LFTC - Letter From The Capitol

Index 10/31/06

5 posts: (1) Iraq NON-Study Group?--The Home Front; (2) RMA: Are We on the Losing Side?--Us v. Them; (3) Harold Ford: Democrat Dunce Insults Our Best Ally--The Home Front; (4) Globalization: Bookend Benefits?--"It's the Earth Stupid!"; (5) Iran: State of Denial--The Home Front.

Iraq NON-Study Group?

Here is a vivid portrait of Kurdistan--quasi-independent and proud--Arabic is no longer spoken there.  So why, then, did the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group decline to visit Kurdistan, Iraq's most successful region, as part of their fact-finding?  Passing strange.

RMA: Aee We on the Losing Side?

Max Boot, author and pundit, fears that our enemy, not us, will win the Information age Revolution in Military Affairs.  Cellphones and satellite TV defeat smart weapons and stealth.  Worth a read.

Harold Ford: Democrat Dunce Insults Our Best Ally

Harold Ford, a Democratic Congressman running for Senator in Tennessee, recently demonstrated abysmal ignorance about our finest friends, the folks Down Under.  A TAS article details (a) Australia's faithfulness and (b) Ford's ignorance.  Seems that Ford lumped nuclear-free Australia--the country does not even have a commercial nuclear power plant--with other nations purportedly seeking nuclear weapons.  (Ford also mentioned South Africa, which voluntarily abandoned its program in the 1990s!)  Insulting our finest friends is a poor recommendation for Senatorial elevation.  Hope Ford loses; he can spend the next two years learning more (starting from zero, this part is easy) about Australia, and then abjectly apologizing.  OK, there is one bright spot: Ford voted in favor of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement.  (Presumably Ford figures the FTA pact excludes  nuclear technology.)

Globalization: Bookend Benefits?

Lawrence Summers, a former senior official in the Clinton years and the Dean at Harvard until an un-P.C. remark caused him to be tossed to feminist sharks, writes in an LA Times op-ed that the economic benefits of globalization are genuine, but that its benefits are primarily going to those at the top and bottom of the economic rung: the very rich benefit as their asset bases grow; the very poor benefit as low-wage jobs are created, bringing them into the employment economy.  But the middle class, Summers argues, have not seen tangible economic evidence that they, too, benefit.  Summers warns that arguments in favor of capitalist free markets and free trade are economically sound, but will be rejected politically if the middle class feels left out (rightly or wrongly).

Summers, a rarity--a left-of-center, pro-market economist--has a valid point.  The middle class is the political center of gravity in advanced democracies.  Not being ideological purists, they will reject any economic state in which they feel the losers.  Part of the problem is that in any major economic shift, there are inevitably winners and losers.  The mass media, naturally, cover the sad stories and ignore the happy ones.  When comparative advantage shifts production away, those who lose jobs will be featured in a poignant plant closing story.  Some laid off workers will find employment elsewhere, but their story is unlikely to be aired.  Meanwhile, no one interviews consumers who buy more quality goods at lower prices, due to the production shift.

The juxtaposition of tangible up-front costs and intangible long-term gains is inherently politically unsustainable.   Aggravating matters is that any good economic news can--and often is--spun with a negative add-on by reporters.  Growth accelerates--watch out, here comes (maybe) inflation!  Growth slows--watch out, here comes (maybe) recession!  Interest rates rise--watch out, bondholders, your bonds are falling in value, and stocks, too!  Interest rates fall--watch out, here comes inflation (maybe) again!  Growth was less than forecast, could mean a worsening economy!  Never mind, as to the last example, that it could merely signify faulty forecasting.  Listening to the media breathlessly harp on forecasts, you'd think none of them have a clue how fallible forecasters are in attempting to divine the course of modern complex mega-economies.

But Summers remains right.  Unless middle class folks see a benefit, support will evaporate.  How about another tax cut?  Coupled with spending restraint, much good could be done.  Alas, don't hold your breath.  Expect a rocky ride ahead.

Iran: State of Denial

Mike Ledeen, ever watchful re Iran, cites three passages from Bob Woodward's much-ballyhooed book, State of Denial, that (not so) strangely went virtually without notice in the mainstream media, and, amazingly, among Bush critics.  Here they are:

Pages 414-415: “Some evidence indicated that the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah was training insurgents to build and use the shaped IED’s, at the urging of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. That kind of action was arguably an act of war by Iran against the United States. If we start putting out everything we know about these things, Zelikow felt, the administration might well start a fire it couldn’t put out...”

Page 449: “The components and the training for (the IEDs) had more and more clearly been traced to Iran, one of the most troubling turns in the war.”

Page 474ß: “The radical Revolutionary Guards Corps had asked Hizbollah, the terrorist organization, to conduct some of the training of Iraqis to use the EFPs, according to U.S. Intelligence. If all this were put out publicly, it might start a fire that no one could put out...Second, if it were true, it meant that Iranians were killing American soldiers — an act of war..."

Big story?  Iran kills US soldiers?  Bush talks about negotiating with them.  Ledeen again:
“We’ve got a lot of issues with Iran.  The first is whether or not they will help this young democracy [Iraq] succeed.   "[The second issue is] whether Iran would help the Lebanese government."  "[The big issue is] whether or not Iran will end up with a nuclear weapon.”

Can Bush really believe Iran will help foster democracy next door?  A terrorist state run by Islamic revolutionaries seeking nukes will further US goals?  Probably not.  He has, on the fair evidence of it, been neutered on Iran by complete lack of serious support from "our allies."

So, where is the outrage from Bush critics?  Re negotiations, one is left with the old joke about the economist who tells his comrades, when trapped with them at the bottom of a deep pit, that getting out is a piece of cake.  "First, let's assume we have a ladder."

Index 10/30/06

6 posts: (1) Is Losing Iraq the End for USA?--Us v. Them; (2) Kiwi Collapse?--Weenie Watch; (3) From Russia, Less Love--"It's the Earth Stupid!"; (4) Guns: Message from Down Under--The Home Front; (5) France: Less Chance?--Weenie Watch; (6) Duke: Prosecutorial Grotesquerie--The Home Front.

Is Losing Iraq the End For USA?

