From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Whatever!
Nancy Reid and Harry Pelosi, the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate
(though not necessarily in that order), have an op-ed in USA Today criticizing
the Bush administration for being "passive" with respect to Iran's
and North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons: "The administration's policy
has been one of 'hands off' and 'it's someone else's problem,' " they
complain.
It's true that anyone who expected the administration to resolve the Iran and North Korea nuclear questions has thus far been disappointed, and we know of no reason to expect that will change soon. But is this the administration's fault? Or, to put the question another way, to what extent is the problem amenable to a U.S.-led solution, and to what extent is it intractable?
If you think the U.S. can solve the problem, your argument will be a lot more persuasive if you have a plausible explanation as to how. So what approach would Reid and Pelosi take? Here's what they say:
We propose a program of "carrots" combined with an old-fashioned, American "big stick." That means pursuing diplomacy and trying to convince these nations to act in their own best interests. But it also means backing that up with a real commitment to use whatever form of pressure is most likely to produce results.
A real commitment to . . . whatever! Brilliant, huh?
Now, just because Reid and Pelosi don't know how to solve the problem doesn't mean it can't be done. Maybe a solution is possible but no one's thought of it yet. But if airy truisms are the best Reid and Pelosi have to offer by way of an alternative policy, it seems fair to put their criticisms of the administration down to sheer partisanship.
The
Fete of the World Is at Stake
"Iran Sees More Parties in Nuke Negotiations"--headline, FoxNews.com,
Aug. 25
Taunting
the Wounded
It's often said that one lesson the "antiwar" left learned from Vietnam
is not to vilify American soldiers. True enough, by and large you don't hear
the kind of demonization that was the stock in trade of anti-Vietnam agitators
like John Kerry*.
But that doesn't mean the left respects the troops. Instead, it seeks to exploit their sacrifice by describing them as "children" and as victims. Sheehanoia is the most obvious manifestation of the former, and CNSNews.com describes a particularly sick example of the latter:
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton." . . .
Code Pink Women for Peace, one of the groups backing anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas, organizes the protests at Walter Reed as well. . . .
Kevin Pannell, who was recently treated at Walter Reed and had both legs amputated after an ambush grenade attack near Baghdad in 2004, considers the presence of the anti-war protesters in front of the hospital "distasteful."
When he was a patient at the hospital, Pannell said he initially tried to ignore the anti-war activists camped out in front of Walter Reed, until witnessing something that enraged him.
"We went by there one day and I drove by and [the anti-war protesters] had a bunch of flag-draped coffins laid out on the sidewalk. That, I thought, was probably the most distasteful thing I had ever seen. Ever," Pannell, a member of the Army's First Cavalry Division, told Cybercast News Service.
"You know that 95 percent of the guys in the hospital bed lost guys whenever they got hurt and survivors' guilt is the worst thing you can deal with," Pannell said, adding that other veterans recovering from wounds at Walter Reed share his resentment for the anti-war protesters.
"We don't like them and we don't like the fact that they can hang their signs and stuff on the fence at Walter Reed," he said. "[The wounded veterans] are there to recuperate. Once they get out in the real world, then they can start seeing that stuff (anti-war protests). I mean Walter Reed is a sheltered environment and it needs to stay that way."
The Code Pinkos, of course, have the right to express their opinions, but perhaps this is an occasion on which Congress should impose some reasonable time, place and manner restrictions. If a woman on her way to an abortion clinic is entitled not to be harassed by noisome protesters, isn't the same true of men like Kevin Pannell, who have made the penultimate sacrifice for a noble cause?
* The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.
Angry
Left Has-Beens
The Associated Press brings us a Sheehanoid blast from the past:
Among those defending Sheehan are former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, who believes his wife's identity as an undercover CIA operative was leaked in retaliation for his criticism of the Bush administration in a 2002 New York Times op-ed piece.
"The Bush White House and its right-wing allies are responding to Cindy Sheehan and the military families' vigil in central Texas in the same way that they always respond to bad news--by unleashing personal attacks and smears against her," Wilson said in a statement released Wednesday.
