From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Provocative
Weakness
The Financial Times reports on a telling revelation from the 9/11 commission's
new report, "Outline of the 9/11 Plot":
Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, overruled objections from many of his senior advisers and from Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, in ordering the September 11 attacks against the US, the commission investigating the attacks said yesterday. . . .
Mr bin Laden, who had repeatedly pressed to bring forward the date of the attacks, disregarded fears among his advisers and the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan that the US would respond with a military attack. Mr bin Laden "thought that an attack against the United States would reap al-Qaeda a recruiting and fundraising bonanza," the commission reported.
This claim comes from the interrogation of al Qaeda big Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was captured last spring. (It appears at page 19 of this report, which is in PDF.) If it's true, bin Laden certainly made a costly miscalculation when he assumed America would not respond militarily. Unfortunately, it was costly to America as well as to bin Laden. Would that cooler heads, like Mullah Omar (!), had prevailed.
Yet one can see why bin Laden might have made this error. For more than two decades America had shown a distinct lack of resolve in dealing with terrorism and other Middle East menaces. Jimmy Carter let Iran's terror regime hold American diplomats hostage until the last minute of his administration. Ronald Reagan withdrew from Beirut and sold arms to Iran. George H.W. Bush failed to finish the Gulf War. Bill Clinton cut and ran from Somalia and took actions against Saddam Hussein and bin Laden himself that were halfhearted at best.
Many of these decisions arose from the natural American tendency not to meddle in the affairs of other nations, especially at the cost of American lives. But bin Laden saw them as signs of weakness and cowardice, which emboldened him to undertake the atrocity of Sept. 11. His miscalculation consisted in failing to anticipate that mass murder on that scale, on American soil, would provoke a very different response. After all, we can withdraw from Somalia, but we can't very well withdraw from New York.
It's worth noting, though, that bin Laden, or whoever is calling the shots these days, made a similar calculation before the 3/11 bombings in Madrid, and this time it proved accurate. Spanish voters responded not with a renewed vigilance but by electing a new government that promised to give the terrorists exactly what they wanted: withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.
The Madrid attack, in contrast with Sept. 11, had little possible downside for al Qaeda. Even had the Spanish not responded in such a craven fashion, it wouldn't have made much difference in military terms. Spain, like most other European countries, simply doesn't have anything like the military might of the U.S. Whereas America seemed weak before Sept. 11, our European allies (and our European "allies") actually are weak.
The implication is chilling: American resolve after Sept. 11 gives al Qaeda a powerful incentive to attack European targets, the better to cause political headaches for Washington by dividing us from countries that should be our allies. Is it any wonder that Europeans long for a less aggressive American approach to terrorists?
Russia's
Warning
Amid the fake news about the 9/11 commission exonerating Saddam Hussein, here's
an item that's not getting the attention it deserves: CNN reports from Moscow
that "Russian intelligence services warned Washington several times that
Saddam Hussein's regime planned terrorist attacks against the United States,
President Vladimir Putin has said":
The warnings were provided after September 11, 2001 and before the start of the Iraqi war, Putin said Friday.
The planned attacks were targeted both inside and outside the United States, said Putin, who made the remarks during a visit to Kazakhstan. . . .
"I can confirm that after the events of September 11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services and Russian intelligence several times received . . . information that official organs of Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at U.S. military and civilian locations," Putin said.
Putin says there's no evidence that the erstwhile Iraqi regime actually carried out any such attacks--but the view of those who persist in trying to discredit Iraq's liberation seems to be that America should have waited until it did.
McDowdification
For an example of just how dishonest the partisan press prepared to be in its
effort to discredit President Bush's wartime leadership, look at this passage
from yesterday's USA Today:
Bush and Cheney also have sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003--the day the war in Iraq began--Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who "planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
Here's what the letter, a prerequisite for the commencement of military action under the bipartisan Iraq war resolution, actually said:
Acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
That is, the president's letter did not claim, as USA Today implies, that Iraq was culpable for the Sept. 11 attacks, only that Iraq's liberation was consistent with the effort to fight terrorists, including those who were behind 9/11.