No, says Gerard Baker of the Times of London.  Baker agrees with a recent remark by President Bush, that Iraq is a mere "comma" in the broader sweep of this war.  Baker believes that America's inability to quell a vicious insurgency merely shows anew what has long been known: large military forces have difficulty targeting deeply-rooted insurgencies.  Vietnam, writes Baker, inflicted more damage on American morale than will a defeat in Iraq.  Baker points to America's unquestioned economic dynamism--soaring GDP, growing (and relatively youthful) population and high turnover among dominant companies --only 2 of the original 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (GM and GE) are still in it.

At first blush, a reasonable argument.  Except that Baker does not account for Iran and the nuclear threat.  Beware of outright defeat in Iraq, which will surely emboolden Iran to take risks.

Kiwi Collapse?

The physician-author Theodore Dalrymple, whose practice involves treating underclass pathologies, making him without peer in spotting underclass dangers, filed a depressing report on his recent visit to New Zealand.  Seems that young thugs are running amok.  Worse, absurdly short prison sentences return them unconscionably soon to the communities they menace.  'Tis an ill wind that blows in Kiwi Land.

From Russia, Less Love

The BBC reports that Russia's population, now 145 million and already in decline, will have fallen by 2015 another 11 million, to 134 million; its 507,000 decline in the first 8 months of 2006 exceeded the entire 1999 drop.  Up to 75 percent of Russian women encounter "serious" medical problems during pregnancy, and 15 percent of couples are infertile.  Pathological behavior accounts for part of the decline, too.  Demographers set the population replacement rate at 2.1 births per couple; Russia's is 1.17, lower even than anywhere in Western Europe.  The are, it seems, (sadly) fewer Rachmaninoffs and (happily) fewer Stalins in the planet's future.

Guns: Message from Down Under

For those in the USA who think that "buy-back" programs reduce the use of firearms, news from Australia suggests precisely what common sense should dictate here: folks who voluntarily turn in firearms are not criminals, while criminals (surprise!) usually use unregistered guns.  In 1996, after a gun massacre that killed 35 and wounded 37 in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Aussie authorities passed a buy-back law; more than 600,000 firearms, mostly semi-automatics and pump-action shotguns, were purchased by the government.  Since then gun use has declined, but at a rate no different than the already existing decline prior to 1996.  Seems that 90 percent of crimes in which the bad guys use guns involve unregistered guns.  Seems that criminals do not bother to get licenses.  Not very obliging of them, is it?

France: Less Chance?

Apropos of Friday's LFTC posting re France's Muslim population not being as radicalized as in the UK, an NY Sun editorial is considerably less sanguine.  The Sun describes the ongoing riots in Muslim suburbs of Paris as a "permanent intifada" (Arabic for "shaking off").  Reading the article does not bring to mind the Paris of Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier and Brigitte Bardot.  (Piaf and Chevalier are decades gone; Brigitte is very much alive, though no spring chicken, and has been smacked several times by the authorities for protesting Muslim outrages in France.)

Duke: Prosecutorial Grotesquerie

The prosecutor in the highly-charged trial of three Duke University lacrosse players, accused of allegedly raping a woman has, incredibly, admitted to the trial judge--in court!--that he has yet to question the accuser!!!!  Isn't that where one starts????  Not, apparently, given a black female accuser and white male defendants.  P.C. rears its ugly head yet again.

Index 10/27/06

5 posts: (1) Iraq: Bush Backs Quisling--Us v. Them; (2) Muslim Integration: A Chance for France?--Weenie Watch; (3) Israel's Intel Success v. Hezbollah--Us v. Them; (4) 2006: End of a Political Era?--The Home Front; (5) 2008: End of America's Forty Years' Civil War?--The Home Front.

Iraq: Bush Backs Quisling

Count on soldier-author Ralph Peters for plain-speaking.  His latest column informs us that Peters turned pessimistic on Iraq last week, when the US, having captured a top deputy to thug-cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, released him at the insistence of Iraqi PM al-Maliki.  This shows that Iraq's PM is backing Sadr, and thus the most powerful Shi'a in Iraq is no longer the grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, pro-democracy and pro-US, but Sadr, pro-Iran.  We have allowed Iraqis to install a Quisling.  (Vidkun Quisling was the pro-Nazi stooge installed by Hitler in occupied Norway during World War II.)  Peters urges the US to kill Sadr and destroy his followers when they come out into the streets.  Give Peters (who is absolutely dead right) the last word:

"Our policy of all-carrots-no-sticks has failed miserably. We delivered Iraq to zealots, gangsters and terrorists. Now our only hope is to prove that we mean business - that the era of peace, love and wasting American lives is over.

"And after we've killed Muqtada and destroyed his Mahdi Army, we need to go after the Sunni insurgents. If we can't leave a democracy behind, we should at least leave the corpses of our enemies."

Muslim Integration: A Chance for France?

Matthew Kaminski, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe, offers a glimmer of optimism for France's ability to deal with Muslim immigrants: French Muslims are more likely than those in the UK to identify with country first, and French police pull no punches in dealing with terrorists.  They are much stricter than cops anywhere else in the Western world.  The French can lock up suspects without trial or even charging them.  No one cares.  Let the US try....

Israel's Intel Success v. Hezbollah

James Zumwalt, ex-Marine (and a son of former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo, one of the great heroes of the Cold War), reveals how Israeli intelligence learned of Hezbollah's having pre-positioned individual rocket launchers in designated civilian homes near the border.  When the war broke out this summer, Israeli jets were able to target the sites.  This generated much of the noise about Israel deliberately targeting civilians.  In fact, the homes were either pro-Hezbollah or commandeered by Hezbollah.  Israel was justified in targeting such homes, but the media coverage exacted a heavy price in damaging Israel's image.  Unfair, to be sure, but hark back to JFK's famous "Life is unfair" quip.

2006: End of a Political Era?

NY Times columnist David Brooks pronounces 2006 as the end of an era in American politics: the era of conservative dominance ushered in with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.   Brooks does not see an era of liberal dominance, as existed 1932-68 (FDR - LBJ), emerging.  Rather, he sees an era of stalemate, with neither party dominant, as was the case between 1968 and 1980.  In such times process an character issues come to the fore, especially as neither party has fresh ideas today.  This climate will, Brooks believes, favor "heterodox" figures like John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.  The environment is not favorable for orthodox figures like Hillary (with or without Botox--anyone for "Botox-Orthodox" as a category, for Hill and Kerry?)  Brooks notes that while identification with the Republican Party is falling, Democrats are not gaining; more folks reject both parties.