Actually, Wilson's op-ed ran in 2003, not 2002, but the point is it was so long ago, who remembers? And he isn't the only erstwhile Angry Left celeb trying to steal a piece of Cindy Sheehan's 15 minutes of fame: Coleen Rowley and Downing Street have both made appearances as well. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
As for Wilson, the Los Angeles Times devotes more than 5,000 words to retelling the story of the Valerie Plame kerfuffle, which he set off all those years ago. Don't they realize this sort of thing only encourages him?
For
890th Day in a Row, Times Urges Defeat in Iraq
"For 3rd Day in a Row, Bush Says Withdrawal Now From Iraq Would Embolden
Terrorists"--headline, New York Times, Aug. 25
Supermodels
for Bush
Cindy Crawford of Morristown, N.J., has a nice letter to the editor in today's
New York Times:
I am only one small voice in this country, but I feel confident that people want to be optimistic about their lives and their country.
As I watch this country become so divided over the war, I wonder why the news media will not come together and support what our country is doing for another country. How long will our young brave individuals in our military continue to volunteer for all of us, given the constant barrage of negative information?
I remember Sept. 11 so very well and feeling that if there was ever a time we could depend on our neighbors, it was after those attacks. It was one of the only times I truly felt that this country was united.
This is again a time we need to unite, regardless of our political preferences.
Ms. Crawford, we apologize for mentioning your name in the same breath with you-know-whose.
Make
SUV, Not War
Almost three years ago, we quoted Keith Bradsher, a New York Times reporter,
who had this to say about people who drive sport-utility vehicles:
"They tend to be people who are insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors or communities."
Well, at least he didn't say they're excitable! Blogger Andrew Sullivan, just back from vacation, has alighted on this ancient trope:
As far as I'm concerned, those people driving SUVs are aiding and abetting the enemy, and helping to finance the terrorists that want to kill us all. I'm well aware that the notion that the Bush administration has any interest in energy independence or taxing gas or deterring SUVs is about as likely as their demanding subsidies for sex-changes, but I might as well vent. We can always stigmatize these SUV-terror-enablers. How about bumper-stickers for non-SUVs that simply say: my car doesn't subsidize Saudi terror. Would that help?
Later he relays a reader's tasteful slogan suggestion: "How many soldiers-per-gallon does your SUV get?"
Meanwhile, al-Jazeera reports that "speculation over the actual size of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves is reaching fever pitch as a major bank says the kingdom's--and the world's--biggest field, Gharwar, is in irreversible decline." If this turns out to be true, then SUV drivers should be regarded as heroes, not goats, for they are helping hasten the day when the Saudis run out of oil.
DiFi
Doesn't Get It
How many feminists does it take to change the Supreme Court?
That isn't funny!
We were reminded of this joke--which originally involved a light bulb--by this story from the Associated Press:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Wednesday that [John] Roberts could be called to account for some of his humor from his years in the Reagan administration, when he frequently leavened his legal opinions with bursts of wit that could run from playful to caustic.
Feinstein, the only woman on the Judiciary Committee, pointed to one memo in which Roberts, while disparaging state efforts to combat discrimination against women, wondered whether "encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."
"He . . . had a sense of humor that is subject to interpretation, on women's rights for example," Feinstein told reporters after a speech at a downtown hotel.
"Whether that was a joke, or whether it represents his real view, I don't know. We'll try and find out," she said.
Either Feinstein is horribly inconsiderate or it just didn't occur to her that if she manages to get Roberts to explain, it'll ruin the joke for all the rest of us.
Not all Democrats are humorless, though. The Rocky Mountain News reports that at Hunter S. Thompson's belated funeral, George McGovern made a pretty funny joke at the expense of John Kerry**:
McGovern recognized Kerry in the audience and said the crowd would be calling him President Kerry if the last election hadn't been rigged. Then again, he said, that might not be the case if the election before that hadn't been rigged, too, and Al Gore had won.
