Everyone should read this.
War
Maybe I am Missing Something
More than a dozen rockets fired from donkey carts slammed into Iraq’s Oil Ministry and two hotels Friday — attacks dismissed by a U.S. general as “militarily insignificant” but which also exposed weaknesses in gathering intelligence on insurgents.
The brazen, coordinated strikes at some of Baghdad’s most heavily protected civilian sites defied a U.S. crackdown.
Two other donkeys — one pulling a rocket launcher and another rigged to a bomb — were found within hours, one 30 yards from the Italian Embassy. U.S. officials said the targets were the headquarters of a Kurdish political party and a law school.
A civilian contractor was seriously injured at the Palestine Hotel, where many foreign journalists and U.S. workers are staying. No other casualties were reported at the Palestine or at the Sheraton Hotel across the street, and police said no one was hurt at the ministry.
“They’re trying to break our will. They’re trying to seize the headlines … but they’re militarily insignificant,” Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military deputy director for operations, said at a news conference.
But he conceded that the insurgents were playing off American weaknesses, specifically in terms of gathering intelligence that could have prevented the attacks.
Am I the only one who sees this as a sign of weakness of the enemy? Their only option is to have a few jackasses strap a rocket to a jackass and then attack soft targets? This is spun as a sign that we are losing? I don’t get it.
Meanwhile, Matt Yglesias recycles a few lies and in the process finds the real enemy in Iraq- James Lileks:
First we were assured that the Iraqi people would welcome us in every way and western war opponents were castigated for being insufficiently attentive to the needs of Iraqis. Now Iraqis face condemnation for being insufficiently supportive of our policies.
A.) No one stated the Iraqi people would welcome us in every way- this is more nonsense from the quagmire crowd. You can almost hear Yglesias itching to say ‘cakewalk.’
B.) No one is condemning Iraqis for being insufficiently supportive- Lileks was responding to a rather obnoxious, short-sighted, petulant, and assinine letter from Salam Pax:
To tell you the truth, I am glad that someone is doing the cleaning up, and thank you for getting rid of that scary guy with the hideous moustache that we had for president. But I have to say that the advertisements you were dropping from your B52s before the bombs fell promised a much more efficient and speedy service. We are a bit disappointed. So would you please, pretty please, with sugar on top, get your act together and stop telling people you have Iraq all figured out when you are giving us the trial-and-error approach?
Then again- that does sound like something from the DNC, so I understand why Matt is endorsing it. At any rate, has Matt apologized for this out and out lie yet?
*** Update ***
Baldilocks asks a question. The answer, Baldilocks, is because some people are idiots.
The Real Enemy
David Brooks, in a moment of real clarity, points out who the enemy is in Iraq:
Um Haydar was a 25-year-old Iraqi woman whose husband displeased Saddam Hussein’s government. After he fled the country in 2000, some members of the Fedayeen Saddam grabbed her from her home and brought her out on the street. There, in front of her children and mother-in-law, two men grabbed her arms while another pulled her head back and beheaded her. Baath Party officials watched the murder, put her head in a plastic bag and took away her children.
Try to put yourself in the mind of the killer, or of the guy with the plastic bag. You are part of Saddam’s vast apparatus of rape squads, torture teams and mass-grave fillers. Every time you walk down the street, people tremble in fear. Everything else in society is arbitrary, but you are absolute. When you kill, your craving for power and significance is sated. You are infused with the joy of domination.
These are the people we are still fighting in Iraq. These are the people who blow up Red Cross headquarters and U.N. buildings and fight against democracy and freedom. They are the scum of the earth. And they are being joined in their lairs by the flotsam and jetsam of the terrorist world.
Their scumminess is our great advantage. People like this will never lead a popular insurgency. They have nothing positive to offer normal, decent people. They survive only by cruelty and the power of intimidation.
Meanwhile, in a display of the shallow fecklessness typical of those on the far left or those whose only concern is attacking this administration so that Democrats may have electoral success in 2004, Josh Marshall is concerned only with the language used to describe the enemy:
We
Media Bias, Cont.
I can’t wait for the villifciation of this guy as nothing more than a right wing hack:
Auxiliary Bishop Andraos Abouna of Baghdad said he believed media were running a propaganda campaign to discredit the American-led coalition that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and now runs Iraq.
Bishop Abouna, a Chaldean Catholic, told the Catholic Herald in London that the situation in Iraq is steadily improving rather than descending into a morass resembling the Vietnam War, as often depicted by media outlets.
“It’s getting better but still there are many problems,” Bishop Abouna said. “The first problem is that they need security, then they need water and electricity — and all these things are getting better.”
“The media are exaggerating a lot of things. They should be realistic about the situation in Iraq. Newspapers and television are saying a lot of things that aren’t true. When they go there they can see everything (is changing),” he said.
Liar- it is a quagmire! The left and RW Apple said so! Bush is a warmongerer! We are losing! Vote Dean!
Hillary Clinton, Hawk
You have to just love any article which will piss off both the “Bush lied” and the “Hitlery” crowds:
PRESIDENT BUSH has a surprising defender of his contention that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction–Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. “The intelligence from Bush 1 to Clinton to Bush 2 was consistent” in concluding Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and was trying to develop a nuclear capability, Clinton said this morning. And Saddam’s expulsion of weapons inspectors and “the behavior” of his regime “pointed to a continuing effort” to produce WMD, she added.
The senator said she did her own “due diligence” by attending classified briefings on Capitol Hill and at the White House and Pentagon and also by consulting national security officials from the Clinton administration whom she trusts. “To a person, they all agreed with the consensus of the intelligence” that Saddam had WMD.
Clinton isn’t normally a defender of the Bush administration. And on other issues, especially Bush’s handling of postwar Iraq, she was highly critical. But she agreed, with qualifications, that preemptive military action may be necessary in certain cases, as Bush has argued was the case with Iraq.
She also had this to say about rumors regarding the Clintons and Wes:
That is an absurd feat of imagination, I guess. We have been supportive to all of the candidates running in any way that they have requested information…from either Bill or me, advice that they would solicit. We are not supporting or endorsing any candidate…I think someone very formidable is going to come out of this process….”
I can’t find the whole transcript from the breakfast.
Another One Bites the Dust
Say hello to your cellmate, Bubba:
Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin and trusted advisor of Saddam Hussein who earned a reputation for ruthlessness by using poison gas to supress a Kurdish uprising in 1988, has been captured, the American military said today.
The United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla., announced the capture of Mr. Majid but gave no details on where he was detained or how. Mr. Majid was No. 5 on the allied forces’ list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis.
The capture of Mr. Majid represents another step in the military’s effort to wipe out any lingering influence of the fragmented remnants of Mr. Hussein’s government.
That would be “Chemical Ali” to you and me.
*** Update ***
Via Instapundit, I find out that Ali has a new nickname:
The Iraqi general formerly known as ‘Chemical Ali’ was captured this morning by Coalition troops.
However, Ali Hassan al-Majid is now officially known as ‘Conventional Ali,’ since it is common knowledge that Iraq had no chemical weapons program.
Scott Ott, genius.
Another One Down
I hope he enjoys his new living quarters:
The former vice president of Iraq, No. 20 on the most-wanted list put together by the United States and one of the most zealous defenders of Saddam Hussein, was captured today, the Pentagon said.
A spokeswoman, Chief Diane Perry, could not confirm reports that the capture of the official, Taha Yassin Ramadan, had been carried out by Kurdish forces in the northern city of Mosul.