America's political center of gravity, which was the Northeast in the liberal era and the South in the conservative era, now becomes, Brooks writes, the Midwest and Far West.  Four problems will be front and center, with the Party that plausibly addresses them eventually gaining the upper hand: (1) the war against Islamism; (2) runaway entitlement spending; (3) integrating China and India into the world economy without undue domestic disruption from shifting trade patterns; and (4) increasing cognitive skills and cultural capital among the disadvantaged.

My piece below offers an alternative perspective.  But Brooks has done a lot with 700 words.

2008: End of America's 40 Years' Civil War?

Setting the Stage: The 36 Preceding Years (1932-1968).  The era of the (FDR) New Deal and (Truman) Fair Deal saw, as an LFTC reader once vouchsafed to me, a unification of media, cultural and political elites, united behind the Democratic Party.  Their beau ideal was actually Adlai Stevenson, whose philosophy was well to the left of FDR, Truman and JFK.  The elites saw themselves as uniquely blessed with the capacity--and the right--to govern--rather than leave governance to the masses, whom they thought unenlightened.  Popuulism to the elites meant sinister cartoon figures like Father Charles Coughlin (the anti-semitic rabble-rouser of the 1930s and 1940s) and Senator Joseph McCarthy (the scourge of the 1950s whose prime achievement was to discredit anti-Communism), or polarizing figures like Louisiana Governor Huey Long and Alabama Governor George Wallace.  The JFK assassination ushered in five years of chaos, as the old order collapsed.  And yes, my headings are the same as Winston Churchill's six WW-II volumes; I'm so fond of them that I cannot resist using them.

The Gathering Storm: 1968 - 1980
America is now beginning the 39th year of a 40-year culture conflict for control of America and its destiny. (Actually, the conflict will not end until the 41^st year, but if the Hundred Years War of medieval times could last 116 years [337-1453] 40 is “close enough for government work.”)   The roots of the war were planted in the 1960s, when the traditional and counterculture split emerged over war, riots, the pill; the free speech movement at UCLA symbolized the first stirrings of the coming conflict.  The first formal shot in the war was fired January 31, 1968, when Walter Cronkite turned against the Vietnam War as televised pictures of Viet sappers assaulting the US embassy compound in Saigon at the start of the Tet Offensive flashed on America's TV screens.  President Johnson announced March 31 that he would not run again.

The Mainstream Media (MSM's "Seven  Sisters" were ABC, CBS, NBC, The NY Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek) gathered strength during Richard Nixon’s presidency.  When Watergate gave MSM an opening, they brought down a second President.  To be fair, Nixon’s misdeeds merited removal from office, but MSM did not deserve its triumph, as several prior presidents had engaged in comparable misconduct (wiretaps, abuse of the IRS, cover-ups) without being driven from office.  MSM thus became convinced that they ran the country. And for a time they did, with 90 percent of viewers tuning in the Big Three news each night.
 
Their Finest Hour: 1980 - 1988
Ronald Reagan's 1980 win was made possible by Jimmy Carter's "Clouseau-Presidency;" MSM tried to save Carter by floating the idea that the job was too big for anyone.  Reagan's magnificent communication skills bypassed MSM--they would, however, have come to naught had he not pushed sound, big ideas--peace through strength, low-tax growth and respect for traditional American values.  Reagan brought to political power the conservative movement started by Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Meanwhile the Vietnam conflict fractured the Democratic Party 1968-1972.  MSM still set much of the agenda and greatly helped a Democratic House to frustrate many of Reagan's domestic goals.  In 1986-87 MSM almost destroyed Reagan over Iran/Contra, a scandal manufactured by Democrats in Congress in an attempt to criminalize foreign policy they opposed.  MSM made possible the "Borking" of Judge Robert Bork.  Realizing that Reagan created the prospect of an emerging Republican voting majority, liberals made Supreme Court nominations a battleground, aiming to wield power through the Justices.  Reagan led a coalition of the willing to victory in the Cold War, and made tax cuts and growth a Republican mantra. Reagan also put in place two policies with large consequences not appreciated at the time: creating 401k plans and abolishing the FCC's "Fairness Doctrine."  The former laid the foundation for an “ownership society,” as more voters became shareholders; the latter laid the foundation for the rise of talk radio.
 
The Grand Alliance: 1989 - 1999
Bush Senior interrupted the process.  Elected via Reaganesque themes, he governed like a traditional Republican--very much driven by MSM pressure to bargain with the Democrats in both houses of Congress.  Not a revolutionary, he feared break-up of the Soviet Empire and rejected dumping Saddam in 1991 even after Saddam torched the Kuwaiti oil fields.  The 1992 Republican convention and the fall campaign marked the formal joining of the culture war clash with MSM, as MSM realized economic issues would no longer alone suffice, after the Reagan years, to make voters vote Democrat.

Pat Buchanan's barnburner speech at the 1992 Republican Convention framed the culture war, and MSM made it look like all Republicans were right-wing extremists; add negative news on an economy that had been growing since April 1991 and Bush was toast.  Ross Perot elected Clinton, whom voters felt they could risk after the Cold war ended. Clinton was pushed back in 1994 when Hillary's socialist health care plan backfired; but Newt Gingrich's House revolution over-reached during the government shutdown (which Clinton engineered while MSM blamed Newt), and Clinton signed welfare reform and recovered.  HillaryCare's failure elected a Republican House (a massive 52-seat gain) and marked the death-knell for New Deal/Great Society expansion—Clinton famously said (not meaning it) that “the era of big government is over.”  Choice and opportunity supplanted security for many voters--especially baby boomers.   Saving Clinton from removal from office marked the end of a 25-year period of MSM ascendancy.  MSM could to some extent protect a Democratic President from his worst sins—not the hapless Carter, but a scandal-plagued Clinton enjoying the post-Cold War “peace dividend” and an economy on steroids.  No Republican President could have survived Whitewater, Filegate or Chinagate--the 1996 election fundraising scandal.

The Cold War ended, America entered its Party Decade and elected counterculture.  It was during the 1990s that culture surpassed economics as the defining benchmark of politics.  The prosperity of the 1990s, coupled with the passing of many Depression era voters, made the have/have-not divide less salient.  Global financial networks made capital more mobile, escaping unfriendly economic policies.  Walter Wriston's "Information Standard" imposed market discipline on government policy.  In the US share ownership rose from just over 20 percent in 1990 to surpass 50 percent by 2000—70 percent of registered voters.  Redistribution policy, so attractive to Depression-era voters, was dead.  Clinton surrendered economic policy to the markets, but his descent into scandal revitalized the culture conflict.

