Better There Than Here?

Ken AshfordBush & Co., IraqLeave a Comment

One of the most annoying and disingenuous memes coming from the White House these days—and Bush repeated it in his speech last night—is the idea that it is better to fight the terrorists in Iraq than it is to fight them here.  When I first heard that message, I dismissed it as silly rhetoric . . . but then, I kept on hearing it.  So I actually thought about the premise and implications of that meme, something which I doubt many war supporters have done.

Now, on its face, in a factual vacuum, the meme is appealing.  Obviously, I would prefer that the terrorists fight our soldiers in Baghdad than interrupt me on my way to work.  Everybody would prefer that. 

But George Bush is basically admitting that we have turned Iraq into a terrorist battlefront . . . so that the United States can be safe.  “Better there than here”?!?  Some humanitarians we turned out to be! 

Also, I wonder how Iraqis feel about that.  As one Iraqi who listened to Bush’s speech last night said about the United States: “Why don’t they find another place to fight terrorism?”

Good question.

Matt Labash of the Weekly Standard also slaps down this meme, with two more points:

The first, is that we’re not altogether sure we are fighting terrorists, in the al-Qaeda sense of the word. As Newsweek recently reported in a piece entitled “War In the Dark,” “what the Americans don’t know is who, exactly, they’re fighting."

The second thing to remember, for most of the people declaring where they’d rather fight the terrorists, is that they are not personally doing much of the fighting.

But my main criticism of the meme is that, even if the people we are fighting in Iraq are terrorists, they certainly don’t represent ALL, or even MOST, of the worldwide population of terrorists.  And if they start losing (and I suspect that eventually, at some point, they will), the remaining insurgency probably will not remain in Iraq to die to the last man.  Instead, equipped with their new skills that they acquired in the Terrorist Training Ground known as Iraq, they will disperse throughout the world—including (wait for it!) . . . here.

“Better there than here”?!?

The enemy is not the German Army.  There is no Berlin.  In the next ten years or so, we may finally bring stabilty to Iraq.  But it will not have furthered our interests in the Global War on Terrorism—indeed, just the opposite.

UPDATE: Juan Cole has the final say on the “better there than here” meme:

This is monstrous and ridiculous at once. The people in Fallujah and Ramadi were not sitting around plotting terrorism three years ago. They had no plans to hit the United States. Terrorism isn’t a fixed quantity. By unilaterally invading Iraq and then bollixing it up, Bush and Vines have created enormous amounts of terrorism, which they are now having trouble putting back in the bottle.

Bush Then And Now

Ken AshfordBush & Co., IraqLeave a Comment

THEN:

"Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is . . . I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn."

— Bush criticizing President Clinton on not setting a timetable for troops in Kosovo, 4/9/99 and 6/5/99

NOW:

"It doesn’t make any sense to have a timetable. You know, if you give a timetable, you’re—you’re conceding too much to the enemy."

— Bush on Iraq, 6/24/05

Washington Nationals and George Soros

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Just another sign that some Republicans are so anti-progressive that they abandon every notion of common sense.  The latest outrage from the right?  They’re upset because billionaire and progressive-cause-supporter George Soros wants to be a part-owner of the MLB baseball team, the Washington Nationals.

Rep. Thomas David (R-Va) issued a veiled threat to Major League Baseball, suggesting that if Soros was permitted to buy (or co-buy) the Washington Nationals, it would be unwise, since baseball enjoys exemption from anti-trust laws.  In other words, MLB, if you let Soros buy a baseball team, the Republican Congress could “punish” the sport. Read more here.

This is particularly ironic, since many politicians—including Bush himself—were or are part owners of major league baseball teams.  What’s the deal here?  Baseball ownership only for people of one political stripe?

Democrat Representative George Miller has the correct response:

Why should politics have anything to do with who owns the team…So Congress is going to get involved in every baseball ownership decision? Are they next going to worry about a manager they don’t like? I’ve never seen anything as impotent as a congressman threatening the baseball exemption.

Even Michelle Malkin recognizes this overly partisan stupidity.

Freedom In Iraq

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – Students in the Shi’ite Muslim religious Iraqi city of Najaf said that police recently arrested and beat several of them for wearing jeans and having long hair.

“They arrested us because of our hair and because we were wearing jeans,” said student Mohammed Jasim, adding that the arrests took place two weeks ago in the city, the spiritual heart of Iraq’s newly dominant Shi’ite majority.

“They beat us in front of the people. Then they took us to their headquarters, beat us again, shaved our heads and tore our clothes."

I hope these aren’t Iraqi police that we’ve been training.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

Does anyone else remember the summer of 2001?  The headlines were filled with stories about shark attacks, Tom Cruise’s love life (with Nicole), and missing-but-presumed-dead white women (Shandra Levy).  Bush was sinking fast in the polls, and Reps/Dems were sniping at each other.

