a dehydrated baby named Ali Hussein died on his treatment table. "This is a crime on Iraq." It was a scene repeated in hundreds of newspaper articles by reporters required to be escorted by minders from Saddam Hussein's Ministry of Information. Now free to speak, the doctors at two Baghdad hospitals, including Ibn Al-Baladi, tell a very different story. Along with parents of dead children, they said in interviews this week that Hussein turned the children's deaths into propaganda, notably by forcing hospitals to save babies' corpses to have them publicly paraded.

 

...Under the sanctions regime, "We had the ability to get all the drugs we needed," said Ibn Al-Baladi's chief resident, Dr. Hussein Shihab. "Instead of that, Saddam Hussein spent all the money on his military force and put all the fault on the USA. Yes, of course the sanctions hurt - but not too much, because we are a rich country and we have the ability to get everything we can by money. But instead, he spent it on his palaces." ["Blood of Innocents: Doctors say Hussein, not UN sanctions, caused children's deaths", May 23, 2003]

Bad News For Bush–And For Freedom

May 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

The worse news is that huge numbers of Americans don't understand justice. They evidently feel it's unjust to have to pay for their own health care, but they  feel it is just to tax the population to forcibly pay for everyone else's health care.

This serves as more evidence that while Americans reject socialism and statism in principle, they more than ever before embrace it in practice. This could mean good news for liberal Democrats such as Dick Gephardt, who favors spending on government health care over cutting taxes and plans to run on this plank in 2004.

More Trouble at the NY Times

May 24, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

On Friday, The New York Times suspended star reporter Rick Bragg for two weeks, news first reported on the Web site run by the Columbia Journalism Review and confirmed by several newsroom sources, who said they first heard about the suspension Friday afternoon. The suspension of Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize winner, comes on the heels of the Jayson Blair plagiarism and fabrication scandal, which seems likely to roil the newspaper's newsroom for some time to come. [Newsweek, May 23, 2003]

PETA Equates Jews with Cows

May 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

A local Jewish organization yesterday denounced an exhibit by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that compares the slaughter of animals for food to the Holocaust. Adam Solender, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Manchester, said the exhibit displayed in the plaza in front of the State House in Concord yesterday afternoon, "trivialized the memory of millions of innocent victims of the Holocaust." "It's an incredible moral equivalency that I think steps over the line," Solender said. Manchester resident and Holocaust survivor Stephen Lewy said the display was disturbing.

" . . . in World War II, the Nazis compared Jews to animals. PETA is comparing the life of a chicken to that of a human being . . . There is no moral equivalency, never! One cannot compare the suffering and racial genocide of millions of Jews to animals." ["Jewish group raps PETA exhibit", Union Leader News, May 23, 2003]

PETA, like Hitler, just did.

Iraqi Freedom

May 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Richard Salsman on the State of the Political-Economy

May 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

...Congressional Republicans are helping to gut the tax-cut proposals made by their party's leader in the White House; they promise to phase in any tax cuts that are enacted, thereby inducing deferrals of economic and investment activity and causing near-term stagnation...Not to be out-done, the D.C. regulators, especially at the SEC, persist in suffocating free speech (and the free flow of information) on Wall Street -- while sabotaging investor confidence.

The only honest heroes out there -- the only ones quietly delivering the higher profits and equity gains so eagerly sought by investors -- are the entrepreneurs and CEOs (and the few people who defend them). They are working against enormous odds, under the boot of a hostile government (and public)...It's not the Washington-types but the business heroes who've delivered the goods and the gains in U.S. equity prices that we've all seen since last Fall. We can add a word of sincere thanks to the Pentagon and the military -- the only honest and capable elements in the entire U.S. government...

Sanctions Lifted in Iraq—Finally

May 22, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

The United Nations has overwhelmingly approved a resolution lifting economic sanctions against Iraq and giving its backing to the US-led administration. Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members voted to adopt the resolution with France, Russia and Germany - countries which opposed the war on Iraq - all giving their support. Syria - the sole Arab state represented on the council - boycotted the meeting. Voting took place nine weeks to the day after US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq at the start of a military campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

...Mr de Villepin said the agreement on the new resolution showed that the UN was again resuming its place in international politics, adding that international unity was the only way to deal with Iraq's problems. ["UN approves US Iraq plans", BBC, May 22, 2003]

Bear in mind that 'international unity'--i.e., appeasement by the US--was not needed for the US and UK to take out Saddam Hussein. 

In its key points on the UN resolution to end sanctions in Iraq the BBC lists the reason why the resolution was approved:

• Russian and French companies will be able to complete lucrative contracts

As a cross--the US should have unilaterally lifted the sanctions nine weeks ago, as opposed to having to wait over two months, in order to lend moral sanction to the corrupt UN body.

Iraqi Minister of Disinformation Working for Reuters?

May 22, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Gunmen fired anti-tank rockets at a U.S. armored vehicle in the tense Iraqi town of Falluja, sending U.S. troops into a shooting spree that killed two Iraqis, residents said on Thursday.

Since when is defending oneself against rockets a "spree" as if the troops were engaging in some wild shopping contest?

