WANTED: AN INTELLIGENT DEBATE

Do you have it in you?

Sen. John Kerry on Friday accused President Bush of leaving Iraq in “disarray” and said that U.S. troops in the country have “no exit in sight.”...

“This president has no idea what's going on in the real world,” Edwards said.

Mr. Kerry...the President hasn't "left" Iraq anywhere. We are still there, fighting a war against terror, fighting a war for the future of an entire region that can then stem the tide of terror. Mr. Kerry, we are fighting a war that it would appear you don't have the stomach to fight because all you can focus on is "exiting"

Mr. Edwards...come back when you can say something meaningful. You are multi-millionaire...Mr. Edwards. What do you know about my world? I'll give you a small clue about the real world I live in Mr. Edwards. In the real world I live in an awful lot of folks admire the President. In the real world I live in Mr. Edwards, we believe folks who don't necessarily admire the man should at least respect the fact that he's President. Mr. Edwards, in the real world that I live in folks place lawyers such as yourself on the bottom of every annual list of folks they trust.

Can ya'll come back when you have something real to say?

MORE SIGNS OF PROGRESS

An oil tanker has started loading crude at Iraq's second Gulf oil export terminal, Khor al-Amaya, an official of the State Oil Marketing Organization said Friday...

Until the terminal was opened, Iraqi oil could only be exported through the Basra terminal a short distance from Khor al-Amaya.

GOOD NEWS..."IN PRINCIPAL"

Iraq has won in principle a 60 percent reduction in the $120 billion it owes international community, Iraq's planning minister said Saturday.

Mehdi al-Hafedh told reporters on the sidelines of a donors meeting in Abu Dhabi to kick off aid commitments for Iraq's reconstruction that the amount of debt reduction had not been officially announced yet.

"In principle, we have a 60 percent reduction in our debts," Hafedh told reporters...

Iraq's debt burden had been the subject of a sustained lobbying effort by the United States, which sent special envoy James Baker to ask countries like France, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Japan for a reduction.

"In principal" is a caveat that nations don't always do what they have committed to do...as is evidenced in this story

Iraq's interim government has asked donors to release $4bn urgently for priority projects to rebuild the country, ravaged by war and sanctions.

"Our needs are enormous and urgent," Iraqi's planning minister, Mehdi al-Hafidh, told a conference in Abu Dhabi...

"It is high time the promises made in Madrid were honoured," Mr Hafidh was quoted as saying by the French news agency, AFP.

BEWARE THE NOW-CORRUPTED BUZZWORDS

"Pre-emption, unilateralism and multilateralism" no longer have the meaning they once had, says Victor Davis Hanson.

Please read it all so you can spot the flaws in the floggings our President is taking from the left.

’Preemption" is supposed to be the new slur. Its use now conjures up all sorts of Dr. Strangelove images to denigrate the present "trigger-happy" Bush administration. Partly the hysteria is due to the invasion of Iraq. Or perhaps the venom of the Left comes from recent disclosures that, in the post-9/11 era, the United States has publicly proclaimed it may strike terrorists and their sponsors — or indeed rogue nations who have the history, capability, and desire to obtain frightening weapons — before they strike us.

But instead of a rational discussion about the wisdom and feasibility of that logical policy, we have had two years now of national frenzy over a purported new "dangerous departure" in American foreign policy, one that "threatens" to "destabilize" the world order.

Rubbish. Preemption is a concept as old as the Greeks. It perhaps was first articulated in the fourth book of Thucydides's history. There the veteran Theban general Pagondas explained why his Boeotians should hit the Athenians at the border near Delium, even though they were already retreating and posed no immediate threat. The Boeotians did, and won — and were never attacked by the Athenians again...

In short, preemption is now a politicized, debased word. It is part of the anti-Bush lexicon and has lost any real meaning for the foreseeable future of its usage. The same may be true of "multilateralism" and "unilateralism."

The Left's problem is not our embrace of the concept of "unilateralism" per se — or it would have attacked Clinton's U.N.-be-damned use of force in Iraq, Kosovo, and Haiti. No, the rub is something altogether different. A Christian, southern-accented, conservative Republican president, coming off a disputed election, has chosen to preempt. And when you hit first in a therapeutic America, you are at least supposed to bite your lip and squeeze Hillary's hand on national television. You do not dare say, "Bring 'em on" and "Smoke 'em out" — much less fly a jet out to an aircraft carrier...