And then, at the end of the summer in 2001, some bad shit went down (you may have read about it).

Now, in the summer of 2005, the headlines were filled with stories about shark attacks, Tom Cruise’s love life, and missing-but-presumed-dead white women.  And Bush is sinking fast in the polls, while Reps/Dems are sniping at each other.

In the immortal words of Han Solo, “I got a bad feeling about this.”

Congressman Questions War And White House Secrecy

Ken AshfordBush & Co., History, IraqLeave a Comment

"The administration should clarify its intent in [this war]… People lack confidence in the credibility of our government… It’s a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy. With the secrecy, it’s impossible. The American people will do what’s right when they have the information they need…

Who said it?

Representative Donald Rumsfeld (R-IL), speaking of the Vietnam War, April 13, 1966.  Ouch. [More quotes at link]

Supreme Court Rules On Valerie Plame Journalists

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Plamegate, Supreme CourtLeave a Comment

The Supreme Court ruled today that journalists cannot avoid grand jury subpeonae asking them to reveal their sources (or, put another way, that journalists can face jail time for failing to reveal their sources in response to a grand jury subpoena).

This puts the plaintiffs, Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper and The New York Times’ Judith Miller, in a precarious position.  Do they reveal the name of the White House source who told them that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, or do they face up to 18 months in prison?

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Okay, technically, SCOTUS didn’t “rule” on this case.  They just declined to hear it, meaning that the contempt citations stand.

Supreme Court Rules On Ten Commandments

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Constitution, Godstuff, Supreme CourtLeave a Comment

BREAKING NEWS: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ten Commandment displays are not permissible in courthouses.

Well, that’s what the headlines are screaming at the moment.  The devil, as they say, is in the details.  For example, is the Decalogue permissible if it is part of a larger display about the origins of law?

UPDATE No. 1:  Decision was 5-4, with O’Connor being the swing vote.  Watch the religious right jump all over her in the next few days.

UPDATE No. 2: Yes, according to CNN‘s early report, there is “wiggle room”—i.e., if the Ten Commandment display is part of a larger display honoring the nation’s legal history, that would not violate the Constitution. 

But the issue in the case before SCOTUS was a Kentucky court which originally displayed framed copies of the Ten Commandments, and only those copies.  (The Kentucky court later placed other historical documents next to the Ten Commandments in order to “dilute” the religious purpose behind the display, but the SCOTUS majority was not fooled, calling it a “sham").

UPDATE No. 3:  But in a “companian case”, SCOTUS apparently ruled that the Ten Commandments are permissible at state capitals.  I’m not sure what the exact difference in rationale is—it’s probably a matter of degree and location of the specific displays, rather than some legal distinction.  Again, the devil is in the as-yet-unknown details.  I’ll continue below the fold if there is more to say…

UPDATE No. 4: Both cases were 5-4.  Interestingly, it was Breyer, not O’Connor who “flipped”—saying that the Kentucky court display was unconstitutional, but the Texas state capital outdoor display was permissible.  From my quick read of his opinion in the Texas case, the difference turns on a factual assessment, rather than legal rationale.  Breyer thought that the Texas display was “borderline”, but ultimately decided that the Ten Commandments display in Texas was not a religious endorsement by the State, but a secular message.

UPDATE No. 5: For my money, Justice O’Connor has the quote of the opinion:

It is true that many Americans find the Commandments in accord with their personal beliefs. But we do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment. [Cite omitted] Nor can we accept the theory that Americans who do not accept the Commandments’ validity are outside First Amendment protections.  There is no list of approved and disapproved beliefs appended to the First Amendment—and the Amendment’s broad terms ("free exercise”, “establishment”, “religion") do not admit of a cramped reading.  It is true that the Framers lived at a time when our national religious diversity was neither as robust nor as well recognized as it is now. They may not have foreseen the variety of religions for which this Nation would eventually provide a home.  They surely could not have predicted new religions, some of them born in this country. But they did know that line-drawing between religions is an enterprise that, once begun, has no logical stopping point.

Interestingly, Scalia’s dissent suggests a “logical stopping point”—monotheism.  In other words, monotheistic religions are protected by the First Amendment; others are not, in Scalia’s view.  That’s certainly one plausible place to draw the line, I must admit.  The problem is, I can’t find that line drawn anywhere in the First Amendment itself.  That’s just Scalia being a judicial activist, rewriting the First Amendment to suit his views.

SUMMARY: It doesn’t look like the Court moved any on the issue of Ten Commandments.  There were no new “tests” employed by the Court, and no shift in the law.  Both these cases were pretty close to the line as to what is permissible and impermissible.  It simply was that the Kentucky display fell on one side of the line, and the Texas display did not.

Winnie The Pooh Death Watch

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger, died Friday at the age of 82.

