Libertarian Leanings

The Kerry hostage crisis

Thomas Lifson hits the nail squarely on the head with this essay in American Thinker on John Kerry's refusal to cross the Boston police union picket line.

Leaders by definition take risks, and are unafraid to identify obstacles and address them boldly. Kerry’s approach to problems is just the opposite: palliation of those who hold threats over his head, caving-in rather than confronting, learning to accommodate the limits they impose.

Read the whole thing.

Al-Jazeera

Sam posting at Hammorabi has quite a story. You may have to scroll down to find it, but here is the part that I find more than just a little bit intriguing.

Al Sharq Awsat newspaper (27/62004) has published the story of the Saudi Saaedan who was captured by the terrorists in Falluja.

In 31 May 2004 Mr Saaedan entered Iraq to deliver food supplies for the US army in Falluja after a contract with an American company. When his convoy reached Falluja a group of terrorists changed fire with the defending guards of the convoy and captured him. Saaedan told that among the terrorists were terrorist were Saudi, Syrians and Iraqis from Falluja.
He was interrogated for 3 days and accused that he works for the US army, a charge which resulted in the death penalty according to Fatwa by one of the terrorists Wahabi Mullah. He was left in a dark room in an abandoned place waiting for his death. He was given the choice to die by execution or to do a suicidal operation against the US and Iraqi forces and police. He refused the later, therefore, the Amer (head) of the group ordered to execute him.

Saaedan added that he heard one of the terrorist calling Al Jazeera TV reporter to come to record a video tape. He was then forced to sit in front of Al Jazeera reporter and camera and one of the terrorists read the statement. He was then moved into another place waiting for the execution on 4 June 2004.
On the early morning of the same day there were an exchange of fire between the terrorists and the US forces which helped Saaedan to escape with the help of one of them.

Mr Saaedan now taking legal action against Al Jazeera TV because they joined the terrorist in his death and have not informed the officials about what it has happened with him especially they know all about it including his place and the execution.
In actual fact Saaedan saw the tape broadcasted by Al Jazeera on 5 June 2004 after his escape as well as by the BBC.

Al Sharq Awsat would seem to be a Pan-Arab newspaper published in London and Beirut. This may not be the paper he means but this is what came up on a google.

Ali weighs in on the transfer

Blogging at Iraq the Model, Ali tells how news of the transfer of sovereignty was received by Iraqis at the hospital where he is resident. In the midst of his impromptu celebration Al-Jazeera began broadcasting Bremer's parting words to the Iraqi people.

Then suddenly Mr. Bremer appeared on TV reading his last speech before he left Iraq. I approached the TV to listen carefully to the speech, as I expected it to be difficult in the midst of all that noise. To my surprise everyone stopped what they were doing and started watching as attentively as I was.

The speech was impressive and you could hear the sound of a needle if one had dropped it at that time. The most sensational moment was the end of the speech when Mr. Bremer used a famous Arab emotional poem. The poem was for a famous Arab poet who said it while leaving Baghdad. Al-Jazeera had put an interpreter who tried to translate even the Arabic poem which Mr. Bremer was telling in a fair Arabic! “Let this damned interpreter shut up. We want to hear what the man is saying” One of my colloquies shouted. The scene was very touching that the guy sitting next to me (who used to sympathize with Muqtada) said “He’s going to make me cry!”

Then he finished his speech by saying in Arabic,”A’ash Al-Iraq, A’ash Al-Iraq, A’ash Al-Iraq”! (Long live Iraq, Long live Iraq, long live Iraq).

I was deeply moved by this great man’s words but I couldn’t prevent myself from watching the effect of his words on my friends who some of them were anti-Americans and some were skeptic, although some of them have always shared my optimism. I found that they were touched even more deeply than I was. I turned to one friend who was a committed She’at and who distrusted America all the way. He looked as if he was bewitched, and I asked him, “So, what do you think of this man? Do you still consider him an invader?” My friend smiled, still touched and said, “Absolutely not! He brought tears to my eyes. God bless him.”

Another friend approached me. This one was not religious but he was one of the conspiracy theory believers. He put his hands on my shoulders and said smiling, “I must admit that I’m beginning to believe in what you’ve been telling us for months and I’m beginning to have faith in America. I never thought that they will hand us sovereignty in time. These people have shown that they keep their promises.”

Read the whole thing. He has pictures too.

More on the Iraq transfer

Here is an excerpt from Alaa The Mesopotamian from his Monday post. You might want to go there and read the whole thing, but this will give you the flavor.

As for the enemy, he will not reap but failure and the bitter taste of defeat.

Glory and honor to the U.S. and Allied men and women whose blood is irrigating the tree of freedom in this land; and their sacrifices, suffering, and toil is laying the foundation for a future renaissance of the Mesopotamian People. Hail soldiers of freedom and enlightenment. Do not be dismayed by the trouble and turbulence of the present, for the future generations will remember and appreciate.