It is perhaps a rule of American politics that Democrats can preempt and intervene pretty much wherever they want and be called "sober" and "reluctant" — given their protestations of pacifism and lip-service to "multilateral frameworks." And to be fair, Republicans can raise deficits that would tar liberals as "tax-and-spend" and "big-government" naifs — and get away with it as purported advocates of "supply side" and "growth."

But whereas President Bush is receiving criticism from both left and right for his fiscal policies, he is not getting praise for his courageous attempt at ending the political and cultural climate that led to September 11. The present bastardization of our language proves it.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS

In their frustrating war with Iraqi enemies of the occupation, coalition troops are enjoying a run of success, killing a notorious bomb-maker and capturing a group suspected of two bloody suicide bombings.

At the same time, the shadowy forces battling the occupiers appear to have admitted they are now under severe pressure from the Americans and local security forces.

The latest coalition success is the death of Abu Mohammed Hamza, a bomb-making expert and lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom America has identified as its No 1 enemy in Iraq.

Hamza was trapped by American civil affairs soldiers as he delivered leaflets door-to-door last week in the town of Habbaniya, west of Baghdad. Hamza opened fire and was shot dead. Several other suspects were arrested.

Soldiers discovered a cache of bomb-making equipment, pro-Saddam literature and pictures of al-Zarqawi...

The coalition is cautious about making too much of the current successes but the terrorists feel themselves to be on the defensive.

Their concerns are spelled out in a nine-page letter from al-Zarqawi to his comrades. It was found on a CD rom carried by an al-Qa'eda courier captured in January.

Al-Zarqawi is clearly alarmed by the growth of local Iraqi security forces, particularly in the Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad.

In Falluja, rebel leaflets admitted that the capture of local mujahideen fighters by Iraqi security forces had disrupted their plans.

LEST WE BELIEVE GIVING BIRTH TO A DEMOCRACY IS EASY...

Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council is due to meet today in an effort to meet a midnight deadline for drafting a temporary law to govern the country until the adoption of a new constitution.

It remains unclear if all 25 members will attend the talks in Baghdad, after a council member said eight of 13 Shi'ite council members walked out of yesterday's meeting due to a decision not to make Islamic law the basis for issues like divorce and inheritance.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28th.

Day 293.

JUST WHEN I NEEDED IT

I'll admit I'm growing weary.

I'm weary of posting stories on this website as a means of keeping up to date with the world my wife lives in at the moment...

I'm weary of poring over hundreds of internet news stories to find the dwindling handful that are balanced.

I'm weary of the words and phrases "quagmire", "Bush lied", "growing insurgency", "another blast in Baghdad", "two US soldiers killed", "anger at occupation mounts" etc.

I'm weary of politicians playing politics with this war while my wife is still in harm's way.

I'm weary of beginning every prayer I utter with a supplication to the Almighty to protect my wife and her soldiers...when I'd rather begin the prayer with exultations of His name over her safe return and our reunion.

I'm weary of browsing the list of blogs and finding that its often easy to spot those that lean to the left...as many have vulgarisms in the title.

I'm weary over the utter lack of civility demonstrated in our nation...be it on TV, Superbowl halftime shows, so-called reality TV shows where the intent is to isolate and humiliate, even in debates over a movie about Christ Jesus himself.

I'm weary of a society that supports a college sophomore suing the NFL when what he ought to be doing is trying to better his mind with the same effort he is trying to better his bank account. For that matter I'm weary of Judges and Mayors who decide the rules of fairplay that founded and grew this nation do not apply to them. I have to play by the rules...why don't they?

I'm weary of endless cable news channels prattling on 24 hours per day when they don't have but about 12 minutes of stuff to say.

I'm weary of the manufactured celebrity culture wherein someone in charge of television or radio program appears to believe that we are or should be interested in what actors/singers/NBA rookies have to say on every subject possible.

I'm weary of stepping into Burger King and being assaulted with movie of the week tie-in promotions. They didn't need that for Citizen Kane...for Casablanca...still the best two movies ever made.

And just as I'm thinking I've had enough...I open my mail to find that an e-friend (defined as one whom I know only via the internet) has sent something especially to me...and that it fits me to a tee.

My day is brighter because Sarah shared this with me. Perhaps your day will be brighter for having read it too.

Please read it all here.

I only wish that those Americans so anxious to use our soldiers as political pawns in election campaigns actually knew our troops. Not as an abstract concept, but as people.

