Monthly Archives: March 2004

The wages of Clinton

It was obvious to me at the time we were attacked on 9/11 that the perpetrators had become habituated to viewing the United States as impotent. Those of us of a certain age will recall the concerns expressed by Richard Nixon about the prospect that our enemies might come to see us in the event of a premature withdrawal from Vietnam as a “pitiful, helpless giant” and will likewise recall »

A Ray of Hope

My main reason for optimism, vis a vis the November election, is John Kerry. You probably remember his snowboarding vacation, which we posted a photo or two of last week. But Mrs. Rocket called my attention to this picture, which I hadn’t seen: Mrs. Rocket pointed out a detail which had escaped my fashion-oblivious notice, namely, the yellow flower-power zipper pull. The whole look, of course, is appalling: the vest, »

Marginal charges

Donald Lambro of the Washington Times doubts that Richard Clarke’s charges against President Bush will amount to much. He thinks that “Americans know Monday-morning quarterbacking when they see it, and they know the difference between leadership and playing politics in the midst of a campaign.” Lambro notes that Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institute, a Bush critic, agrees with him. According to O’Hanlon, Clarke’s charges “will not have much traction »

Arafat’s terrorist nerve center

According to The Washington Times Israeli intelligence is saying that it has “detailed evidence proving that Yasser Arafat’s West Bank compound is a refuge for some of the most-wanted Palestinian terror suspects and a nerve center for ‘martyr’ attacks.” Indeed, a document obtained by the London Sunday Telegraph lists 17 wanted members of the Al Aqsa Brigade and Tanzim militia, both part of Arafati’s Fatah movement, who are said to »

Iraq’s Economy Booming

USA Today’s Paul Wiseman describes Iraq’s booming economy: ”The regime is gone,” says Osama al-Quraishi, an Iraqi entrepreneur who returned to Baghdad to search for business opportunities after decades in exile in Europe and the Middle East. ”There are no restrictions. There are no rules.” He predicts Baghdad will soon replace Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, as the Middle East’s commercial center Under Saddam, the shops were silent, the »

“An Essential War”

In today’s Wall Street Journal, former Secretary of State George Shultz has an excellent analysis of the Iraq War in the context of the broader war on terror. The article, based on a speech Shultz gave recently at the Library of Congress, is lengthy, dense, and can’t really be excerpted. It’s well worth reading in its entirety. Here is the conclusion: The question of weapons of mass destruction is just »

Clarke Claimed Executive Privilege, Refused To Testify

This is really too funny. Drudge reports that in 1999, Richard Clarke cancelled a scheduled appearance before the Senate Special Committee on the Y2K computer scare and refused to testify, on the ground of executive privilege. This is, of course, the same rationale that the Bush administration is applying to Condoleezza Rice, with considerably more justification since she (unlike Clarke in 1999) reports directly to the President. I don’t know, »

How is Clarke “playing in Peoria?”

Not that well, according to this piece by Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff in Newsweek. They say that a Newsweek poll shows 25 percent of Americans viewing Clarke as “a dedicated public servant,” while 50 percent say he was “motivated by personal and political reasons.” Of course, Newsweek helps make, as well as report, public opinion. In this regard, Thomas and Isikoff give Clarke mixed reviews at best. Early on, »

Emmylou, continued

The United Kingdom’s estimable Norman Geras of Normblog continues his outstanding review of the recordings of Emmylou Harris — she who channels the Cosmic American Music — in “The Emmylou Review #6.” Norm picks up installment 6 with Emmylou’s 1985 concept album “Ballad of Sally Rose,” now sadly out of print in the colonies, and provides links to his five previous installments. »

Kerry’s other war record

The story of John Kerry’s attendance at the notorious Kansas City meeting of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War — the meeting at which plans to assassinate six United States senators were mulled over and voted on — makes its way into John Fund’s OpinionJournal column today: “Kerry’s other war record.” This is the story that Thomas Lipscomb of the New York Sun has made his own. When we spoke »

Clarke meets the Cuomo aide

We have received three messages from bloggers on the subject of Richard Clarke, two of which advise us of posts on Clarke’s appearance on Meet the Press yesterday. Setting the tone, Joe’s Blog provides a photographic analysis of Clarke’s testimony last week under the heading “Clinton & Clarke.” Bernard Moon of the Blah Blah Bernard Blah Blah blog carefully scrutinizes the transcript of Clarke’s appearance in “Richard Clarke on Meet »

Mullah Omar Reported Wounded

The German press is reporting that Mullah Omar was wounded in a U.S. bombing raid earlier this month that killed four of his bodyguards. Omar is said to have been immobilized by his wounds. Let’s hope it’s true and that our troops can figure out where he is–reportedly, in southern Afghanistan. »

The party of hate (FP remix)

This morning FrontPage posts Rocket Man’s defense of Condoleezza Rice against Paul Begala’s scurrilous attack on her as “The left’s big lie about Condi.” »

A party of principles after all

The Clarke affair, and Rocket Man’s commentary about the recent behavior of the Democrats, caused me to take a look at something I wrote about the Democrats more than a year ago for FrontPage Magazine. In that piece, I remarked on the unwillingness of leading Democrats to take serious, consistent positions on key issues pertaining to war and peace, and attempted to locate the sources of this once great party’s »

Bin Laden Plotted Against England

London’s Sunday Times has an interesting report based on transcripts of al Qaeda interrogations; the Times is available only through pay subscription, but here is how the Sydney Morning Herald summarized the Times’ account: Osama bin Laden ordered the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks to organise a massive strike on Heathrow Airport to punish Tony Blair for his support of the US, it has been revealed. He told his »

The Duplicitous Mr. Clarke

Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics sent us this email on Richard Clarke’s deceitful claim of political neutrality: My ears nearly fell off when I heard Dick Clarke say he voted for Al Gore on Meet the Press today, since I thought I heard him say he voted for Bush on Thursday. Turns out I was wrong, Clarke only misled me (and probably many others including members of the 9/11 »

Intelligent Criticism From the Left

As we’ve said before, we rarely get hate mail. But last night we received this moronic email from a liberal, which I will quote in its entirety: “Your blog sux. And Bush knew, and is responsible for thousands of deaths. So are you.” This really typifies the intellectual level to which contemporary liberalism has sunk. Bush knew what, for God’s sake? What on earth are these morons talking about? Is »