From the WSJ Opinion Archives
'Gore:
Saddam Must Go'
That's the headline of an article on the BBC's Web
site, which reports that the erstwhile vice president "has told Iraqi opposition
politicians that the United States remains committed to the overthrow of President
Saddam Hussein."
OK, that article is dated June 28, 2000, so it may not be an up-to-date reflection of Gore's thinking. So let's look at something more recent, the New York Times account of Gore's Feb. 12, 2002, speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. Reports the Times:
Al Gore said last night that the time had come for a "final reckoning" with Iraq, describing the country as a "virulent threat in a class by itself" and suggesting that the United States should consider ways to oust President Saddam Hussein.
So who's this impostor, claiming to be Gore, who delivered a speech yesterday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, in which he delivered what the Associated Press calls "a sweeping indictment of President Bush's threatened attack on Iraq, calling it a distraction from the war on terrorism that has 'squandered' international support for the United States."
It appears Saddam Hussein has unleashed a new weapon of mass distraction on America, a Gore-like android so realistic it is every bit as lifeless as the real thing. Quoth Robo-Gore:
By shifting from his early focus after September 11th on war against terrorism to war against Iraq, the president has manifestly disposed of the sympathy, goodwill and solidarity compiled by America and transformed it into a sense of deep misgiving and even hostility. In just one year, the President has somehow squandered the international outpouring of sympathy, goodwill and solidarity that followed the attacks of September 11th and converted it into anger and apprehension aimed much more at the United States than at the terrorist network.
Putting aside the strong international support President Bush has received since his Sept. 12 speech at the U.N., would the real Al Gore say that sympathy for dead Americans is more valuable than security for living ones?
"Gore" also says, of the war on terror: "I do not believe that we should allow ourselves to be distracted from this urgent task simply because it is proving to be more difficult and lengthy than predicted." Did anyone say the war on terror was not going to be "difficult and lengthy"? Here's President Bush in his address to Congress on Sept. 20, 2001:
This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.
And the faux Gore blasts President Bush's new strategic doctrine:
Last week President Bush added a troubling new element to this debate by proposing a broad new strategic doctrine that goes far beyond issues related to Iraq and would effect the basic relationship between the United States and the rest of the world community. . . . President Bush now asserts that we will take pre-emptive action even if we take the threat we perceive is not imminent. . . . An unspoken part of this new doctrine appears to be that we claim this right for ourselves--and only for ourselves. It is, in that sense, part of a broader strategy to replace ideas like deterrence and containment with what some in the administration [call] "dominance."
On the question of deterrence vs. pre-emption, Peter Beinart, editor of the fiercely pro-Gore New Republic, gets it exactly right:
The United States relied on deterrence against the Soviet Union not because deterrence was foolproof but because we had no other choice: We could never have preemptively attacked the USSR; the costs would simply have been too great. But the United States can preemptively attack Iraq. Deterrence is no longer our only option, and it isn't our safest one.
In the Cold War, in other words, deterrence was a two-way street. The Soviets deterred America as much as America deterred the Soviets. Does the former vice president want a new cold war with Saddam, in which a nuclear-armed Iraqi dictator is able to deter America from striking him the next time he invades one of his neighbors? Surely not. Will the real Al Gore please stand up?
The
Dossier
The "Gore" speech came a day before Prime Minister
Tony Blair issued his "dossier" on Saddam's capabilities. The full dossier,
in HTML form, is here,
with a link to download the PDF version. The New
York Times' Warren Hoge takes a very cheap shot:
In one of the more original entries, the dossier makes its case for Mr. Hussein's diversion of largesse to his own comfort by publishing a drawing of one of his vast presidential palaces overlaid on the distinctly smaller area taken up by Buckingham Palace, the official residence of British monarchs.
Ha ha, isn't that funny. Those silly Brits are mad at Saddam because his castles are bigger than theirs! But here's what the dossier actually says about the photo in question:
In December 1997 Richard Butler reported to the UN Security Council that Iraq had created a new category of sites, "Presidential" and "sovereign", from which it claimed that UNSCOM inspectors would henceforth be barred.
The terms of the ceasefire in 1991 foresaw no such limitation. However, Iraq consistently refused to allow UNSCOM inspectors access to any of these eight Presidential sites.
Many of these so-called "palaces" are in fact large compounds which are an integral part of Iraqi counter-measures designed to hide weapons material (see photograph on p35).
Who's
Afraid of the Arab Street?
Mohammed Al-Jassem, who edits the Arabic
edition of Newsweek, argues that the overthrow of Saddam will provide the Arab
world with some much-needed "shock therapy":
After Saddam's fall, the dismantling of the extremist Islamic parties and the containment of the Palestinian issue, most Arab rulers will no longer be able to hide from their people by invoking the dangers of "external threats." The Arab leaders will lose the rationalization for the use of "crisis logic," a phrase coined by political scientist Mohammed Jaber Al-Ansari to denote the way the Arabs handle politics, as opposed to the logic of a normal state of affairs.
The next stage in Arab history will be one of internal domestic confrontations. After Saddam, not one Arab regime, including Syria and Libya, will dare oppose the United States, and most Arab regimes will be forced to pledge themselves to slogans like "renewal, reform and change" as a way of keeping their frustrated masses at bay. In this era, the United States will have to find ways to befriend the Arab masses, not the beleaguered regimes.
Auf
Wiedersehen, Herta und Ludwig
The careers of Herta Daubler-Gmelin and
Ludwig Steigler are kaput. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder accepted the resignations
of Justice Minister Daubler-Gmein, who compared President Bush to Hitler, and
parliamentary leader Steigler, who likened the president to a Roman emperor. Still,
the Times of London reports, President Bush did not call to congratulate Schroeder
on his narrow election victory, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he
has no intention of talking to his German counterpart at a NATO meeting in Poland.
The New York Times' Steve Erlanger asserts risibly that "the fact that a European election has been won on an antiwar ticket critical of the Bush administration will clearly complicate the President's efforts to win support in Europe and will make anti-Bush sentiment more acceptable."
You
Don't Say--I
"No matter what war plan President Bush chooses,
if he decides to attack Iraq, the assault is almost certain to start from above."--lead
paragraph, Associated Press dispatch, Sept. 23
Free
Press, Palestinian Style--II
Yesterday we
noted the story of Khaled Abu Toameh, the Jerusalem Post reporter who says
an aide to the Palestinian "legislative speaker" threatened to kill
him over an article he wrote. Today's Post has a firsthand account from Abu Toameh:
There has been a slight improvement over the past few years in the [Palestinian Authority's] record regarding the freedom of the press. But there are still some in the PA who believe that a journalist's job is first to be "loyal to the cause" and then to report the truth.
It becomes even more complicated and dangerous if, like myself, you are an Arab journalist working with the foreign or Israeli media. Then you are expected to be an "obedient servant" or a "soldier" in the war of propaganda. You are expected to tell the truth only if it sounds and looks convenient and appropriate. Otherwise, you could be risking your life.
A
PC Dilemma
"An Islamic group based in the UK has issued a death
fatwa against a playwright whose London stage production depicts Jesus Christ
as a homosexual," the BBC reports. "Terrence McNally was sentenced to
death by the Shari'ah Court of the UK as his play, Corpus Christi, opened in London
on Thursday night."
Here's a dilemma for the multicultural, politically correct crowd. If, say, Jesse Helms had attacked McNally, they'd automatically side with McNally. But these are Muslims, an oppressed group standing up for their culture!
Hate
Yes, Intimidation No
Yesterday we
noted the story of swastikas painted on a sukkah, a structure used to celebrate
the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, at the University of Colorado. Today's Boulder
Daily Camera reports that "CU police have classified the vandalism as a hate
crime, but won't go as far as calling the defacement a case of ethnic intimidation."