The American soldier is a historical anomaly - not a grasping conqueror, but a man or woman of courage and good heart who wishes only to do what must be done, and then go home. Our troops are inspiring in ways that no campaign speech or campus rally will ever rival. They live the virtues - courage, patriotism, love of freedom, self-sacrifice, honor - of which their critics are embarrassed to speak.

They have a wicked sense of humor. They're exuberantly politically incorrect. They're part of the most thoroughly integrated, representative American institution - our military. And when the American people and our leaders stand behind them, they can do any job on earth.

Defying countless predictions of disaster, our soldiers have accomplished more in Iraq than we had any right to expect. And they did it not because of some brilliant master plan - there was none - but because they took a look at the bloody mess they inherited, rolled up their sleeves and went to work to fix it.

They're the best we've got.

Thank you, Sarah.

Oh...and if I may say so - don't be so hard on yourself. When allowed in moderation - tears on the phone emerge on the other end as "Your place here is permanently reserved". That can mean a lot in a sandy camp on the border of Hellville.

DUPLICITY IN THE FAMILY

It isn't just John Kerry that want's it both ways...so does his wife.

"Another thing that drives me crazy, and I hope I don't offend anyone here, is WAL-MART," Mrs. Kerry told a group of Democratic women activists at a luncheon in St. Paul last Tuesday. "They destroy communities."

Uh...Mrs. Kerry owns over $1 Million in Wal-Mart stock...

SUICIDE COMMENT FOLLOW-UP

You read my comments about the suicide rates here.

Seems someone else has been digging...and finds the US Army's suicide rate in Iraq is lower than that of the German Army's...in Germany

Among circa 250,000 active Bundeswehr soldiers that brings us to a rate of around 17 suicides per year per 100,000 soldiers.

Or to put it differently: Duty in the US Army in Iraq presents a lower suicide risk than service in the German Bundeswehr… Alright then Bundeswehr: Time to hurry on down to Iraq!

BTW: a suicide rate of 13,5 per annum per 100,000 is within the bottom third of the European countries! Very remarkable: France's average is 19,25...

A POSITIVE VIEW

Attacks on U.S., coalition and Iraqi security forces in Iraq will not stop the country's march toward self-governance and democracy, a senior U.S. military officer said today.

"Those who attempt to prevent a free and democratic state (in Iraq) will definitely fail," Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 7, told reporters at a Baghdad press conference.

"We remain undaunted," he asserted, against attacks conducted by Saddam Hussein loyalists and terrorists. He pointed out that despite anti-coalition attacks designed to intimidate Iraqis, the numbers of those volunteering for security duty continue to grow.

Training facilities for Iraqi security police forces "are full and are continuing to expand," Sanchez said. And the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps is slated to add 13 battalions to its present 23 battalions by April.

"We expect no problems in being able to man and train those units," Sanchez said, noting that anti-terrorist operations across Iraq are increasingly being conducted by joint and independent Iraqi security forces.

THE SHIFTING ENEMY

The top U.S. commander in Iraq on Thursday outlined an essential evolution in the insurgency besetting American troops as homegrown guerrillas give way to an increasingly sophisticated opposition originating abroad.

An apparent relationship among groups such as Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is "beginning to take precedence" as the source of violent attacks against Iraqi police, army and forces determined to work toward democracy, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said in a news briefing Thursday.

The capture of Saddam Hussein in December produced intelligence that helped military analysts track Saddam loyalists and led troops into successful raids. Opportunistic attacks by former regime elements, such as roadside bombings and shootings, dropped in the last couple o months as those arrests mounted, Sanchez said. Nonetheless, such attacks persist at a rate of about one a day.

However, high-profile suicide bombings and coordinated attacks increased in pace and scale, particularly in February, indicating a more sophisticated enemy, Sanchez said. Such violence and the discovery of a memo thought by the military to be written by al-Zarqawi that calls for civil war has bolstered suspicions that Iraq is under siege by outside agitators, he said.

"I think the Zarqawi letter is fairly robust in laying out its strategy," Sanchez said about a 17-page memo believed to be written by the man who has been tied to Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish militant group that the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida.

SO FAR SO GOOD

After weeks of deadlock over Iraq's political transition, the country's leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric said yesterday that he would accept a non-elected government installed by US officials on June 30, on condition that it had a narrow mandate and a short life span...