This
Is Just Stunning
An American company and a German one are developing new nonlethal weapons "that
can incapacitate crowds of people by sweeping a lightning-like beam of electricity
across them," reports the New Scientist. Not everyone is happy: "Human
rights groups are appalled by the fact that no independent safety tests have
been carried out."
Well, here's an idea: If "human rights groups" think better testing of these weapons would further the cause of human rights, why don't they volunteer themselves as subjects for such tests?
Hezbollah
Goes to the Movies
We generally try to avoid acknowledging the existence of anti-American filmmaker
Michael Moore, but this item from London's Guardian on reaction to his latest
bit of propaganda, "Fahrenheit 9/11," is worth an exception:
In the United Arab Emirates, the film is being offered the kind of support it doesn't need. According to Screen International, the UAE-based distributor Front Row Entertainment has been contacted by organisations related to the Hezbollah in Lebanon with offers of help.
Far be it from us to say that Michael Moore and Hezbollah are on the same side. But Hezbollah certainly seems to think they are.
The
World's Smallest Violin
Protests
in Savannah, Ga., against the Group of Eight summit in Sea Island turn out to
have been a bust; only 150 people showed up instead of the thousands organizers
had expected. Now Kellie Gasink, a sponsor of the failed demonstration, is asking
for a handout from the city of Savannah:
In a letter sent to the mayor and aldermen this week, Gasink requested $2,000 to cover shortfalls stemming from last week's International Festival for Peace and Civil Liberties in Forsyth Park.
Gasink had projected more than 5,000 participants during the June 8-10 events, and was hoping to cover costs by selling T-shirts and posters she and her husband, William Pleasant, had created.
No dice, says Alderman Ellis Cook: "We're not in the business of supporting losing causes."
Kerry's
Fuzzy Math
Yesterday we
noted that John Kerry had claimed, in a Columbus, Ohio, speech, that more
black Americans are in prison than in college. It turns out that KERRY LIED!!!!
Blogger Clyde Middleton has the numbers (links below in PDF):
The US [Department of Justice] tells us the number of blacks incarcerated at mid-year 2002 (page 11, Table 13): 818,900 black men; 65,600 black women; total 884,500 blacks.
The US Census Bureau tells us the number of blacks in college during 2002: 802,000 black men; 1,476,000 black women; total 2,278,000 blacks.
It's true that among black men the number of prison inmates was slightly higher than the number of college students. But as the Statistical Assessment Service notes, this is a meaningless comparison, since "you can go to prison at any age, but are most likely to be in college between the ages of 18-24." A college-age black man, it turns out, is 2.5 times as likely to be in college as in prison. Also worth noting: A career criminal can easily end up spending decades of his life behind bars, while only the laziest student stays in college that long.
Is
This Legal?
On Wednesday the Philadelphia Daily News became, by its own reckoning, the first
newspaper in the nation to endorse John Kerry for president in November. The
paper went beyond the usual endorsement and vowed to take an active role in
winning the election for Kerry:
Kerry, who fought in the swamps of Vietnam, can lead us out of the quagmire of the Bush administration--but for that to happen, he will need your help.
Past presidential election strategies focused on the "undecided" or "swing" voters. This election, we're pushing a different strategy: We're focusing on the people poll-takers call "unlikely" voters.
The paper goes on to exhort readers to register to vote and to "get others" to do so. It provides Kerry's Web site address and urges readers to make a donation. "You can help Kerry win Pennsylvania," the paper says. "Act now. The commonwealth--indeed the nation--cannot afford another four years of George Bush."
We believe in free speech, so we have no problem with this. But if a company other than a media conglomerate (the News is owned by Knight Ridder Newspapers) undertook such an effort on behalf of a political candidate, surely the Federal Election Commission would be all over it. Perhaps the FEC should take up the question of Knight Ridder's electioneering for Kerry. It'd make an interesting test case.
