Monthly Archives: July 2003

July 23, 2003 — John Hinderaker

2,268 Iraqis and their Families Thank You

More good news from Iraq: along with the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein, American authorities announced that the head of the Special Republican Guard, Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid al-Tikriti, was captured on Wednesday. This leaves only 18 of the 55 most-wanted members of the former regime still at large. Yet the demise of Hussein’s hated sons shared newspaper headlines this morning with the news that two more American »
July 23, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Soldier Blogs From Iraq

For first-hand accounts of what is happening in Iraq, here and here are blogs by two soldiers stationed in Iraq: Lt. Smash and Chief Wiggles. »
July 23, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Trunk, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

are not hard to find in Spain. We’ve encountered both, although more of Sancho. Appropriately enough, “he” seems especially prevalent among tour guides. For example, I remember a guide at the great Seville cathedral who gave us the official line (largest cathedral in the world; this painting is by Murillo, etc) and then proceeded to debunk it point by point (there’s a larger one in Italy; Murillo probably didn’t paint »
July 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Shift in Focus Produced Results

This Washington Post article, based on interviews with American military officers, gives good insight into the recent change in tactics–emphasizing lower-level operatives rather than going straight for Saddam, his sons and other high-level targets–which resulted in rolling up large numbers of Baathist resisters and, ultimately, cornering Uday and Qusay. »
July 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

In search of Don Quixote…and Sancho Panza

Tomorrow morning I’m off with my family for a badly needed vacation. We’re meeting up with Littler Trunk, my number two daughter, who has been studying Spanish in an immersion program in Segovia. We will be meeting her in Madrid and going on a few day trips before we head south to the Mediterranean coast for several days. I hope Prime Minister Aznar has the Basque situation under control for »
July 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Pet sounds

Last month I wrote about Brian Wilson and his masterwork “Pet Sounds” on the occasion of Wilson’s sixty-first birthday. I mentioned that “Pet Sounds” had served as an inspiration to the Beatles in creating “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” I should also have mentioned that Wilson in turn has credited the Beatles’ “Revolver” as his inspiration in creating “Pet Sounds.” Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has a feature on the »
July 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

About last night

Terry Teachout has to be one of the best critics of the arts in the country. As a critic he is omnivorous, writing knowledgeably about everything from jazz (I believe he used to be a jazz bassist), to classical music, to theater, to ballet and to whatever else catches his eye or ear. Our radio hero Hugh Hewitt recently alerted us to Teachout’s new Web log, a daily diary of »
July 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Israel without apologies

One of our readers has kindly brought this outstanding essay by Sol Stern from the current issue of City Journal to our attention: “Israel without apologies.” »
July 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Another Administration Official Apologizes

What next? Now Condoleezza Rice’s top deputy, Stephen Hadley, has apologized for the famous 16 words in the State of the Union address, saying that “details from the [CIA’s] memos and phone call had slipped from his attention as the State of the Union was being put together.” The Administration seems not to realize that it’s bleeding in a shark tank. »
July 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

“Saddam’s Bomb”

This was on Best of the Web, so you may have seen it, but it is too entertaining to pass up. Check out “Saddam’s Bomb,” a news article dated March 2, 2001, which says that Iraq has already developed nuclear weapons. Here are some excerpts: “There is growing concern that Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction now threaten stability in the region as never before. But has Iraq already tested the »
July 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The essential George W. Bush

Andrew Sullivan wonders whether President Bush is a conservative. Sullivan concludes that Bush isn’t, at least not in the sense one usually associates with the word. I tend to agree with Sullivan. I think the Bush administration is essentially centrist and largely non-ideological in terms of its domestic policy. The major feature of its foreign policy — a proactive approach to defending the nation from terrorism — isn’t inherently conservative »
July 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The media’s anti-war peace offensive

Andrew Sullivan on what the press isn’t telling us about the situation in Iraq. There is good reason to believe that things are going much better than is being reported. Indeed, that should be the strong presumption, given the mainstream media’s horrendous coverage of the war itself. But the things that are important in the short-term — finding WMD and avoiding American loss of life — genuinely are not going »
July 22, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Who “sexed up” what?

From National Review Online, »
July 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Saddam’s Sons Dead?

American officials believe that both Qusay and Uday Hussein may be among those killed in the gun battle in Mosul that we posted on earlier. Here is the Washington Post’s account. Apparently there was a four-hour gun battle in which at least five Iraqis were killed, four of whom were described by those on the scene as “high value” targets. Given past false alarms about Saddam’s alleged demise, skepticism is »
July 22, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Was it something we said?

A few of our readers noted our absence. Our incredibly faithful reader Dafydd ab Hugh called it “the amazing disappearing blog trick.” I’m afraid disappearing is the easy part; it’s reemerging that’s the trick. We’re glad to be back. Let it be noted that the eagle-eyed folks at FrontPage have picked up Rocket Man’s post from yesterday. Here it is, once more once, as featured on FrontPage approximately midway between »
July 22, 2003 — John Hinderaker

We’re Back

We had a power outage starting late last night, but we’re back in business due to quick action, once we learned of the problem this morning, by Stacy Tabb of Sekimori Design and Hosting Matters. Meanwhile, Fox News was reporting this morning that a number of “key allies” of Saddam Hussein were captured earlier today in Mosul. No word on their identities, and so far I’ve seen nothing about this »
July 21, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Tony Blair, object lesson

I’m not an expert on current British politics, but Tony Blair’s core problem seems fairly straightforward. He has lost many Labour voters because of his position on Iraq and he can’t recoup this support from Conservative voters because he is a Labourite and is positioned to the left on domestic issues. I think there is an unfortunate lesson here for our own politics. In next year’s presidential election, the Democratic »