By Andrew L. Jaffee

Yesterday, the web was abuzz with some good news from Iraq: A poll released by Opinion Research Business (ORB) via the Times Online showed that a majority of Iraqis were optimistic about the future, believed life is better, and were asking, “what civil war?” A related story from the Times reported, “violence slashed as troop surge hits Baghdad.” ORB surveyed “5,019 Iraqis over the age of 18,” was conducted by “400 interviewers who fanned out across Iraq,” and was significant in that the “survey is a rare snapshot of Iraqi opinion because of the difficulty of working in the country.” What I find striking is that the BBC released news of another poll which purportedly showed “Pessimism ‘growing among Iraqis,’” and the Beeb didn’t even mention the ORB poll. A search of the BBC website for variations on the keywords “ORB poll iraq” returns “There are no results.”

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by Andrew Whitehead

On 13 March, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that six imams who had disrupted a US Airways flight by engaging in suspicious behavior, have filed a lawsuit against US Airways and the Minnesota Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC) claiming a laundry-list of civil rights violations:

http://www.cair.com/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=2615&theType=NR

In addition to suing the airline and the MAC, the “Magnificent Six” are going after unknown gate agents, other unknown employees of US Airways, and “John Does”; currently unidentified passengers who, according to the complaint, had the effrontery to dare to report the suspicious activities of the Magnificent Six to authorities:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Wow. Robert Mugabe’s out-of-control insanity against his own people in Zimbabwe is “finally pushing [his] African neighbors away from ‘quiet diplomacy’ into tepid protest.” Hold meetings to talk about future meetings? A definite maybe? These nations are hesitant to do anything about Zimbabwe because of — you guessed it — the race card. When might Africa finally graduate from post-colonialism into true self-determination? Life moves on. In its simplemindedness, the extreme Left would have you believe that opposing Mugabe means you support Apartheid. But the West is willing to help this time, not dominate.

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by Bill Levinson

As reported yesterday, Michael Moore’s Minutemen crossed the chemical/biological/nuclear threshold by using a weapon of mass destruction against a primarily-civilian target in Iraq. (See the link for a picture of a female Iraqi civilian who was injured by the insurgents’ chemical weapon.)

Official U.S. policy is that chemical = biological = nuclear. A chemical or biological attack on our Armed Forces, and presumably our civilian population, or that of an ally, is equivalent to a nuclear attack on the United States. This requires retaliation in kind and, as the United States has disarmed itself of all chemical and biological weapons, the nature of the retaliation should be obvious. Policies and words deter only when backed by action. Failure to retaliate with nuclear weapons, or so many conventional explosives and incendiaries as to equal nuclear weapons in their effects, undermines the credibility of the United States and tells other terrorists and rogue nations that they are in fact free to use weapons of mass destruction while violating the Hague Convention’s prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Just when it seems the darkest in Iraq, the people there seem to believe otherwise. I admit, like many other Americans, to being war-weary. And who could blame Americans for getting tired of seeing the daily carnage in Iraq, like yesterday’s chlorine gas attack? Yet three articles from the Times Online today show that, from an Iraqi perspective, removing Saddam was the right thing to do, and that Bush’s troop surge should be given a chance to work. These articles confirm my belief that the top leadership of the Democratic Party, not necessarily the rank and file, want to see the Iraq effort fail just to get another dig into Bush (Monica Lewinsky all over again, just switch the party names). Here’s a summary of the good news, with links to the original stories — all must-reads:

Iraqis: life is getting better: “MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today…”

Violence slashed as troop surge hits Baghdad: “…but now there are a lot more Iraqi army checkpoints and I’m feeling more secure. I feel better; I can go out and do my shopping. More people have opened their stores and the markets are open longer…”

Resilient Iraqis ask what civil war?: “The survey, published today, also reveals that contrary to the views of many western analysts, most Iraqis do not believe they are embroiled in a civil war…”

Click for some poll and other highlights
Click here for the raw poll numbers.

Finally, a question I’ve asked many times: If things were so bad in Iraq, then why does the dinar keep appreciating in value? I make it a practice not to ignore financial markets when trying to balance the human equation. Early on, I’d say there was speculation in the Iraqi dinar. After 3 years of unrelenting Muslim-on-Muslim violence, I’d say all the bad news has already been priced into the dinar.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

William F. Buckley Jr., writing for the National Review, explains why Americans are tiring of the Iraq effort: they’re sick of inept U.S. policy, and disgusted with how Iraqis have treated the gift of Saddam’s removal:

… Americans feel that the Iraqis’ sacrifice is disproportionately low, and the single reason for this is that it is also Iraqis who are causing the tribulation in which American soldiers are being wounded and killed. And there is no strategic plan, issuing from the White House, that apportions the sacrifice being made to goals being accomplished. …

Take yesterday’s chlorine gas attack, wrought by Iraqis against Iraqis. This is building a future without Saddam? To such savage attacks, we now have Bush’s troop surge, about 3 years too late — though I’m still willing to give it a chance (what choice do we have?).

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2 Iraqis murdered, hundreds injured by terrorist weapons of mass destruction

by Bill Levinson

Three Chlorine Gas Attacks Kill 2 Officers and Wound 350 in Anbar Province

BAGHDAD, Sunday, March 18 — Three suicide bombers driving trucks loaded with explosives and tanks of chlorine gas detonated their payloads in Anbar Province on Friday, killing at least two Iraqi police officers and wounding or sickening more than 350 people, the American military command said Saturday.