To
Make Him Look Taller?
"Dem Prospects Jockey to Run at Kerry's Side"--headline, USA Today,
June 17
Dems
Rip Off Cabbies
"Boston taxi drivers are angry over a city proposal that they accept vouchers
from delegates to the Democratic National Convention instead of using their
meters for rides to and from Logan International Airport," the Associated
Press reports:
The city first offered vouchers worth $8, then raised the amount to $10, taxi drivers said.
"If you take one person to town, it's usually about $30, and I'm going to take one person for $10?" said 45-year-old Jean Abrahm, a cabbie for 16 years. "And I have to pay the toll, too? With gas now up, this is just a rip-off."
The vouchers, combined with convention traffic and road closings, could mean they would lose money going to and from the airport, the drivers said.
The party of the people!
Belgian
Justice
"A Belgian jury on Thursday convicted a former electrician of kidnapping,
raping and killing girls eight years ago, ending an agonizing 16-week trial
and closing the book on one of the most disturbing criminal cases in the country's
history," the New York Times reports from Paris:
Marc Dutroux, 47, faces a life sentence for the abduction, abuse and deaths of four girls, two of whom were apparently drugged, wrapped in plastic and buried alive. The other two died of starvation in an underground chamber where he left them while serving a three-month sentence for car theft.
Mr. Dutroux was also found guilty of kidnapping and raping two girls who survived. Their testimony and their return with the jury to the dungeon where they had been held provided the most dramatic moments of the trial.
Because he committed these horrific crimes in Europe, Dutroux won't get the death penalty. That would be "barbaric."
Not
Too Brite--CXLVIII
"A little late night relief proved costly for two drunk Cambodians who
were shot and beaten by security guards for urinating against a garage wall,"
Reuters reports from Phnom Penh.
Oddly Enough!
(For an explanation of the "Not Too Brite" series, click here.)
Wow,
She Is Mad!
"Mad Cow Slams Farm Families"--headline, Globe and Mail (Toronto),
June 18
A
Religion of Tax Relief
In a paper for the Heritage Foundation, economist Arthur Laffer recognizes one
of Islam's great achievements:
The Laffer Curve . . . was not invented by me. For example, Ibn Khaldun, a 14th century Muslim philosopher, wrote in his work The Muqaddimah: "It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments."
Ronald Reagan gets the lion's share of the credit for the supply-side revolution that has given us more than 20 years of mostly uninterrupted economic growth, but it's nice to see Ibn Khaldun get his due at last.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to William Katz, Edward Morrissey, Thomas Dillon, David Bookless, David Merrill, Ed Lasky, Michael Segal, Steve Tefft, Terry Harris, David Gerstman, Barak Moore, William Schultz, Gordon Haave, Mark Schulze, Steve Roberts, Yehuda Hilewitz, Chris Costello, S.E. Brenner, Rosanne Klass, Mark Simpson, Kevin Kneupper, Raphael Rubin, David Puett, Joel Goldberg, Terry Hinshaw, Ann Ellwood, Anthony Goodman, Lawrence Peck, Mara Gold, Pat Mizak, David Drucker, Mike Bowers, Rob Stewart, Dan Owens, Raj Pai, Greg Nelson, Richard Brum, Julie Beck, Robert Brooks, Mordecai Bobrowsky and Samuel Walker. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: The press ignores the 9/11 commission's most interesting findings.
- Daniel Henninger: "Under God" is the firm link to U.S. security.
- John Fund: Bill Clinton is everywhere--including promoting a new movie.
And on the Taste page:
- Review & Outlook: This time it's Marv Albert who has integrity.
- Tony & Tacky: A Stalinist serenade for German assembly-line workers. Plus pelicans abandoning their eggs.
- Lucette Lagnado: My family's Exodus from Egypt to America.
- Jonathan Last: A movie makes fun of Evangelical Christians. This took courage?