John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet, died Saturday at the age of 80.

Pooh Not household names, but you may know them without knowing you know them.  Paul Winchell holds a special place in my heart, because he is the subject of my earliest memory.  I must have been 2 years old, and I was watching an episode of the Paul Winchell-Jerry Mahoney Show (Winchell was a ventriloquist, and Jerry Mahoney was one of his dummies).  The group was in a car, and Knucklehead Smiff (another Winchell dummy) thought that the moon was following them.  For some reason, this terrified me, and I bawled like a baby . . . which I was.

Fans of the old Bob Newhart show will remember John Fiedler as Mr. Peterson, the short nebbishy patient of Bob Newhart’s with the raspy voice.  He also played a short nebbishy juror in the classic film “Twelve Angry Men”, and a short nebbishy administrator in the original Star Trek episode, “Wolf In The Fold” (he turns out to be Jack the Ripper).

Anyway, in a weird coincidence, they both died this weekend.  No word yet on Pooh.

Fun fact: Paul Winchell also invented, and held the patent for, an artificial heart.

Yellow Elephant Watch

Ken AshfordIraq, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Sticker_2I recently wrote a post (and received a little flak) about Yellow Elephants—specifically, the refusal of College Republicans to run a advertisement advocating military recruitment in the program of their annual convention in Las Vegas.  The ad was refused because it was too much of a downer. 

Family Research Council leader (and KKK Grand Wizard contributor) Tony Perkins addressed the convention.  Speaking of those fighting in the Iraq War, he said to the enthusiastic crowd of college Republicans:

"They’re giving their lives as you’re giving your time."

Gah!!! Think Progress has the appropriate tongue-in-cheek response:

You know, you’ve got a point there, Tony. Just like our soldiers are dying in Iraq, campus conservatives are stapling flyers for an Ann Coulter speech to a kiosk. Basically the same thing.

A Knight Ridder story from last year’s convention, entitled “Young Republicans Support Iraq War, but Not Willing to Join the Fight” quotes several of these—okay, I’ll say it—chickenhawks on why they aren’t fighting the war that they support, including this:

"Frankly, I want to be a politician. I’d like to survive to see that,” said Vivian Lee, 17, a war supporter visiting the convention from Los Angeles.  Lee said she supports the war but would volunteer only if the United States faced a dire troop shortage or “if there’s another Sept. 11."

I’m only guessing, but I feel pretty confident that every soldier in Iraq would “like to survive” in order to become something when they are older. 

And what’s this notion of volunteering “if there’s another Sept. 11”?  Did the Greatest Generation need two Pearl Harbors before they volunteered?

Vets Respond To Rove

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

From Takeittokarl.com:

Throughout my adult life I’ve been a registered Democrat and yes, a liberal. As a peacetime veteran and as a wartime civilian who served her country willingly and with heartfelt patriotism, I am deeply insulted by Karl Rove’s outrageous condemnation of those who don’t march in lockstep with the religious right, conservative GOP. How dare this man, who like his masters, never served his country in uniform, imply that I and my “liberal” veteran and active duty brothers and sisters are traitors for not supporting this criminal, pre-emptive war we now find ourselves fighting in Iraq?

Really Karl, you prepared for war? How did you do that, play golf or have dinner at the White House? . . . You prepare for war by jumping on a tragedy to divide America, to further your agenda, to create a war that did not need to be fought. For the love of god, I would have been the first in Afghanistan; we should have turned that nation into a sheet of glass. The fact remains, not a single solitary person on any of those plans that were used against us in September 11th were Iraqi, furthermore most of them were from Saudi Arabia, a nation that we are currently bedding (screwing) our leader daily.

You are dangerous to our national security, Karl Rove. You are giving aid and comfort to the enemy and you insult every leftie, liberal, Democrat who ever served this country while you protected your worthless hide. An apology won’t do, you need to step down.

And then there’s this (WMA audio format)

U.S. Fesses Up: It’s Torture We’re Doing

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

GENEVA (AFP) – Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.

The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity.

“They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation to inform the UN,” the Committee member told AFP.

“They they will have to explain themselves (to the Committee). Nothing should be kept in the dark.”

UN sources said it was the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities.

[Source]

Look! A missing white woman!  Let’s talk about her! 
Look! A Democrat angry about our torture techniques!  Let’s smear him!

Read More

Cheney Does Clinton

Ken AshfordBush & Co., IraqLeave a Comment

When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pointed out to Dick Cheney that military commanders in Iraq do not characterize the insurgency as being in its “last throes” (see my post here), Cheney backpeddled and pulled out his Webster’s:

No, I would disagree. If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a, you know, a violent period, the throes of a revolution.

[Source]

He’s right.  Now, Dick, open up your dictionary to the word “last”.  Moron.