And last but not least; Hail, Great El Bush, a leader not only of the U.S. but a true hero of mankind. And Hail Mr. Blair and the other Leaders of the Free World.

God Bless the New Republic of Iraq; God Bless America.

Wa Al Salaam Alaykum Wa rahamutu Allahi Wa Barakatuh

(Peace be upon you and the mercy of God and his blessings)

Go Iraq Go!

From Mohammed at Iraq the Model:

It’s a great day for all freedom lovers. No doubt is left now that we’re winning while the forces of darkness and evil are losing a key round in this war.

With great delight we received th news. this is the right and important step to build the free Iraq and
It’s a painful strike for terrorism and its allies.
They really missed this surprising and brilliant timing. And I guess they’re deeply shocked right now. Their luck couldn’t help them to scar this glorious day with another crime.

Mickey Mouse vs. Michael Moore

From Al-Jazeera? Yup. This article is what turned up at the very top of the list from a google for Michael Moore.

The company that last month refused to release the politically explosive Fahrenheit 9/11 now plans to release the film America's Heart and Soul on Friday.

Supporters say the new film could counter-balance Michael Moore's hit film that has already taken more than $23 million at the box office.

"This unusual [Disney] film was inspirational," said Howard Kaloogian, chairman of Move America Forward, which has spearheaded a boycotting campaign of Fahrenheit 9/11 after attending a special screening of the film on Monday.

I suspect America's Heart and Soul won't be a box office smash, but I'll go watch it. Maybe two or three times.

Surprise!!

Transfer of power to the Iraqis comes early. I wonder how the terrorists are going to handle this one.

Despite the restrictions on his government, Allawi has promised to use his new authority to take more aggressive actions against insurgents. He said he would announce new security measures later on Monday.

"Raise your head! You are Iraqi!"

It's hard not to get a lump in your throat when you hear from these brave Iraqi bloggers, just what they are going through. We here in the U.S. have so much that we just take for granted. From Road of a Nation:

I was today on a web site for "Al-Zarqawi" and I was shocked by the images I saw ,I even threw up ,I don’t believe that those man are human ,or related to any kind of humanity ,they don’t know any thing ,just killing and killing ,I am very angry ,and I like to do any thing to take those man down ,even by carrying a
weapon and fighting them,those are our real enemy and ,we will take them down ,those people live according to animal instincts,even the animals are better .
What do those people want?
Those people don't even tell anyone what they want. All they want is
to kill for fun, in the name of "Allah" GOD, but GOD didn't recommend
that they kill and torture people. They even create their own "Allah" to
believe in. But I want to send a message to them: You will lose, and
you will be punished by the rule of life, justice, and by the rule of
heaven by GOD.
Those people are the Iraqi's number one enemy. I was today at my
university, from which I graduated, and people there were very upset. Out
there, everywhere, they ask the Allawi government to be very hard on
those losers. I was in a taxi and the driver told me that many people he
gave lifts to told him that we are so angry at those people, and we
want to get them out. Many, many people, day by day, support that the
Allawi government be harsher with those people. What I want to tell our
people is: Iraq is for Iraqis and no one will care more for it than
you. It's one battle in the war and we have to win. Either we win the
battle, so we stand for what we want, or we lose everything.
we should support our police and ICCD ,and our new army ,to take those losers down , stick together Iraqis ,be one hand ,stand together ,and remember we are not a lone ,as we always be ,we got good people and friend's all over the world will help ,and they are helping us ,don’t be afraid ,don't hesitate,fight for your life ,future, for your freedom, remember dark time ,remember being slaves ,don't accept
going back to those times,have faith and you will see we will win .
"Raise your head! You are Iraqi!"

Iraqis

A selection of excerpts posted recently by my favorite Iraqi bloggers. A couple of days ago AYS had this to say in a posting about the June 30 transfer of power.

But, actually.. I’m afraid of one thing only.... Yes.. That fat idiot man.. Muqtada, he’ll have a good chance to do whatever he wants cause he does not care for the people’s lives and does not care for the casualties, and there is a bad chance to make an agreement with such a crazy one, you know his statements and his schizoid behavior.. That’s why I see June 30 is an early date to turn over sovereignty, we should deal with that man first before any step.. The bad thing is everyone wanted him to take a part in the National Assembly! What a great idea! We can’t arrest an idiot cause he puts a black wheel on his head and has followers..! Well, I hope that he’ll take his medication on this day and stay calm..

Ali posting on Iraq the Model makes observations about the state of the economy and the state of affairs in Iraq.

The question is why don’t these people hire Iraqis instead? And why do these people (workers) risk their lives in coming to work in such a “chaotic area”? I think the answer to the 1st question is that most Iraqis can easily find a job that pays more than 100 $ with less effort and commitments. For example a kid (in summer vacation)who help in cleaning the streets and river banks get paid about 120$ by the city hall a month for about 5 hours work.