Of course, if the election hadn't been rigged in 1972, we'd all be speaking Russian.
The
Channel for People Who Don't Watch TV
The New York Times brings us this hilarious item about Jonathan Klein, president
of CNN's domestic operations:
Mr. Klein said CNN is looking at the long term and trying to set itself apart as a news organization that wants to reach the serious news viewer, one who watches less TV news over all, and is younger than the steady audience for more tabloid news fare.
"CNN: The network serious viewers don't watch when they're not watching TV."
Comfortably Numb?--II
Our item
yesterday on a new study of fetal pain prompted reader John Persing to send
us a link to this
page, at which Prof. George Boeree, a psychologist at Pennsylvania's Shippensburg
University, writes:
There are people who are born with a genetic inability to feel pain at all. It is very rare, and at first sounds like a blessing. But the rate of early death is quite high in these people, usually because injuries that normal people would attend to (small ones, like sprains) go unattended and develop into more serious problems.
Asks Persing: "If there are people with a genetic defect and are unable to feel pain, can they be aborted late into adulthood?" The answer, of course, is that that is a matter for a woman to decide in consultation with her physician. The only significance of the fetal-pain research is that if the woman did decide to have such an abortion, the hyperdeveloped fetus would not need anesthesia.
Homer Nods
According to the Selective Service Web site, draft registration ended in April
1975, not in 1974 as we said
yesterday. And yes, we are aware that young men are required to register
for the draft today; that was the whole point of this discussion.
Stop
the Presses!
"Beer, Friends Plentiful at Local Bars"--Daily Kent Stater (Kent State
University, Ohio), Aug. 24
All Right,
Where's the Fire? Seriously, Where Is It?
"Darkness Halts Battle Against Brush Fire in Seymour"--headline, Connecticut
Post (Bridgeport), Aug. 24
Holy
Cinemascope, Batman!
"Penguin to Publish Former H-P CEO's Book"--headline, Crain's New
York Business, Aug. 24
He
Claimed He Had Ants in His Pants, but They Were Really DVDs in His BVDs
"Malaysian Arrested With Porn in Underwear"--headline, Associated
Press, Aug. 24
Red Card
Our item yesterday on metric football prompted this reply from reader Eddie
Staples:
While I certainly sympathize with your attitude toward this "sport" implicit in the name you give it, I think the appropriate disdain can only be shown by calling it what it really is: communist football. Consider:
- No one understands the rules.
- Workers are prohibited from using the tools that would let them be more
productive (hands).
- From time to time petty bureaucrats (officials) interfere with play in
such a way as to limit production.
- Players, coaches, officials and fans are all fully involved (employed)
and yet output is miniscule.
- Any production is met by celebration all out of proportion to its objective
value.
- Followers are slavishly (religiously?) devoted to the system and their own brand of it and resort to violence at any criticism of either.
Good points all, but "communist" and "metric" turn out to be inextricably linked. The Soviet Union used the metric system, and Cuba, North Korea, Red China and Vietnam still do.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Jim Hook, Daniel Foty, Ethel Fenig, Mark Schulze, Tom Linehan, Thomas Dillon, M. Gilbertson, Ron Ackert, Kathy Nichols, Chris Stetsko, David Albersheim, Mark Van Der Molen, Anne McCaughey, Greg Askins, Reagan Dickinson, Michael Hopkovitz, Michael Segal, C.E. Dobkin, Jeremy Brown, Naftali Friedman, Michele Schiesser, Jim Orheim, Charlie Gaylord, Marion Dreyfus, John Bell, A. Harry Williams, Evan Hamilton, James Jarvis, Pete Drum, Bill Jones and Bob Vorick. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Iraq's constitution empowers legislators, not clerics.
- Peggy Noonan: Don't close those military bases. We may need them someday soon.
- Malia Zimmerman: What a gas! But Hawaii isn't laughing.
- Naomi Riley: What do college students do when they aren't studying?