Meanwhile, alternative media flowered: talk radio, cable, local tv news going increasingly national/global in coverage, ! competing with the national networks and the Internet.  The web of communications networking gave rise to a new transnational elite, while in America there arose 2.5 nations: Entitlement America, Ownership America & Elite America.  EA are government largess recipients; OA are workers and investors; EA are entertainers, academics and media types.   With the passing of Depression voters, Elites needed something to replace New Deal/Great Society ideas as their intellectual foundation; they found it in multilateral transnational governance--EU fiat transplanted to institutions controlled by the global cosmopolitan elite.  The UN, courts and bureaucracies--all unelected--became their implementing institutions--including subordinating the US Constitution to international legal norms crafted by the international Left.  Vast wealth and MSM adulation separated this Elite to an unprecedented degree from the rest of us--entertainers lived like plutocrats, insulated from real life to a far greater degree than their more talented predecessors.  Their insulation was not simply economic but cultural--no longer need they even pretend to be like their adulatory audiences.

The Hinge of Fate: 2000 – 2004
Florida 2000 became a war zone, as Democrats sought a selective manual recount in four state counties, where friendly Democratic operatives could gin up enough votes to put gore in office.  Courtesy of adult supervision by the US Supreme Court the attempt failed.  But it came close enough to enrage activists on both sides.  This made partisan political warfare inevitable.  The Democrats fired the first shot, getting Republican Senator James Jeffords of Vermont to switch to Independent, leaving the Democrats with a 51-49-1 edge in the Senate.  Bush 43 looked neutered for four years, but the atrocities of September 11 intervened, transforming the political landscape.

Still, the Iraq War gave Bush 43’s enemies an opening.  Elites, enraged by the 2000 election crisis, launched an all-out war, aiming to ensnare America in a UN-led world European-style government.  OA resisted.  But the Elites over-reached with their own “Gingrich Moment”: Massachusetts judges imposed gay marriage, triggering massive resistance among OA's Evangelicals.  Meanwhile, 9/11 transformed Bush from a President of dubious legitimacy to a war leader, giving him stature to resist Elite assaults.

Closing the Ring: 2005 - 2008
2004 was the first election in the TV Age when MSM did not set the agenda and filter candidate responses; too many alternative channels were available.  Bloggers tanked several major news stories, most notably, Dan Rather’s story asserting Bush did not complete his National Guard service, a story based upon forged documents.  CBS knew they might be forged and knew that their source was a Bush 43-hater, but CBS went ahead anyway, believing that it could not be taken down.  The were to learn how wrong they were. Reagan’s opening up of the media airspace had spawned vigorous alternative media.

MSM rarely touched values issues, and when they did they disparaged them.  2004 thus was a big win for Ownership America and defeat for the Elites & Entitlement segments.  The 2004 election was a massive repudiation of Elite's campaign of vitriol and mendacity against Bush (his WMD fiasco opened the door) and moral intimidation against Evangelicals.
 
Triumph—and Tragedy? - Campaign 2008
Which all sets the stage for 2008: The Last Battle.  The transnational elites will nominate their Penthiselia-on-the Hudson (the original was legendary queen of the Amazons, as told in The Aeneid).  The modern Pentheselia will sally forth, fabulously funded by the Elites. If she wins she may simply prove an interregnum, provided Bush puts enough ownership reforms in place and Republicans keep House. Democrats still face huge problem: their core groups--blacks, feminists, public employee unions, trial lawyers and entertainers--are far more intolerant of straying from the true path than the Evangelicals they despise, who fit into the big Republican tent.  She will not have MSM dominance.  Who then will sally forth to take on the warrior queen?  Strongest of the OA warriors, Arnold the Barbarian, cannot do so, his able constitution being Constitutionally disabled.  Rudy of York?  If war is the top issue, yes.  Prince Jeb?  Look for him if cultural and ! Hispanic issues dominate--Florida is a key state again in 2008. A new champion yet unknown?  If Penthiselia triumphs, the conflict expands to 50 Years War (47, rounded up).

And so 2008 beckons: "Cry havoc, and let slip (once more) the dogs of war!" Julius Caesar," Act III, Scene 1.)

Index 10/26/06

4 posts: (1) Airport Security: France Cracks Down--Weenie Watch; (2) Islam's Veil: More Views--The Home Front; (3) Somalia Stirs; We Sleep--Us v. Them; (4) Barone on Bush--The Home Front.

Airport Security: France Cracks Down

Michelle Malkin's blog informs us that French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy had 43 airport employees with access to secure areas of Charles DeGaulle Airport arrested.  All were Muslim, and all had radical connections.  The usual suspects protested, to no avail.  Score one for La France.

Islam's Veil: More Views

NRO posted a mini-symposium on whether America should countenance the wearing of the veil by Muslim women.  Alone among the contributors, William Bennett said we should do so, based upon First Amendment "free exercise" freedom.  But as Andy McCarthy, prosecutor of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, and Islam expert Daniel Pipes note, the veil (not mentioned in the Qur'an) not only is a symbol of separation from Western society; it is also a barrier to security.  In a society menaced by the possibility of WMD terrorism, everyone's face must be visible.  Facial visibility is essential when appearing in court, as well.  An exception can be made for those suffering from extreme facial disfigurement, who otherwise may have difficulty appearing in public at all; even they must be visible at security checkpoints and in the courtroom.

Somalia Stirs; We Sleep

Terrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross sounds the alarm on Islamist terror in Somalia, one of Africa's worst failed states.  in June an Islamist group called the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) seized power in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.  The ICU's name makes it sound like a bunch of terrorist lawyers; as lawyers can make excellent terrorists the potential for confusion is understandable.  The ICU's grip on Somalia has spread.  One terrorist working hand in glove with the ICU is one of the leaders behind the August 7, 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), that killed over 200 and wounded some 5,000.  There are now 17 terrorist training camps in the country.  Neighbors Ethiopia and Kenya are concerned.  A key US task force is based in nearby Djibouti.

Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, is where the US lost 18 killed and 75 wounded in futile pursuit of warlord Muhammad Farah Aideed, in 1993.  That ignominious episode--ignominious for the Clinton Administration, not as to the heroic performance of our military, which was outnumbered and out-gunned in battle--was a key motivator for Osama's desire to attack American targets.  We looked like  a "weak horse" on the run from Osama's "strong horse."

We got in that mess because the original humanitarian mission undertaken in the closing days of the Bush 41 Administration was transformed under President Clinton.  Upon being importuned by the then-Secretary-General of the UN, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Clinton agreed to help UN troops catch Muhammad Farah Aideed, after Aideed's fighters ambushed and killed 24 Pakistani UN troops in June 1993.  That attack was a bow-shot to the UN not to intervene in the warlord wars.  Clinton stepped in, but declined to heed JCS Chairman Colin Powell's advice to send tanks, fearing the political implications back home.  Hence our troops were overwhelmed, upon which Clinton retreated.  Osama took note.

It hardly seems beyond the capacity of the US to destroy the 17 terrorist training camps.  We should do so, forthwith.

Barone on Bush

Ace political pundit Michael Barone and a number of other heavyweight pundits met with the President in the Oval Office yesterday.  His report shows a President comfortable with his view that 25 years from now his war against terrorism and Islamofascism will be well received.  The president, it seems, greatly admires Winston Churchill.  Good taste.

Index 10/25/06

6 posts: (1) Iraq: 7 Options; One Non-Starter--Us v. Them; (2) Hungary: 50 Years Later--Us v. Them; (3) Euro-Islam's Veil of Darkness--Weenie Watch; (4) Gaza Volcano--Us v. Them; (5) Darfur: Death By Diplomacy?--Us v. Them; (6) Subsidizing Mayhem--The Home Front.

Iraq: 7 Options; One Non-Starter

AEI has posted the Eliot Cohen article I referred to in LFTC yesterday, with 7 options.  Cohen's discussion of the options is well worth a look.  NRO editor Rich Lowry labels "stay the course" a non-starter; voters, Lowry writes, want "adapt to win."  Lowry is, I think, right.

Hungary: 50 Years Later

October 23 marked the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, one that infamously was brutally suppressed by the Soviet Union.  The Wall Street Journal printed a poignant memoir by a Hungarian.  John O'Sullivan, former adviser to Lady Thatcher and now wearing a hat at the Hudson Institute, credits the Hunngarian uprising with opening eyes in the West, that otherwise would have remained shut, as to the perils of socialism.  David Pryce-Jones, a keen analyst, wrote a brief piece that marked the revolution as proof that totalitarian Communism was fated to fail in its efforts to win over the human heart.  He quotes the great diplomat Robert Murphy, who said then: “Perhaps history will demonstrate that the free world could have intervened to give Hungarians the liberty they sought, but none of us in the State Department had the skill or the imagination to devise a way.”

I was a lad of 9 when Hungary was crushed under the Soviet jackboot.  Its meaning did not register with me until, some six years later, I read James Michener's riveting 1958 novel, The Bridge at Andau.  Michener taught me, in my youth, that Communism, no matter how fancily dressed up, was a brutal system, whose extinction would be a boon to the human race.  I was 14 when the abomination that came to be called the Berlin Wall was erected, and remember photos of a young man who lay dying for three days, enmeshed in barbed wire.  I was 21 when the Prague Spring of 1968 was suppressed, fortunately without violence comparable to 1956.

Some 200,000 Hungarians, many among the best and brightest, fled Hungary in 1956.  One refugee was an 18-year-old who took the name Andrew Grove; Grove wound up as CEO of Intel and led the company to its greatest heights.   Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty took refuge in the American embassy, living there for 15 years, until he was allowed to leave the country.

It was an exodus from Hungary that in 1989 triggered the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.  General Secretary Gorbachev, to his eternal credit, did not reprise the 1956 suppression; instead his spokesman, Gennady Gerasimov, told Americans that his country had adopted for Eastern Europe the "Frank Sinatra 'My Way' Doctrine."  I visited Budapest in 1992 and a second time this past summer.  Despite the ravages of several 20th century wars, and the soulless Soviet architecture inflicted upon her, Budapest is a city of great charm, its people lovely and charming in equal measure.  As I write there are riots anew in Budapest: the Prime Minister has been caught lying to win an election, and people are furious.  This time the confrontation will be settled without artillery and tanks.

Let Pryce-Jones have the final say.  He links Hungary 1956 to Iraq 2006, noting that the last message sent by radio from beleaguered Hungary was a playwright's cry: "Help Hungary.  Help!":

"The problem may change geographical location, but not its essence. What’s to be done about tyranny? 'Help Iraq. Help!' is the message that Iraqi bloggers are putting out more and more urgently. This time the free world indeed intervened to give people their liberty, and again the State Department seems to lack the skill and imagination needed for devising the way to realize it. The Hungarian revolution marked the moment when the inhumanity of Communism was shown up as unbearable, and its doom therefore certain one day. Events in Iraq mark the moment when the inhumanity of Arab and Muslim political order is shown up as unbearable. A day of reform will come, and then the free world can take pride that it did more than show a well-meaning but futile heart."

Euro-Islam's Veil of Darkness

Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum offers a fresh perspective on the question of whether votaries of Islam should be allowed to wear the veil.  In private, it's their free choice.  But in public, they should be required to follow Western ("When in Rome....) custom.  Getting a job as a school teacher or doctor is not a right; thus employment can be conditioned upon removal of the veil.  Applebaum recalls that in her 20s she visited a temple in Bali, wearing shorts; she was told that she was not dressed properly and could not go in.  Applebaum recalls: "I dutifully purchased a Balinese sarong and, looking awkward and foreign, wore it while visiting temples. I didn't want to cause offense."

She then states that while Muslims are entitled, in Muslim venues, to insist on certain signs of respect, they ought to defer to Western customs in Western countries--respect is a two-way street.  Entering a mosque, even in the West, requires conservative dress; this is reasonable, no different than Jews requiring that everyone who enters s synagogue don a skullcap.  Tom Bethell sees secular humanism and population decline in Europe undermining Christianity; he sees Islam on the march.  It is these challenges--daunting indeed--that Pope Benedict XVI is trying to rouse his fellow Europeans to meet, before it is too late.  Alas, it may already be too late.

Gaza Volcano

WSJ editor Bret Stephens updates the mess in Gaza.  A civil war between Fatah and Hamas seems inevitable, as epic amounts of armaments are being smuggled in.  The IDF Chief of Staff says that the Palestinians are building an underground city to store weapons and munitions in support of an attack on Israel.  Look at the bright side: It's nice to know that the Palestinians can build something.  Consider it an example of Paelstinian urban renewal.