U.S. policy on WMDs is essentially “Nuclear = Chemical = Biological,” and the use of any of these against U.S. forces (and presumably people under our protection) invites retaliation in kind. President Bush would be 100 percent justified in authorizing the use of nuclear weapons on the terrorists, assuming that a suitable target could be found. The light damage radius of a 1-kiloton weapon is about a mile, so the terrorist camp or whatever should be at least that far from anything we don’t want to destroy.

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by Bill Levinson

There was a time when songs and poetry were central to any society, because they were the means by which the society transmitted its values, cultures, and ideals. This was even more important when most people were illiterate, so everything had to be passed on through “oral tradition.” In those days, bards, skalds, poets, and similar storytellers were highly-valued members of society, because they were the stewards of what was effectively the society’s soul. The rhyming nature of poetry doubtlessly originated so the storyteller could more easily remember what to say next, especially if he could not read.

Europe is being overrun by invading militant “Muslims” who want to turn the nations they infest into Islamic societies, to be governed by barbaric militant “Islamic” law (Sharia). This was pointed out most recently in Fjordman’s “A European Declaration of Independence” and Filip van Laenen’s “Oslo Muslims Six Times More Likely to Rape.” The problems these articles describe would not be problems in societies that have not forgotten the values, attitudes, and culture that made them great.

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by Bill Narvey

Two reports appearing in Ha’aretz, “PMO: New PA stance ‘flies in the face’ of international demands,” and, “Lieberman: Emergency Zionist coalition needed to counter PA,” read together, suggest that Israelis may be opening their eyes wider to reality. The first report offers the view that the new Palestinian unity government is a big step backwards from the peace process. The second reports that:

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by Jerry Gordon

American Congress for Truth Action Alert: Contact MSNBC

Action Alert

This Sunday, March 18th on “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, Congressman Joe Sestak (D. -7th Dist. PA) who will appear at an April 7th Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser in his Delaware County district outside Philadelphia, will be appearing.

Please go to the Meet The Press website, scroll down the center/left column (the first box is “NBC video,” the next is “Russert on Politics”) to the third box, “More on Meet the Press,” and click on the bottom option which asks, “What would you ask our guests?” Request that Sestak be asked why he insists on appearing at a CAIR fundraiser, despite its well-known connections to terrorist groups (Hamas, the Holy Land Foundation, the fact that at least five of CAIR’s employees and board members have been arrested, convicted, deported, or otherwise linked to terrorism-related charges and activities etc.) CAIR’s connections to terrorism endanger all of us. Editor’s note: click on the following links for extensive references on CAIR’s terrorist-related activities: here, and here. Feel free to use this text in the body of your email.

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by Bill Levinson

MoveOn.org argues that the vicious hate speech that was posted by its Action Forum members does not make MoveOn itself a hate group, because the hate speech does not represent official MoveOn.org policy toward Jews, Catholics, Evangelical Christians, or Black people. A strong argument can be made, however, that MoveOn.org’s welcoming such hate speech in a forum over which it exercised editorial control does in fact make it a hate organization. Wikipedia provides the following definition:

A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates hate, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, religion, gender or other designated sector of society, or that supports and publishes assertions and argumentation characteristic of hate groups without necessarily explicitly advocating such hate or violence that otherwise characterize hate groups.

According to the second portion of the definition, MoveOn.org has proven itself a hate group beyond any reasonable doubt.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

What did Freud call it when criticism hits too close to home, and the neurotic person lashes out? Projection? Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has a bad case of it. When faced with condemnation of his beating up opposition party members, he responded that Western critics can “go hang.” Very eloquent, and quite consistent with his previous behavior. He’s expropriated the homes of his own people, whom he calls “filth,” and has created quite a paradise in his homeland:

More than 80% of Zimbabweans are living in poverty, with chronic unemployment and inflation running at more than 1,700% - the highest in the world.

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by Bill Levinson

“I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl,” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed boasted in a revised transcript of a US hearing. The most appropriate justice in this case might be to give him exactly what he and his fellow “Islamic” militants say they want: Sharia, or strict “Islamic” justice. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says his “blessed right hand” decapitated a helpless prisoner, and we all know what happens to the offending body part under Sharia.

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From the Middle East Quarterly*

On March 14, 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP), became Turkey’s prime minister.[1] While the AKP makes no secret of its Islamic roots, it describes itself as a conservative party that fully accepts Turkey’s secular system of government.[2] “A political party cannot have a religion, only individuals can,” Erdoğan explained.[3]

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

When fighting a war for the preservation of civilization, what’s your emphasis? Apparently, Amnesty International’s is defending those who would destroy the very civilization that makes its existence possible. The rights organization is very worried about how “al-Qaeda mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is being treated at Gitmo — never mind all the murders he planned and committed himself, and never mind that Jew, Daniel Pearl, that the “Sheikh” now admits to beheading. We’re already handing out personal Korans and special Muslim meals at Gitmo. Given the magnitude of 9/11 and all the other Islamist atrocities, like 40,000 dead by Muslim hands alone in Iraq, could we expect that Amnesty use a bit of common sense (i.e., “we’re at war with some pretty bad folks”)?

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