The cleric is almost never seen in public and has declined to meet the top US administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III. But Sistani's views hold immense sway over Iraq's estimated 15 million Shi'ites, with the power to mobilize huge numbers of people to support him.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS

Baghdad's residents will soon be able to make telephone calls from across the capital as work is completed on replacing 11 telephone exchanges destroyed by U.S. bombing during the invasion of Iraq last year.

Al-Mamoun, the last exchange to be replaced, was opened on Thursday and Iraqi technicians have begun hooking up tens of thousand of subscribers who have been without telephone services for almost a year.

"This has been a giant achievement considering the security situation. We expect all subscribers to be hooked back up by the end of March," Telecom Minister Haidar al-Ebadi said during a ceremony to open al-Mamoun...

The telephone service will be free until a new billing system is set up.

TAX ASSISTANCE IN A WAR ZONE

And it seems to be paying off...

As if being in a tax-free zone isn’t enough.

In little more than three weeks, 1st Armored Division volunteer tax preparers have gotten nearly $700,000 in refunds for soldiers. And counting.

“We’ll break $1 million in another week,” said Capt. Ty McDonald, officer in charge of the Baghdad Tax Center.

The tax center is the first of its kind in an active combat zone, said McDonald, a 1st AD judge advocate. Since Feb. 4, more than 500 soldiers’ tax returns have been filed at the center.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27th.

Day 292.

She called last night, vary apologetic over her inability to send the daily updates via email.

We had a lousy, "wandering" sattelite phone connection. She was able to describe for me the party the soldiers threw for her last Saturday night. Sounds like her soldiers really love her.

She sounds great, although she admitted to a bit of depression over the pending change of command. However, they have put her in charge of planning the welcome home party for the battalion...so she has that project to work on for a while.

It was very good to hear from her.

IS IT SOMETHING IN THE WATER OVER THERE?

Turkmenistan borders Afghanistan and Iran to the north.

Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov has passed a decree forbidding young men in the country to wear long hair or beards.

The president said the Education Ministry should be in charge of checking people's hair as the issue was most pressing among the young...

President Niyazov appeared on television saying that men can no longer grow their hair and that beards are not allowed, at least among the young.

He gave no reason - but that is not unusual in Turkmenistan.

In this part of the world, rulings on hair are generally connected to Islam in some way, but it seems likely that Mr Niyazov's decree is more broadly directed against individualism of any kind...

It is forbidden now to listen to car radios or to smoke in the street; opera and ballet performances have been banned on the grounds that they are unnecessary...

On Sunday he is to fire 15,000 nurses and other health workers and replace them with army conscripts.

The frightening thing is that this sort of lunacy somehow makes sense to these guys...

FASCINATING

Sad...but fascinating.

Barring a miraculous comeback by Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John Kerry will win the Democratic presidential nomination—despite the fact that most Democratic voters know little about him and don't like him very much...

A few weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Kerry's campaign seemed dead, but then he unexpectedly won Iowa, then New Hampshire, and then primary after primary. How did this happen?

One answer may be found in a series of psychology experiments conducted at Princeton University in the 1950s...

Asch demonstrated a stunning effect: Faced with a decision that, in isolation, no one would ever get wrong, the unwitting subjects went against the evidence of their own eyes about one-third of the time...

Before any given primary, if all previous votes have resulted in an even split among candidates, then the prospect for independent thinking still exists. But as the sequence of primaries progresses, the likelihood of successive even splits rapidly diminishes, and one candidate inevitably starts to look like a winner. At that moment, the cascade starts, and all subsequent votes then become exercises in rubber stamping.

The reason why this year is so striking is that because Iowa and New Hampshire voted the same way, the onset of the cascade was immediate. And the result is that less than 1 percent of all voters effectively decided that Kerry was to be the Democratic nominee—the rest of us are just tagging along.

I LAUGHED UNTIL I CRIED

Go read this mock interview with John Kerry.

(Sarah, I owe you...)

DUPLICITY

I've mentioned before what I consider to be Senator Kerry's duplicitous history...that he seems to come down on every side of an issue. As an old boss of mine used to say, it seems Kerry "feels strongly both ways on that issue".

Well, it seems I'm not the only one to notice. See this bon mot taken from the President's recent speech to the Republican Governor's Association.

The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group, with diverse opinions: For tax cuts, and against them. For NAFTA, and against NAFTA.

For the Patriot Act, and against the Patriot Act. In favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts.