Monthly Archives: March 2003

March 30, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Was it three field goals and a safety or four field goals and a missed PAT?

On the other hand, some of what I hear about the war on television strikes me as just plain funny. A few hours ago, I heard one of those retired Generals say that the war is like a football game that’s in the second quarter and we’re winning 32-0. »
March 30, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Witch hunt, liberal style

Commentators on several networks have started pointing fingers at Bush Adminsitration “officials” who predicted that the going in Iraq would be easy. Putting aside the fact that these predictions cannot yet said to be erroneous, the individuals accused of making them are not Administration officials. One is Ken Adelman who apparently used the term “cakewalk” in an article written more than a year ago. To my knowledge, Adelman holds no »
March 30, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Whose miscalculation?

One criticism we’re hearing of the war effort is that we didn’t send enough troops to Iraq initially. The fact that we’re sending more now is presented by some as indisputable evidence of miscalcualtion by the Admnistration. It is certainly possible that the Adminstration miscalculated. However, to me it seems more likely that it calculated wisely. There was always a good chance that Iraqi resistance would be limited to the »
March 30, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Point taken, Trunk

When I described the status of the Afghans at Guantanamo Bay as “complicated,” I was giving Kinsley the benefit of the doubt. Thanks for taking the time to research the issue, so as to remove that doubt. Rocket Man, I agree with you that the battle for hearts and minds that matters is the one that will be waged here at home. The important Democrats naturally aren’t saying much now. »
March 30, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Race Discrimination Under Attack

We have been focused mostly on the war lately, but there are interesting developments on other fronts. The New York Times has an encouraging report on race discrimination in education. Two civil rights groups, the Center for Equal Opportunity and the American Civil Rights Institute, are about to file lawsuits against thirty colleges and universities to stop race discrimination in connection with various “awards and academic enrichment programs.” Some universities »
March 30, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Franks Briefs Press; Press Remains Skeptical

In a press briefing today, General Tommy Franks responded angrily to criticism of his army’s progress to date, and denied published reports that he requested more troops but was turned down by Secretary Rumsfeld. The Associated Press wasn’t fooled, however. Its lead paragraph noted that Franks “sidestepped” a question about whether the war might last into the summer. Franks replied, “One never knows how long a war will take.” »
March 30, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Speaking of Hearts and Minds…

…the main battle going on is for the hearts and minds of Americans, specifically in the context of the 2004 elections. The Democrats are hard at work, trying to portray the war as a failure so as to deprive the President of credit for his anticipated victory. Today’s New York Times features an article by R.W. Apple titled “Bush’s Peril: Shifting Sand and Fickle Opinion.” Apple poses the question: “Is »
March 30, 2003 — Scott Johnson

War on many fronts

Michael Kelly is an excellent editor, columnist and reporter. Now with with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, his reports are mandatory reading. His column this morning is “Limited war, so far.” On the home front, we have Mark Steyn to help us keep our eye on the big picture and to keep our morale up: “Believe it or not, we’re winning.” Steyn reviews the media’s hysterical performance regarding Iraq »
March 30, 2003 — John Hinderaker

“War Crimes” At Guantanamo Bay

Great series of posts last night, guys. The Kinsley column equating our purportedly “illegal” treatment of detainees with Saddam’s war crimes is vintage Kinsley–clever but fundamentally stupid. This ties in with the Michelle Malkin column I linked to yesterday, which quoted several detainees describing their own treatment: “[N]early all of the former detainees enthusiastically praised the conditions at Guantanamo and expressed little bitterness about losing a year of their lives »
March 29, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Kinsley’s Friday column is tied for worst

Deacon, I’ve been looking at the legal issues related to our detention of the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. As I understand it, if we have properly classified the prisoners under the applicable criteria as “enemy combatants” rather than as “prisoners of war,” we are treating them within the bounds of international law. If they should rather be classified as “prisoners of war,” we may not be treating them »
March 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Friday’s second worst Washington Post op-ed

is this piece by Michael Kinsley. The column makes the left’s point du jour that we lack standing to complain about Saddam Hussein’s violations of international law (which he dishonestly implies are limited to things like showing photographs of prisoners of war) because we ourselves feel free to ignore international law. But Kinsley fails to point to any action we have taken against Saddam Hussein that violates international law. He »
March 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Hearts, minds and mindlessness

Shortly after posting the piece by Shibley Telhami, I heard Professor Telhami on local radio intoning that the U.S. is losing the battle for the “hearts and minds” of Arabs each day that we wage war against Saddam. If we are fighting a battle for hearts and minds, then we deserve to lose it. The war against Islamofascism should no more be a battle for the hearts and minds of »
March 29, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Fixing to fix one thing

It is very difficult for an outsider to write the worst Washington Post op-ed on a Friday because the columns of E.J. Dionne and Michael Kinsley appear that day. However, Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland and the Brookings Institution accomplished this feat yesterday (aided, to be sure, by the fact that Dionne’s piece was a tribute to Daniel Patrick Moynihan). Telhami attacks “the prevailing view in Washington that »
March 29, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Thank Goodness for Experts

The headline on an Associated Press story: “Experts: Saddam Trying to Prolong War.” We appreciate that insight. »
March 29, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Iraqis Welcome U.S. Soldiers

A nice story: “Iraqi civilians fleeing heavy fighting [in central Iraq] have stunned and delighted hungry US marines by giving them food. “‘They had slaughtered lambs and chickens and boiled eggs and potatoes for their journey out of the frontlines,’ [a Marine sergeant] said. At one camp, the buses stopped and women passed out food to the troops, who have had to ration their army-issue packets of ready-to-eat meals due »
March 29, 2003 — John Hinderaker

French Muslims Riot

The New York Times reports that “[t]he antiwar movement in France has turned anti-Israeli, as demonstrations against the war in Iraq have evolved into a battleground for French Arab Muslims to attack Israel and even Jews to protest Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.” This isn’t new, of course; the “antiwar” movement in France has always been largely anti-Semitic. Today, 5,000 Parisian policemen tried to prevent a repetition of the last »
March 29, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Popular Uprisings in Baghdad

Popular uprisings are now being reported in Baghdad; as in Basra, they are being suppressed by Saddam’s Fedayeen death squads. »