The fall-out from the Turkish vote to not allow American troops base there for any war with Iraq included a substantial hit to the Turkish market.
Does anyone have any decent information on the Turkish economy?
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
The fall-out from the Turkish vote to not allow American troops base there for any war with Iraq included a substantial hit to the Turkish market.
Does anyone have any decent information on the Turkish economy?
by John Cole| 4 Comments
This post is in: Military
The ragtag collectioon of nitwits that deployed themselves to Iraq to act as human shields seem to be coming to their senses:
A dozen peace activists who went to Iraq to serve as human shields in the event of war returned home amid fears for their safety, a spokesman said Sunday.
One wonders if they ever looked up the word shield– the whole point of them going was for them to take the blow- not to stop anyone from attacking military targets. It was such a stupid concept that it was widely ridiculed, because there was absolutely no point to it, and in the end, all they were doing was aiding and abetting a tyrant.
This about sums it up:
The eccentric, eclectic group, none of whom fitted the “peacenik” stereotype, may have been drawn from all ages, backgrounds and experience, but they all shared one trait: naivety. Beset by problems on the road, lack of sufficient funds or a clear, universally-shared agenda, most had been tested beyond their limits before they even arrived in Iraq.
Their entire mission was to soak up bombs and bullets, so I am not sure how they did not have a ‘universally shared agenda.’
Bruce, a 24-year-old Canadian wearing a T-shirt saying “I don’t want to die”, was one of a group of tanned young men who were drafted into protect a grain store. Initially, he, like others, had concerns about the sites, which included an oil refinery, a water purification plant and electricity stations. He was won over when the Iraqis provided televisions, VCRs, telephones and a Play Station.
“Dr Hashimi has explained that we help the population more by staying in the ‘strategic sites’,” he explained. His friend added: “We play football in the afternoons and the Iraqis bring us cartons of cigarettes. It’s just like summer camp.”
My head hurts. If there are any more of these nitwits in Baghdad when we finally attack, I am going to suggest targeting them. They have earned it.
This post is in: War
I’m with BigWig on this one:
The Win Without War phone-in protest tied up the phone lines on Capitol Hill today, at least the ones whose numbers are given out to the public. Senators have lots of phone lines, so I doubt that too much sand was thrown into the Congressional gears. Not that we’d be able to tell. Deliberative bodies are…..deliberate, after all. Sloths are models of haste in comparison.
BigWig thinks they need a dose of their own medicine. I agree:
Suppose for a moment that war supporters just spontaneously decide to call Lynn Erskine, the listed contact for Win Without War, at her phone number, which by the way is 202-478-3429, to let Lynn know how they felt about the war, or left her a voice mail detailing their views on tying up Washington’s phone lines during a time of crisis? How many calls do you think it would take before that number was rendered useless for the purpose of organizing the next protest?
How many voice mails, (long, polite ones, mind you, because war supporters are a genteel, reasonable and extremely slow talking folk when it comes to leaving voice mails), do you think Win Without War would wade through in order to hear ones more supportive of their cause? How many voice mails before someone reaches the tipping point and decides to just hit the delete button until all the messages are gone?
Would that tipping point be higher or lower for Not In Our Name, if war supporters also called their national office, at 212-969-8058.
Everyone hurry along now and call the good people. And while you are at it, send a check to any moderate Republican who has stood with Bush on this issue, but might have a tough fight ahead of them. My own Rep. Shelley Moore-Capito (R., WV) could use some help, as she is the only Republican elected to Congress in my lifetime, and in a state where the majority of the voters trend Democrat.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
A touching op-ed in the CS Monitor:
Since Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, started warning that a US invasion of Iraq would “open the gates of hell,” the retort that has been flying around Iraqi exiles’ websites is, “Good! We’d like to get out!”
It got me wondering: What if you antiwar protesters and politicians succeed in stopping a US-led war to change the regime in Baghdad? What then will you do?
Will you also demonstrate and demand “peaceful” actions to cure the abysmal human rights violations of the Iraqi people under the rule of Saddam Hussein?
Or, will you simply forget about us Iraqis once you discredit George W. Bush?
You are irrelevant. The election in 2004 and world opinion is what is important to the left.
Via Neal Sheeran
This post is in: War
This WaPo article claims Bush wants up to $95 billion for the war in Iraq. According to Drudge, that breaks down to $320.00 per citizen.
Who do I write the check to and where do I send it?
