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Monday, June 7, 2004

Good News Is No News Dept.

Omar, an Iraqi who manages Iraq The Model, makes an interesting observation that those who insist that Iraq is descending into chaos ought to note. In the course of writing about the recent agreement of the militias to disband, Omar observes that: "The U.S.-led coalition tried to persuade the militias to disband last year but failed because leaders were unwilling to give up their armed fighters at a time of deteriorating security." He adds that: "I guess this indicates an interesting change in the Iraqi parties' evaluation about the security condition in the country."

It does indeed seem that the parties involved must be convinced that the Iraqi police and the American military have the situation well enough in hand to cede to them their right to protect themselves and their families. This is certainly an important implication of the agreement to disband and very good news. I'm sure the major news outlets, eager as they are to find positive stories to report from Iraq, will be quick to draw similar surmises in the days to come. Or not.

More Hate From the Left

More vitriol from the deep reservoirs of hatred irrigating the American left. In this case the invective comes from the NYT and the Village Voice. Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the tip:

Michael Feingold writing a review of a play by Richard Foreman in The Village Voice states that:

"This opinion is presumably not shared by Foreman; you can gauge the breadth of his imaginative compassion from his willingness to extend it even toward George W. Bush, idiot scion of a genetically criminal family that should have been sterilized three generations ago.... Republicans, whose goal in life is to profit from disaster and who don't give a hoot about human beings, either can't or won't. Which is why I personally think they should be exterminated before they cause any more harm."

Sullivan also posts this from Tony Kushner writing in The New York Times:"The hegemonic, grim spirit of the age [is] incarnate in our thought-disordered, bloody, greedy, little plutocrat-slash-soulless-theocrat of an unelected president."

I wrote yesterday about the need to revisit the Geneva Conventions' strictures on the treatment of prisoners taken in war. Perhaps we need a new Geneva Convention to cover political warfare. The left seems to think that no toxin is too poisonous to use against its enemies. No language is too ugly or cruel to be considered beyond the pale of human decency.

Imagine for a moment, though, the pandemonium that would break out on the evening news if a conservative were to say anything half as contemptible as this nugget of human kindness posted by Matt Drudge who quotes British writer Greg Palast on the occasion of Ronald Reagan's passing: "Killer, con-man, coward. Good riddance, Gipper.... [You're] More proof that only the good die young."

What sorts of people talk like this, and why? Perhaps it is in part a symptom of the madness which sometimes settles upon those who are infuriated that men they believe to be much inferior to themselves control the levers of power and history. At any rate, their souls must be terribly barren and sour that they feel compelled to sacrifice all human decency by making such patently false and spiteful claims, and for no better purpose than to damage and hurt another human being? What cold, bitter, unpleasant people these must be, consumed as they apparently are by implacable angers and resentments. The very fact that so many individuals of this kind align themselves in opposition to President Bush is eo ipso justification enough to support him, one is tempted to think, even if sufficient other reasons were lacking.

Toby and the Nuge

Hugh Hewitt has a very interesting e-mail from a marine in Fallujah describing a visit from Toby Keith and Ted Nugent. Great stuff, especially if you're a fan.