The answer to the 2nd question can be explained in 2 ways; there seems to be lots of job opportunities in Iraq as a result of private businesses' improvement and an increase in the life standard of a good proportion of Iraqis that made this process (importing workers) a real business and that enabled Iraqis to pay reasonable amounts of money to those workers that make it worthy the risk. The other answer might be that the security conditions in Iraq is not that scary to prevent workers from coming to Iraq and also that Iraq job market seems better for simple workers at least than that in India, Philippines, Seri Lanka and many other Asian countries!!

Sarmad who posts on Road of a Nation spent the past week working on the construction of an Iraqi Army base. He came back inspired.

Hi every one how are you ,hope you are all fine ,I miss you all ,I was working in a site for the new Iraqi army in Tadji, its was a great experiment, I was very happy working out their for those brave mans ,and I see them coming to defend there country with all the determination they got ,believing in their case ,brave young man ,come to be new Iraq army ,not one person army ,people army ,to defend there live ,not to attack them and kill them ,what I see was amazing ,and I was very very happy to see them and I felt safe ,I just love them ,and was more than happy to work for them .

Zeyad at Healing Iraq is enraged at the terrorists who are trying to disrupt the June 30 transfer of power.

100 dead and over 300 badly injured. The scenes of bloody bodies of Iraqi policemen are painful and heartrending, and there is absolutely NO justification for this. I swear if someone says there is I would be glad to strangle him with my own hands and drink from his blood. I cannot express the rage I am feeling now in words.

Failure in Iraq? Get real.

Matt Labash, in a critique of Fahrenheit 9/11 that appears in the Weekly Standard:

CONSIDERING THAT I'm writing this from inside the bunker of what many regard as the Alliance of Neocon Warmongers, it bears mentioning that Michael Moore and I have one surprising trait in common: We both believe that the war in Iraq was ill-advised, ill-planned, and ill-executed, an apparent failure bordering on unmitigated disaster, that was never in our best national interest.

The war was ill-advised he says. I wonder how terrorism would ever be defeated without a change to conditions in the Middle East. I wonder how conditions would change in the Middle East without changes in the way Middle Eastern countries are governed. I wonder why anyone would think a Middle Eastern government would reform of its own accord. Without reform in the Middle East, terrorism will never die out.

There was no real choice but to take down Saddam Hussein. The arguments about whether we find WMD or an Iraqi link to al Qaeda are beside the point. It was the known intention of Saddam's regime to attack the U.S. That we haven't found stockpiles of WMD in Iraq can only be considered a timing problem. Their absence was intended to be a temporary condition. Saddam had them in the past and his intention was to have them in the future. Even if world pressure on Saddam to disarm remained through his lifetime, it would be reasonable to expect such pressure to be reduced if Uday or Qusay were still around to take power. Is there is any reason to suspect either of them would have had aims that differed in any way from their father's?

Saddam supported terrorists. Does it really matter whether they were al Qaeda or some group of another name? He provided safe haven, he provided cash support. He was known to send money to the families of suicide bombers. He provided terrorist training in camps such as Salman Pac, and he was active in passing chemical weapons knowledge to terrorists. Will it matter to us when we're dead whether it was an al Qaeda or Hamas bomb that killed us? With technology advancing as it does we would be foolish to think Saddam's regime would not eventually succeed in acquiring large scale deadly weapons, and once acquired, to trust that Saddam's regime would not pass them along to whatever group would ally with them against the U.S.

There was no real choice but to take down Saddam Hussein when we did. Any delay would have meant Saddam's regime would remain. There is no reason to believe the political will to take action would survive even a month or two of waiting for U.N. weapons inspectors to play out their charade. Without military action there would be no reason to expect any kind of policy change from Saddam's regime. There is no reason to think sanctions would have any effect in dissuading Saddam from the pursuit of WMD. Nor is there reason to think that sanctions would provide any hope for the Iraqi people. Saddam had merely to wait. Sooner or later sanctions would be lifted and he would be free to resume his plans to wage secret war and war by proxy against the U.S. There could be no hope for a Soviet style economic collapse. Saddam had the pipeline and he had complete iron fisted control. Sanctions didn't change that and they weren't going to. As we see the Oil for Food scandal unfolding it becomes increasingly apparent sanctions weren't intended to change anything.

Without regime change in Iraq, there is no reason to think the Middle East would change in any significant way, and no reason to think that terrorism would diminish in any respect. This war has been the least costly in military and civilian casualties in history. We are witnessing the quickest transformation of a brutal dictatorship to a representative government in history. This is the boldest move of my lifetime. Let's not lose faith or determination because it hasn't been perfect. We are witnessing a huge step in the spread of liberty. The spread of liberty, both political and economic, is the only possible path to world peace. We are on that path.