A pure civil war would suit Israel fine, as the two factions would simply slaughter one another.  But the Israelis fear a reprise of the Lebanon conflict in August, and cannot afford that.  They thus plan a major ground operation to prevent a repeat of their summer embarrassment at the hands of Hezbollah.  Meanwhile, Hosni Mubarak has cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, canceling elections the MB seems likely to win; MB supports (and is supported by) Hamas, and both groups are a threat to Mubarak's continued rule in Egypt.

Yet another orgy of Mideast violence in the mess that is the Arab world.

Darfur: Death By Diplomacy?

Columnist and historian Max Boot proposes hiring mercenaries to stop the genocide in Darfur.  Might possibly work.  We know what will not work: diddling diplomacy at the UN.  LFTC has not written about Darfur before, because its tragedy is partly one of being peripheral due to its geographic remoteness and lack of connection to the global war against Islamofascism.  But the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there should not be ignored.  The UN nabobs do not care, anymore than they cared about Rwanda in 1994, when Kofi Annan ignored pleas from his ground commander, Canada's stalwart General Romeo Dallaire, to let him send his troops to stop the killing.  Just because the UN does not care does not mean we should feel likewise.  Violence and death in Darfur will be stopped by force, if at all.

Subsidizing Mayhem

George Will shreds the rationales given for tax breaks enjoyed by collegiate athletics programs, most notably for football and basketball.  Given the recruitment of touchdown thugs masquerading as students the idea that the federal government gives such folks tax advantages is mind-boggling.  Yet another reason for a flat tax.

Index 10/24/06

1 post: Iraq: More Views--Us v. Them.

Iraq: More Views

As our tab in Iraq approaches $400 billion, here are some more views to consider.  Jed Babbin, always worth a read, warns in a TAS piece that our backing a coup in Iraq could backfire and put pro-Iran thug-cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in charge.  Babbin harks back to the last coup we engineered, that of Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam in 1963; after Diem there never was a stable South Vietnamese government, a key factor in America's defeat there.  Michael Yon, a writer and photographer who was embedded for months in Iraq, writes in The Weekly Standard that military censorship in Iraq deprives Americans of essential news as to how the war is going.  Robert Kaplan argues that even a partial US withdrawal from Iraq could lead to the civil war escalating into genocidal war, an outcome he considers more dangerous than a nuclear Iran, because it will alienate Sunni Arab regimes from Morocco to Pakistan.  Fareed Zakharia takes the contrary position: He sees our last chance as telling the Iraqi government that we will withdraw unless the government gets its act together.

British historian Niall Ferguson says that 300 million Americans cannot rule 30 million Iraqis nearly as well as 46 million Britons ruled over 375 million a century ago.  Ferguson gives three reasons: America's financial deficit, manpower deficit and attention deficit.  He is right on two out of three; the financial deficit is an irrelevancy, as we are a vastly wealthy country and as wars are almost always more expensive than one anticipates, and thus nearly always involve deep indebtedness.  In the event, Ferguson sees another Vietnam, and our withdrawal in defeat as inevitable.

John Tierney diagnoses in his NY Times column that the real problem is that Iraqis put clan first, then religious sect, both before any concept of national obligation.  Tierney says that maximum power be devolved to locals, that they may settle differences without reference to a national ideal or governing authority.  Former senior State Department official Richard Holbrooke proposes that US troops withdraw to Kurdistan and try to broker some form of settlement, whilst reigning in Kurdish support for Kurds inside Turkey.  Former State Department official Leslie Gelb and Senator Joseph Biden have a plan for three largely autonomous regions, with US troops withdrawing to the periphery of Iraq over an 18-month period, and bringing in neighboring countries whom, they believe, will do so to prevent chaos from continuing inside Iraq, lest it spread.

But let Micheae Barone have the last word, from the end of his latest column on the election.  Barone, noting that voters seem on the verge of handing over power in Congress to the Democrats, a party that has no serious platform as to how to win the war, ends his column with a quote attributed to the Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky: "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."

Index 10/23/06

3 posts: (1) Euro-Islam, Ostrich & Owl--Weenie Watch; (2) Hezbollah Video: Not "I Love Lucy"--Us v. Them; (3) Iraq: Sea-Change in the Wind?--Us v. Them.

Hezbollah Video: Not "I Love Lucy"

Posted on YouTube, forwarded to me by a regular LFTC reader is a Hezbollah video that is simply chilling: elementary school kids being brainwashed to love Hezbollah above all; parents expressing joy that their son blew himself up; and Hezbollah chief Sheik Nasrallah addressing a crowd in Lebanon, sounding eerily like Hitler himself.  Watch it and be reminded of the existential threat we face.

Euro-Islam, Ostrich & Owl

Ayan Hirsi Ali is African born, a former Dutch citizen who now resides in the US, having fled Holland after receiving death threats when she protested the murder of Theo van Gogh by one of her co-religionists.  She has penned a riveting LA Times op-ed in which she sketches two alternative visions of Europe's future re Islamic residents: ostrich (sees no threat) and owl (sees mortal threat).  She proposes a hybrid version combining both views.  I am not sanguine, but her piece definitely merits a read.

Iraq: Sea-Change in the Wind?

Mideast maven Amir Taheri reports that life goes on despite disruptions in Iraq, and that leading Sunni & Shi'a clerics are planning to issue a declaration condemning terrorist acts as anathema to Islam; this, if done, would be the first major attempt at Sunni - Shi' a reconciliation since 1947.  Washington Times editor Diana West argues that an Iraq sectarian civil war will distract then from exporting violence; she also adopted the Korea analogy as a model (a theme which LFTC posted Friday).

Eliot Cohen a top defense analyst, writes in the WSJ that there must be a Plan B or else failure is a matter of time.   He offers seven options: (1) seek help from regional enemies; (2) withdraw now; (3) double the bet by increasing troop strength; (4) withdraw to secure bases and let the war run its course; (5) increase counter-insurgency training; (6) install a non-radical thug; (7) break-up into three entities.  Cohen regards all as "either wretched or based on fantasy."  He picks Option #6, but warns that (a) the enemy has a vote, too, and (b) that American prestige is damaged until, in some other conflict, we can exercise military power to more felicitous result.