Meanwhile, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that at Concordia University, where a pro-Arab riot prevented former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking earlier this month, an unidentified Jewish student has been attacked. "I was hit in the head with a hard object, probably [a] cell phone, and punched. I fell down and while I was on my knees, this guy kept kicking me," the Jewish student recounts. "I was able to get up and face this student when I saw another Muslim student rushing over. I ran outside to the university's security office and it was then that I noticed how badly I was bleeding from my scalp. The blood was running down my neck."
Stupidity Watch
Writing
in the Chicago Tribune, Salim
Muwakkil, a senior editor of the far-left magazine In These Times, opines
that Saddam Hussein "provides Iraqis free, cradle-to-grave medical care,
free child-care, education and other social benefits." Hey Salim, you sure
you're not mixing Saddam up with Fidel Castro?
Tom
Harkin's Listening Tour
There's scandal brewing in Iowa's Senate race,
where the campaign manager for incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin "apologized
Monday after acknowledging that his staff released the transcript of a closed-door
Ganske for Senate campaign meeting, while Republicans called for a criminal probe
to find out who taped the private proceedings," the Quad-City Times reports.
Rep. Greg Ganske is Harkin's Republican challenger.
It's not clear who taped the meeting. "According to Iowa law, it is not illegal to tape communications if the person 'is a party to the communication or one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent' to the interception," the Times explains--so if someone legitimately in attendance did the taping, presumably no laws were broken. Republicans, however, are raising the possibility that Harkin's people planted a listening device. They also argue that the taping was illegal, even if one of the meeting's participants did it, because the state law doesn't allow taping for the purpose of committing an "injurious act."
'Undercover'
Last
week Maryland's Democratic campaign committee fired consultant Julius Henson after
he called Rep. Robert Ehrlich, the Republican candidate for governor against Lt.
Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, "a Nazi." But Henson tells the Associated
Press that "he was asked to work 'undercover' to win black votes" for
Townsend and other Democrats. A Townsend spokesman denies it.
Who's
Tying What Up?
"Anti-Abortion Lobbyists Tying Up Bankruptcy-Overhaul
Bill" reads a headline in today's New York Times. At issue is a provision,
inserted by New York's senior senator, that would single out abortion protesters
and make it hard for them to declare bankruptcy. Given that abortion isn't exactly
germane to bankruptcy, wouldn't "Pro-Abortion Amendment Tying Up Bankruptcy-Overhaul
Bill" be a more accurate headline?
You
Don't Say--II
"The person responsible must have been 'somebody
very angry or upset over something.' "--Associated Press, quoting Lt. Susan
Wellborn of the Lake Worth, Fla., police department, on a quintuple murder
Chicken
Pot Pie
"A Mill Valley KFC restaurant employee was arrested after
a customer received a little something extra with his chicken dinner," the
Associated Press reports from Marin County, Calif. "This customer received
two bags of marijuana Friday, instead of the extra biscuits he had requested.
The customer gave the marijuana back to the employee, got his extra biscuits and
called police."
The
Sounds of Silence--II
The publisher of the late John Cage has settled
its lawsuit against pop composer Mike Batt. The suit, as we noted
in July, alleged that Batt's track "A Minute's Silence" violated
the copyright on Cage's "4' 33"," which consists of four minutes
and 33 seconds of silence. Nicholas Riddle, managing director of Cage's publisher,
tells Reuters that Batt has paid an "adequate sum," but doesn't get
specific. Does the settlement contain a nondisclosure agreement? And if it does,
wouldn't that violate Cage's copyright too?
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Today on OpinionJournal:
- Richard Spertzel: A former weapons inspector explains why Saddam is still a menace.
- Tom Bray: Is the stock market sending an antiwar message?
- Jonathan Karl: How John McCain learned to lose his temper.