At least 15 Iraqis died in the clashes between demonstrators and U.S. troops last month. On May 1, a grenade attack wounded seven U.S. soldiers in the town.

Since when is a grendade attack associated with "demonstrations"? Reuters obtained no comments from American officials.

Indians in Privatisation Strike

May 21, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Millions of workers in India have held a nationwide strike in protest at government plans to privatise state-owned businesses. The one-day stoppage severely affected the banking, transport, insurance and mining sectors, and brought Calcutta to a virtual standstill as protesters marched through the streets...The strike was called by trade unions including the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, who claimed about 40 million workers were participating in the walk-out....The government's privatisation plans aim to raise 132 billion rupees ($2.75bn) by selling off state-run companies in the year ending March 2004...."We want a complete halt to privatisation and other economic policies that favour only the rich," said Swadesh Dev Roye, leader of the National United Forum, an umbrella group of labour unions in state-run oil companies....The government has said labour reforms are needed to allow Indian industry to compete with countries such as China. And it claims privatisation is needed to bridge its increasing fiscal deficit. [21 May 2003]

Why?

May 21, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Smarting from criticism it has been caught flat-footed in postwar Iraq, the Bush administration is set to ask the U.N. to lift sanctions there and create a fund to disburse Iraqi oil revenue. ["US to ask UN to end Iraq sanctions"]

The first question is: why? Given that the U.S. unilaterally went against the Security Council when it invaded Iraq, why is it going the the U.N. now? To make "Old Europe" happy?

As early as Wednesday, the U.S. will ask the United Nations Security Council to approve a resolution ending all trade and economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The resolution calls for establishment of a reconstruction fund at Iraq's central bank to collect oil revenue. Occupying U.S. and British authorities, consulting an interim Iraqi administration, would have power over spending.

WorldCom: The Price of Dishonesty in a Mixed Economy

May 20, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

WorldCom plans to emerge from bankruptcy protection this fall with a new name -- MCI -- and most of its debts wiped off the books. Rival telecommunication companies say that will give WorldCom a substantial advantage over them, since they still have to cover heavy debt burdens when setting prices. ["$500 million Wrist Slap"]

Cost Whom?

May 20, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

Don’t Believe What You Read in the New York Times

May 19, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

I can't say anything other than the fact that I feel a range of emotions including guilt, shame, sadness, betrayal, freedom and appreciation for those who have stood by me, been tough on me, and have taken the time to understand that there is a deeper story and not to believe everything they read in the newspapers. [Emphasis added, Times Bomb, May 26, 2003]

(Especially when Jayson writes them under the editorial supervision of the Executive Editor for the New York Times?)

The deeper story is that Jayson got away with his deception, in part, because he was not white:

"Our paper has a commitment to diversity and by all accounts [Blair] appeared to be a promising young minority reporter," Mr. [Howell] Raines said. "I believe in aggressively providing hiring and career opportunities for minorities." "Does that mean I personally favored Jayson?" he added, a moment later. "Not consciously. But you have a right to ask if I, as a white man from Alabama, with those convictions, gave him one chance too many by not stopping his appointment to the sniper team. When I look into my heart for the truth of that, the answer is yes." [NY Times]

This of course is pure racism; but, it is not called racism. This form of racism is called racial "diversity"--at the expense of real diversity, i.e. diversity of ideas. 

What of the executive editor--Howell Raines--who let Blair get away with his deception? He still runs the operation of the so-called "newspaper of record", but accepts "full responsibility" for his actions. Raine's excuse? He let Jayson get by with his deceptions for so long because Jayson is black and he Raines felt "guilt" as a white man from Alabama.

In other words I feel sorry, so let's forget the facts about what I actually did. That is like saying, I am sorry for killing your wife, but I don't think I should face the death penalty because I feel bad about it. (Maybe he is related to CNN's Eason Jordan.) 

The message from all this is: all sins are forgiven so long as you support the Leftist dream of "diversity"--even if the price is truth and integrity.

Thatcher Praises Bush, Blair, and Capitalists and Condemns the French, UN, and Terrorists

May 18, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

For years, many governments played down the threats of Islamic revolution, turned a blind eye to international terrorism and accepted the development of weaponry of mass destruction. Indeed, some politicians were happy to go further, collaborating with the self-proclaimed enemies of the West for their own short-term gain -- but enough about the French. So deep had the rot set in that the UN security council itself was paralysed.

 

...Our own Prime Minister was staunch and our forces were superb. But, above, all, it is President Bush who deserves the credit for victory.

 

...[Ronald Reagan and I] knew, too, what did not work, namely socialism in every shape or form. Nowadays socialism is more often dressed up as environmentalism, feminism, or international concern for human rights. All sound good in the abstract. But scratch the surface and you will as likely as not discover anti-capitalism, patronising and distorting quotas, and intrusions upon the sovereignty and democracy of nations.

 

...There are too many people who imagine that there is something sophisticated about always believing the best of those who hate your country, and the worst of those who defend it." ["Thatcher's back and gunning for the French", Times Online, May 15, 2003]

State of Denial

May 17, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses

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