George Will poses four questions: (1) What can be achieved with 140,000 troops that cannot be done with 40,000?  (2) Is there a viable Iraqi government?  (3) What limits on the result arise from the character of the Iraqi people as we now know it?   (4) Are there viable forms of representative government short of full democracy, that might be implemented?  Will suggests that the Iraq Study Group, whose report is due November 26, may perform the same function for the last two years of  Bush II that the Tower Commission did during Iran-contra in Reagan's last two years.

Sorting through this maze of options and proposals leads me to vote for: (1) a thug takeover; (2) partition in all name, under the rubric of a raised federalism-based constitution that dispenses with national party-list representation; (3) confronting Iran more forcefully than we have done.

Index 10/20/06

4 posts: (1) Kim's Test: Thermonuclear Trigger?--Us . Them; (2) Islam in Europe: Brits Wake up: Belgians Hit Snooze Alarm; (3) Iraq = KOREA--Us v. Them; (4) Steroid Economy II--"It's the Earth Stupid!"

Kim's Test: Thermonuclear Trigger?

Last week LFTC carried a story about how even a puny A-test could prove hugely dangerous, were it used as a trigger for an H-bomb.  Comes now a Weekly Standard piece that takes up this theme.  As LFTC noted last week, a monster H-bomb could be produced.  An H-bomb quest would explain why the North chose to use plutonium rather than enriched uranium as weapons material.  The latter requires merely a gun-trigger, whereas the former requires a complex symmetrical implosion trigger.  Only the implosion trigger can produce an H-bomb detonation.  Stay tuned.

Islam in Europe: Brits Wake Up; Belgians Hit Snooze Alarm

Daniel Johnson's latest column in the New York Sun recounts how British leaders are, however, slowly and painstakingly, rousing themselves to confront radical Islam and multicultural P.C. in Britain.  A fortnight after Jack Straw, Labor's Leader in the House of Commons, spoke out against the veil, Tony Blair followed suit.  The radical Islamic types responded, predictably, with cries of "Islamophobia."  Any activist group that uses the "-phobia" phrase shows its true colors: It is a term intended to intimidate, to shut down debate and place critics of radical Islam on the defensive.  It must be strenuously resisted at all times.  A TAS piece offers more examples.  Some are encouraging: the Archbishop of Canterbury coming out against multiculturalism.  But some are discouraging: the Queen, of all people, setting aside for an Islamic employee an Islamic prayer room in...Windsor Castle, for which foolish kindness she was repaid by a Muslim riot in the town of Windsor a few days later.

Things are not so stirred up--yet--in Belgium.  An NRO article informs us that in the recent elections voters boosted support for far-rightist parties because they, unlike the flaccid center parties, are challenging the illiberal Islamic forces within Belgium.  If moderates default, voters will increasingly turn toward the hard right, as they deeply and angrily resent illiberal Islamism's assault on their society and values.

Iraq = KOREA

NRO's Jonah Goldberg says in an Los Angeles Times op-ed that the Iraq War was a mistake, and that knowing in 2003 what we know now re absence of WMD and presence of a vicious insurgency, we would not have gone in.  He proposes that we ask the Iraqis to vote on whether we should stay.  If the locals answer in the affirmative, we have a mandate; if they answer in the negative, we can depart "with honor."

Would that the Iraq mess were so simple.  To be sure, the Administration would not have gone in, given 20-20 foresight, nor would Congress (either party) have voted for the mess we now find ourselves in.  We are, in a nutshell, "up to our a** in alligators, in a very fetid swamp.  Besides the butcher's bill in thousands of dead and wounded, we have flushed a few hundred billion dollars down the toilet and severely roiled alliance relations in Europe (mostly Europe's fault).

Worst of all, the least-bad possible result we might obtain, with pluck and luck, is a stalemate.  Goldberg's belief that being voted out would enable us to leave with heads held high is a pipe dream.  Our exit would still be ignominious and shatter what is left of America's prestige and credibility.  Reports filtering out of various sources say that the Iraq Study Group, co-headed by James Baker (White House Chief of Staff in the first Reagan term and Treasury Secretary in the second, then Secretary of State under Bush the Elder)and Lee Hamilton ( a top foreign policy point man for Democrats when he served in Congress in the 1980s and early 1990s), are mulling over three options; each constitutes a major change of course.  The options are: (1) phased withdrawal of American troops to peripheral staging areas outside Iraq; (2) de facto partition of Iraq, save for a common foreign policy, with oil revenues being shared--the plan long favored by Senator Jospeh Biden; (3) a US-backed coup that installs a Baathist, probably former interim PM Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'a, as strongman.

The model for Iraq is not--at least, not yet--Vietnam, but Korea.  True, in 1950 we went in under the diplomatic aegis of a duly authorized UN "police action"; but that happened only because Moscow made a one-time mistake of boycotting the Security Council, and thus was not present to cast what would have been a certain veto.  Also, in 1950 the North launched a surprise attack on the South, whereas in 2003 we launched a pre-emptive strike against Saddam, ISO WMD.  But here the parallel is to 1990 - 1991: Saddam invaded Kuwait, taking the world by surprise much as Kim Il-Sung did in 1950; and the 1991 Gulf War response was a 28-nation coalition under the aegis of an enabling UN resolution.  The Gulf War was thus, if not so named, a "police action" akin to Korea.

In 2003 France did not repeat Moscow's diplomatic blunder.  But three parallels are haunting: (1) Just as in 1950 MacArthur's Inchon masterstroke got US forces up to the Yalu at lightning speed, so in 2003 Tommy Franks's cavalry stormed into Baghdad in record time.  (2) Just as in 1950 China launched a massive counter-attack across the Yalu, that sent American forces reeling all the way back to the Pusan perimeter in the south, so in 2003 Iran launched a major counter-stroke through pro-Iranian militias.  (3) Just as the result was protracted stalemate in Korea, 1951-1953, so in Iraq we've seen a stand-off, once the insurgency gathered steam, for 2004-2006.

The toll in Korea led to electoral change in 1952 (Eisenhower) and 1954 (Democrats took the House for what proved to be 40 years),  In 2006 and 2008 electoral change may well be brought about by the Iraq stalemate.  We are still dealing with the consequences of failing to liberate the North 50+ years ago, in the form of a nuclear-armed rogue state.  Failure to get a better result in Iraq could well leave us facing a nuclear Iran emboldened by our failure to win.  Iran, however, will be far more dangerous than North Korea.  It is more than a rogue state.  It is a revolutionary power.  Rogues may disrupt the international order, but they do not seek its overthrow; revolutionary powers seek precisely that.  Therein lies the greatest danger for the West.