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Larry Miller has an article on the left and proof that would be rather funny if it were not so tragic:
IN THE COURSE of our adult lives, we all learn lessons about humanity that disappoint us, but, for me, this one has been stunning.
I swear, I cannot fathom the people who insist that Saddam Hussein is not going to merrily kill us and everyone he can reach as soon as he is able. What is it about some people that makes them live in this suicidal denial? I could normally shrug it off, except that now it’s not just suicidal. They’re going to get us all killed, and that makes it homicidal as well.
This quote about the “No Blood FOr Oil” and “It’s All ABout Oil” crowd is priceless:
Of course, what the “just-about-oilers” mean is that President Bush is going to get a skadillion people killed “just” so he can steal Iraq’s oil; and it may be overstating the obvious, but we don’t do that. The phrase “Spoils of War” is as dead in America as Cotton Mather. In fact, if there’s one thing history has taught us, it’s that the best thing that can ever happen to a country is to go to war with us and lose. This was so obvious after the Second World War that a wonderful satire was made, “The Mouse That Roared,” about a little, impoverished country that decides to declare war on the United States for the express purpose of immediately surrendering and being rebuilt afterwards with foreign aid.
by John Cole| 4 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Jacques ChIRAQ and Gerhard Schroeder clasp arms after submitting their UN Resolution today, one that stated:
“The military option should only be a last resort,” the document says. “So far, the conditions for using force against Iraq are not fulfilled.”
The memorandum adds that there is “no evidence” that Iraq still possesses weapons of mass destruction or capabilities, although it concedes that “suspicions remain.” As for the United Nations-led inspections, they have “just reached their full pace,” are “functioning without hindrance” and “have already produced results,” the memorandum says.
The document calls for tougher inspections, including precise deadlines for Iraq to disarm, an increase in the number of inspectors, the creation of mobile units to inspect movable targets like trucks, better aerial spying on Iraqi sites and better processing of the spy data. Under this proposal, the chief inspectors would report on Iraq’s progress every three weeks.
In an apparent effort to head off criticism that the three-country initiative is a stalling tactic to avoid a decision on going to war, the declaration states that inspections “cannot continue indefinitely,” adding: “Iraq must disarm. Its full and active cooperation is necessary.”
In the first paragraph of this news story alone, we find four statements that contradict what is commonly known. The “no evidence” is laughable to anyone who watched Colin Powell’s presentation. There is plenty of evidence. How they can claim they have just reached their full pace, when Blix claims the Iraqi’s are playing games with the inspectors is beyond me- perhaps this is full throtttle obstruction? As Blix stated:
Iraq appears not to have come to genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded.
How is that for cooperation? My favorite part is this the line claiming the inspections are functioning without hindrance.
The Iraqi government, he added, has been behind “disturbing incidents and harassment” of inspectors, including raucous, staged demonstrations aimed at interfering with their work.
The final line is a real peach too- the inspections have “already provided results.” Translation- we have found things they were hiding, a clear breach of the UN resolution, and instead of coming to the appropriate conclusion- that they have no intention of disarming, we will instead come to our fantasyland conclusion that the inspections are actually working. Does this sound familiar? It should, because Ken Pollack outlined just this scenario in his interview with Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo:
Blix handed the administration the smoking gun that they were unlikely to get in terms — as you just laid it out — of the Iraqis actually blocking an inspection or we find a Scud or something along those lines. In many ways it’s even better than that in the sense that I think even [if we found] a Scud the people who oppose war would have just latched on to that and said ‘See, the inspections are working.’ In point of fact we’re already seeing that. They did catch this Iraqi scientist with 3000 pages of documents on how to enrich uranium. That should have been a smoking gun. But instead the reaction from the rest of the world was, ‘Good, this is the inspections working.’
How the French and Germans manage to continue fooling themselves that Iraq is disarming, despite the testimony of the Chief Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, the presentation by Colin Powell, and Iraq’s refusal to destroy the Al Samoud 2 missile program that they have been told to destroy, is beyond me. The last alone is material breach. The French and the Germans are being so cynical about coddling this tyrant that I am more disgusted than I have ever been with them. They know what Saddam is up to, but they are more interested in their oil contracts and the damning evidence of their complicity with Saddam that will be found after the war and liberation of Iraq.
Perhaps we should remind people one more time what happens when we let the French and the Germans determine the fate of the world.
(I can not verify the picture nor have I tried- I doubt it is real- the message is clear, however.)
*** Update ***
The Rev. Chapin states that the picture is 100% authentic.