From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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Ayatollah
So
Democrats aren't the only ones declaring victory this week, Reuters reports
from Tehran:
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush's defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran.
Bush has accused Iran of trying to make a nuclear bomb, being a state sponsor of terrorism and stoking sectarian conflict in Iraq, all charges Tehran denies.
"This issue (the elections) is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush's hawkish policies in the world," Khamenei said in remarks reported by Iran's student news agency ISNA on Friday.
"Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation."
This column is scrupulously nonpartisan, so we won't comment one way or another on Khamenei's view of the election--except to say we are hopeful that the Democrats will do everything possible to prove him wrong.
We
Have Allies?
"America's rejection of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy is a slap
in the face for his allies," Reuters reports from London:
Many analysts believe that [Donald] Rumsfeld's departure clears the way for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. But ministers and world leaders have warned in recent days about the long-term result of abandoning the country.
Jordan's King Abdullah said Iraq could end up as another generations-long conflict in the Middle East.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he would tell Bush "it would be against everybody's interest, except the terrorists, for the coalition to leave in circumstances of defeat."
And commentators in Poland, one of Bush's closest allies on Iraq, did not anticipate a major shift after the U.S. vote.
Mainstream parties on the right and left in the biggest ex-communist EU member backed the war in Iraq and continue to see the United States as a key ally.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said his country would keep its troops in Iraq for the time being.
"Danish foreign and security policies are decided in the Danish parliament and not in the United States," he told reporters, playing down the impact of the vote.
So it turns out America has allies in Iraq after all! It's amazing what comes out after the election.
By
George, Let's Lose Another War!
"George McGovern, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate,
said Thursday that he will meet with more than 60 members of Congress next week
to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June," the Associated
Press reports from Lincoln, Neb.
Well, let's not make too much of this. It turns out that the group with which McGovern is meeting is "the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a 62-member group led by Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee." Rep. Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing military action against al Qaeda in 2001.
Still, 62 Democrats are enough to make up slightly over one-fourth of the new congressional majority, and it's mildly unsettling to consider that such a significant faction would agree with nonsense such as this:
McGovern told the audience Thursday that the Iraq and Vietnam wars were equally "foolish " and that the current threat of terrorism developed because--not before--the United States went into Iraq.
McGovern must have a really short memory. For his information, here's a timeline:
- Dec. 29, 1992: Al Qaeda bombs a hotel in Aden, Yemen, and attempts
to bomb a second one, unsuccessfully targeting U.S. Marines staying there.
- Feb. 26, 1993: Al Qaeda bombs World Trade Center, killing six
adults and an unborn child.
- Feb. 22, 1998: Osama bin Laden issues a fatwa declaring war
on the U.S.
- Aug. 7, 1998: Al Qaeda bombs U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
killing more than 220.
- Oct. 12, 2000: Al Qaeda attacks USS Cole in Aden, killing 17
sailors.
- Sept. 11, 2001: Al Qaeda attacks World Trade Center and Pentagon
with hijacked planes, killing some 3,000 people, mostly civilians.
- December 2002: George McGovern, in an essay for Harper's, blames
America for terrorism.
- March 20, 2003: Operation Iraqi Freedom begins.
So not only does the terrorist threat long predate the liberation of Iraq, but so does McGovern's claim that America is to blame for it. Hard to believe the people of Massachusetts actually voted for this guy.
The
Courage of Hans Blix's Convictions
Last month we
noted that Hans Blix, the man who makes us ashamed of our Swedish extraction,
was waxing nostalgic for the days when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. "If he
and others really believe this," we asked, "why don't they advocate
restoring Saddam to power . . .?"
Well, Daniel P. Quinn of St. Petersburg, Fla., has the courage of Hans Blix's convictions. In a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune, he writes:
It's a question of being "right" or doing the right thing. Saddam Hussein could save more thousands of lives from suffering and death than he is accused of having caused.
Hussein has already been vindicated as being guiltless in the accusations that he had weapons of mass destruction.
For the sake of peace and better relations in the Middle East, Saddam Hussein should be reinstated as leader of Iraq. He is the only one who can stabilize the region. Returning Hussein to power will take guts.
How about a compromise: We restore Saddam after he's been hanged.
Sharp
as a Pin?
Do you disagree with John Kerry's suggestion last week that American servicemen
are uneducated losers? If so, you have something in common with Nazis, according
to an op-ed by one Charles Pinning. The Providence Journal actually published
this garbage:
Witness Nazi Germany, where an entire country let itself believe that Jews were evil and needed to be exterminated. A false truth was promulgated and taken up, by leaders and citizens alike, and an entire nation went insane, with catastrophic results.
Today, in another country--our own--another false truth is being spread: that most of our military personnel and our troops in Iraq are bright, motivated young people, who, with eyes wide open are defending our country from terrorists and spreading democracy. . . .
Most of our military personnel in Iraq are kids who come from socio-economic backgrounds that weren't putting them on a path to college. As a result, they opted for military service because it offers a steady salary, three square meals a day, health coverage and other benefits, including technology training. For many, it offers something to do with their lives and a family.
In fact, if anyone is promoting a Big Lie here, it is those who are disparaging the troops à la Kerry and Pinning. As the Heritage Foundation's Tim Kane points out:
In the most recent edition of Population Representation in the Military Services, the Department of Defense reported that the mean reading level of 2004 recruits is a full grade level higher than that of the comparable youth population. Fewer than 2 percent of wartime recruits have no high school credentials. . . .
The military defines a "high quality" recruit as one who has scored above the 50th percentile on the [Armed Forces Qualifying Test] and has a high school diploma. The percentage of high-quality recruits has increased from 57 percent in 2001 to 64 percent in 2005 (67 percent in 2004), indicating not only that the military is accepting intelligent and well-educated recruits, but also that the representation of these recruits has increased strongly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, our item yesterday on Uwe Reinhardt, the Princeton economist who tried to talk his son out of joining the military and now berates as "chicken hawks" other young people who do not join up, brought this interesting response from reader Larry Parker:
I agree with the Nov. 9 comments on Uwe Reinhardt. It is abhorrent that a man can be so locked into a view of the world that he cannot even bring himself to respect his own son's service.
But as a veteran and the husband of a spouse who I do believe made sacrifices for my service, one sentence in your commentary goes a bit too far. I think that although the elder Reinhardt is an unwilling participant, having a loved one in harm's way is most definitely a sacrifice. I understand your point was that the elder Reinhardt did not in fact choose to serve, but in some ways that is what makes it more difficult.
I had a sergeant major who was a combat veteran several times over who once told me his wife had a much harder job than he did when he went off to combat, because he at least had his fellow Marines to keep him company and knew whether or not he was safe from moment to moment--his wife didn't have comrades to support her and had no idea what was going on in her husband's life.
Although the elder Reinhardt is not the most sympathetic example, at a minimum his son's presence and companionship have been sacrificed three times and the elder Reinhardt had no say in the matter. You could have made your point without this sentence, and I think it is unfair to Uwe Reinhardt and those who sacrifice in the same way he has.
An interesting argument, and it is undoubtedly true that military wives make enormous sacrifice. But we stand by our position: Uwe Reinhardt has sacrificed nothing.
Not every loss is a sacrifice; a sacrifice is something that is given, not taken. Thus giving money to charity is a sacrifice; paying taxes is not. The relationship between husband and wife is entirely different from that between a parent and his adult child, in a way that is crucial here.
A marriage is a reciprocal commitment; a husband and wife belong to each other and have a claim to each other's companionship, care and consortium. A woman who keeps that commitment when her husband goes off to war is giving up something that is rightfully hers, and thus is making a sacrifice.
By contrast, Uwe Reinhardt may enjoy his son's companionship, but he has no right to it. Mark Reinhardt is an adult, and as such he is legally and morally entitled to make his own decisions about how to live his life. At most he owes his father respect and love.
Of course this too is a reciprocal obligation, and as Parker notes, it is sad to see Uwe Reinhardt lashing out at other young people rather than showing his own son the respect that is his due.
Antigay
Democrats
On Tuesday Wisconsin approved a ballot measure against same-sex marriage, which
also forecloses civil unions and possibly other legal arrangements between unmarried
couples. The initiative passed by a wide margin, 59% to 41%. That was good news
for Republicans, the anti-same-sex-marriage party, right? No, as it turns out.
Democrats in Wisconsin held the governorship, picked up an open GOP House seat, picked up as many as eight seats in the Republican-controlled state Assembly, and gained control of the state Senate. Cary Spivak and Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explain how it happened:
"The timing ended up backfiring," said U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Menomonee Falls Republican. . . .
The measure clearly had an unintended consequence by sparking a larger-than-expected turnout, especially among left-leaning college students, who flooded their campus polling places. . . .
Sensenbrenner doesn't disagree with the impact of the amendment on driving up the campus vote. But that's only part of the story, he said.
By putting the same-sex marriage and death penalty measures on the same ballot, Sensenbrenner said, Republican leaders in the Legislature ended up drawing the wrong type of voter to the polls--Democrats, especially conservative ones. Those people voted for the ballot proposals but against Republican candidates.