Steroid Economy II

George Will's latest column provides more evidence of how spectacularly the economy is performing: better than the preceding decades as to growth and employment.  Oil prices are well below the record of $92 in 2006 dollars set in 1980; a new offshore well in the gulf of Mexico has hit a 15 billion barrel treasure trove, increasing known US reserves by 50 percent.  Yet there is much doom and gloom re the economy, about which Will, with his matchless tart prose, labels "economic hypochondria":

"Economic hypochondria, a derangement associated with affluence, is a byproduct of the welfare state: An entitlement mentality gives Americans a low pain threshold -- witness their recurring hysteria about nominal rather than real gasoline prices -- and a sense of being entitled to economic dynamism without the frictions and "creative destruction" that must accompany dynamism. Economic hypochondria is also bred by news media that consider the phrase "good news" an oxymoron, even as the U.S. economy, which has performed better than any other major industrial economy since 2001, drives the Dow to record highs."

One added note: Yesteday, when the Dow closed for the first time above 12,000, marked the 19th anniversary of Black Monday, the stock market crash of 1987, when the Dow plummeted 508 points, from 2,246 to 1,738, a 22.6 percent drop.  Yesterday's close represents a more than five-fold increase over the pre-crash close in 1987, and a seven-fold jump over the post-crash close.  The WSJ Editorial Report this weekend plans to discuss, among other things, what it now calls the "Dangerfield Economy"--a reference to the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield's tag line: "I don't get no respect!"

Index 10/19/06

5 posts: (1) Hillary--No Hillary--MSM Murders; (2) Top Cop: No MI5 for USA--9/11, 3/11 & N/11; (3) Values Suicide--Us v. Them; (4) Bypassing the Straits of Hormuz--"It's the Earth Stupid!"; (5) TSA Targeted--At Last!--9/11, 3/11 & N/11.

Hillary: No Hillary

The truth is out, at long last!  Hillary has 'fessed up to a favorite Rodham family whopper, one repeated by Bill in his 2004 pseudo-auto-bio: Hillary's mom did not name her daughter after Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.  Hillary now says that she had always thought this to be true.  That could only be the case if Hill, born in 1947, did not know that Sir Edumnd Hillary's fame dates from shortly after his May 29, 1953 conquest of Everest (coincidentally, JFK's 36th b'day).  That, to be sure, is possible.  But where have the famously skeptical media folks been these past 14 years--that is, since Hillary burst onto the national stage in that famous "two for the price of one" TV interview after the 1992 Super Bowl?  Could any Republican get away with a fib like this for 14 years?

Top Cop: No MI5 for USA

Supercop William Bratton, now LAPD chief and formerly Rudy Giuliani's first NYPD chief, says that FBI cooperation with police forces works well enough so that America need not form a domestic intelligence equivalent to Britain's MI5.  According to Bratton, the argument that the FBI's culture is too law-enforcement driven and not intel-driven is simply wrong.  I had favored creation of an MI5, but if the  best cop in Dodge City says things are working, better not to create a new layer of bureaucracy.  Bratton details how LAPD cooperates re intel with the FBI.  It's good reading.  Lifting the outrageous consent decree forced by the Clinton Administration on LAPD after the Rodney King riots would give Bratton added--and much needed--freedom of action.

Values Suicide

Ralph Peters reads the military's new counter-insurgency manual and sees P.C. hard at work--hardly a mention of religious fanaticism.  The manual's authors are, Peters notes, infatuated with T. E. Lawrence, whose exploits were vastly over-hyped into an entertaining, if thoroughly mendacious, movie in 1962.  Writes Peters:

"On the surface, the doctrine appears sober and serious. But it's morally frivolous and intellectually inert, a pathetic rehashing of yesteryear's discredited 'wisdom' on counterinsurgencies and, worst of all, driven by a stalker-quality infatuation with T.E. Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia,' who not only was a huckster of the first order, but whose 'revolt in the desert' was a near-meaningless sideshow of a sideshow.

"Lawrence is quoted repeatedly, with reverence. We might as well cite the British generals of the Great War who sent men over the top in waves to face German machine guns.

"You can trust two kinds of officers: Those who read a great deal and those who don't read at all. But beware the officer who reads just a little and falls in love with one book. A little education really is a dangerous thing."

Peters sums up: " We discount the value of ferocity - as a practical tool and as a deterrent. But war's immutable law - proven yet again in Iraq - is that those unwilling to pay the butcher's bill up front will pay it with compound interest in the end."

We ignore Peters at our peril.

Bypassing the Straits of Hormuz

Henry Sokolski, non-proliferation nonpareil, explains how we can bypass the Straits of Hormuz (the bottleneck entry point for shipping Mideast oil into the Persian Gulf) for nearly all the oil the West imports.  Worth reading.  But: Have we enough time?  Probably not, if we wish to stop Iran from going nuclear.  Had we not let the Europeans practice "dither diplomacy" for 5 years, the story might have been different.

TSA Targeted--At Last!

Airport workers are being targeted--at long last!  Read all about it.  TSA has spent five yeears cracking down, like a ton of bricks, on Australian grand-moms.  Now, TSA--FINALLY!--has a lucid moment.

Index 10/18/06

6 posts: (1) Wynn-Breaker--Cyber-Serendip; (2) Can Ignorance Win Wars?--The Home Front; (3) Iraq's 2006 Tet; Egypt Hosts Axis Sally; (4) Deterrence Dilemmas--Us v. Them; (5) Iraqi Christians Flee--Us v. Them; (6) Our Economy on Steroids--"It's the Earth Stupid!"

Wynn-Breaker

Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn has committed the ultimate "Oops!".  It seems that Wynn, having paid $48.4M for Picasso's "Le Reve" ("the dream") painting featuring Picasso's mistress Marie-Therese Walter, had contracted to sell it for the princely sum of $139M, which would have been a record sum (by $4M) for a painting.  Then he did it.  Gesturing laterally while near the Picasso, Wynn, whose peripheral vision has been narrowed by illness, plunked a silver-dollar size hole in the canvas.  So much for the sale; Wynn will now keep the painting, whose aesthetic value to him surely will not have been enhanced by this memory.