His proof: About 275,000 people cast ballots for the ban on same-sex marriages but not for [Rep. Mark] Green [for governor].
Remember in 2004 when Kedwards ostentatiously made an issue of Vice President Cheney's having a daughter who was a lesbian? Few people saw what they were up to at the time, but we did.
Metaphor
Alert
"The fact that the Democrats crossed midfield does not make this
election a great anti-conservative swing. Republican losses included
a massacre of moderate Republicans in the Northeast and Midwest. . . .
The Republicans have shed the last vestiges of their centrist past, the
Rockefeller Republicans. And the Democrats have widened their tent to
bring in a new crop of blue-dog conservatives."--Charles
Krauthammer, Nov. 10
Homelessness Rediscovery Watch
"If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition's arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation."--Mark Helprin, Oct. 31, 2000
"Homeless Man Head-Butts Clerk to Get Steaks"--headline, Des Moines Register, Nov. 10, 2006
At
Least They Can't Do What the IRS Does
"India Unleashes Eunuchs on Tax Cheats"--headline, USA Today, Nov. 9
And
Our Thinking Is Pretty Twisted
"DNA Found More Flexible Than Thought"--headline, United Press International,
Nov. 9
News
You Can Use
"Prostitution Not Limited to Truck Stops"--headline, WTVQ-TV Web site
(Lexington, Ky.), Nov. 8
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Sandwiches Rescued in 2-Vehicle Crash"--headline, KPRC-TV
Web site (Houston), Nov. 10
- "No Gun Found at Hendersonville High"--headline, Tennessean
(Nashville), Nov. 9
- "Deer's Head Gets Stuck in Fake Pumpkin"--headline, Associated
Press, Nov. 10
- "No Secret Theatre Deals Have Taken Place"--headline, Cambridge
(Ontario) Times, Nov. 9
- "Post Office Open From 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Today"--headline, Detroit
News (fourth item), Nov. 10
- "Chafee Unsure of Staying With GOP After Losing Election"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 9
Going
Postal
We learned six years ago that Florida voters aren't the sharpest tools in the
shed, but the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that one of them may be even
dumber. It seems an unidentified Broward County voter mailed in an absentee
ballot with 87 cents' postage, 24 cents of which were what appears to be an
"inverted Jenny"--a 1918 airmail stamp erroneously printed with an
upside-down airplane.
Only 100 such stamps--one sheet--are known to exist, and one of them sold for $525,000 last year:
At the elections office, Deputy Kevin Jurgens, another stamp collector, confirmed for [County Commissioner John] Rodstrom that the stamp indeed appeared to be the vaunted rarity.
"I knew that it was one of the most valuable stamps in a collection," Rodstrom said.
"I doubt that," said Mitch Kopkin, proprietor of the Tropical Stamp shop in Fort Lauderdale. "It's highly unlikely" the stamp in question is an actual Inverted Jenny.
"It could be a forged stamp," Kopkin said.
If the stamp is genuine, it's still worth a bundle--though a smaller bundle, no doubt, by virtue of having been canceled. But election officials will have to find a way around a law requiring all ballots to be destroyed in two years.
For our part, we swore off stamps years ago after a bad romantic experience. We had met an interesting woman in a bar, but when we asked if she wanted to go back to our place and look at our collection, she demurred, saying, "Philately will get you nowhere."
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Sam Wakim, Ethel Fenig, Ami Avivi, Ed Lasky, William Girardot, Michael Segal, Marc Young, Edward Schulze, Marc Van Der Molen, Larry Hau, Bob Scott, Pete Ricketts, Scott Wright, Mark Cooper, Paul Wicht, Tomas Nally, Greg Lindenberg, Tony Casas, Mary Tarpey, Gregory Smith, Phillips, Harry Nelson, C.E. Dobkin, Robert Firriolo, Richard Belzer, Steve Karass, Ron Ticchi, Joseph Tully, Steve Padgett, Andrew Robinson, John Dubas and David Drucker. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: The House GOP needs a new generation of leaders.
- Daniel Henninger: Team 41 is a threat to the Bush legacy.
- Peggy Noonan: Politicians are at their best when acknowledging defeat.
- The Journal Editorial Report: Tune in this weekend for a discussion of Nancy Pelosi and Robert Gates.
And on the Taste page:
- Review & Outlook: Helping the Third World does not mean forsaking commerce.
- Tony & Tacky: Planning an office Christmas party? Watch out for litigation!
- Ned Crabb: Scam artists I have known.
- Rob Long: Rather than going to Africa to help the people there, celebrities are bringing them home.
- Naomi Riley: The first handwritten Bible in half a millennium.
