by JAMES TARANTO
Wednesday, December 27, 2006 9:39 A.M. EST

Gerald Ford, RIP
Gerald Ford, the only president never to be elected to either that office or the vice presidency, is dead. Ford, 93, breathed his last in Rancho Mirage, Calif., last night; the proximate cause of death is undisclosed, but it "followed a year of medical problems," the Associated Press reports.

In 1973, when Spiro Agnew resigned, Ford became the first vice president appointed under the 25th Amendment. The following year he ascended to the presidency when Richard Nixon, facing impeachment over the Watergate scandal, called it quits. Ford pardoned Nixon, declaring "our long national nightmare is over," then sought election in his own right in 1976. He narrowly beat Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, then fell well behind in the polls against Jimmy Carter, before coming back to lose narrowly, 50.1% to 48%.

Ford was the oldest ever ex-president, living 34,133 days; he surpassed Ronald Reagan's record last month. He also served longer in Congress than any other president, 9,103 days, or more than one-fourth of his life. He is survived by his wife, Betty, who said in a statement, "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."

The Iraq-9/11 Connection
The Associated Press's Christopher Torchia reports on an Iraq war "milestone":

The deaths of six more American soldiers pushed the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,977--four more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

So there is a connection with 9/11 after all! Only what it is, we're not exactly sure. "There has been no direct evidence of links between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Sept. 11 attacks," Torchia dutifully notes, and he doesn't say there's been any indirect evidence either.

"President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad," Torchia writes. "Going on the offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said."

Well, OK, but again, what's the connection between the number of murders, mostly of civilians, of all nationalities, on 9/11 and the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq (though not in Afghanistan or other fronts)? Beats us. Torchia certainly doesn't explain.

We guess the idea of all these "milestones" is to remind Americans that the liberation of Iraq has been costly--and, if you're cynical about the motives of Torchia and other journalists, to dampen public support for the war effort. Liberating Iraq has cost as many lives as 9/11, we are supposed to conclude; therefore it hasn't been worth the cost. Are we then supposed to wish that 9/11 had claimed more lives?

Anyway, isn't there a qualitative difference between someone who goes to work in the morning and is murdered by terrorists, and someone who makes the ultimate sacrifice for his country after volunteering to take that risk? Or between a little girl murdered on a hijacked airplane and an adult man who dies in combat? In what sense are the body counts comparable?

By drawing an equivalence between soldiers and victims, Torchia is insulting the heroism of those who fight, and in some cases die, for America. By engaging in such mindless and meaningless score-keeping, he is insulting the intelligence of every one of his readers.

Along similar lines, check out this Agence France-Presse story:

Though nearly 3,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq, medical advances mean the number is a lot lower than would have been expected.

For every servicemember who has died in Iraq, more than seven others have been wounded in action, according to statistics compiled by the Pentagon.

The number of US soldiers killed in Iraq has now gone past the 2,973 killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which responded with its global "war on terror".

So Torchia isn't alone in drawing a connection between Iraq and 9/11. But also, look at the AFP headline: "Medical Advances Lower Death Toll, Increase Number of US Wounded." It would be more accurate to say, "Medical Advances Lower Death Toll, Increase Recovery Rates for US Wounded."

Churchill He Ain't
John Kerry* had a weird Christmas Eve op-ed about Iraq in the Washington Post. The substance is of no interest--he wants to set a deadline for fleeing and get nicey-nice with Syria's dictator--but it's an interesting rhetorical specimen. Here's how it ends:

President Bush and all of us who grew up in the shadows of World War II remember Winston Churchill--his grit, his daring, his resolve. I remember listening to his speeches on a vinyl album in the pre-iPod era. Two years ago I spoke about Iraq at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., where Churchill had drawn a line between freedom and fear in his "iron curtain" speech. In preparation, I reread some of the many words from various addresses that made him famous. Something in one passage caught my eye. When Churchill urged, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty, never give in," he added: "except to convictions of honour and good sense."

This is a time for such convictions.

Here's how it begins:

There's something much worse than being accused of "flip-flopping": refusing to flip when it's obvious that your course of action is a flop.

I say this to President Bush as someone who learned the hard way how embracing the world's complexity can be twisted into a crude political shorthand. Barbed words can make for great politics. But with U.S. troops in Iraq in the middle of an escalating civil war, this is no time for politics. Refusing to change course for fear of the political fallout is not only dangerous--it is immoral.

I'd rather explain a change of position any day than look a parent in the eye and tell them [sic] that their son or daughter had to die so that a broken policy could live.

Doesn't Kerry realize that by invoking the eloquent Churchill, he is only drawing attention to his own inability to express himself clearly or even grammatically? President Bush's way with words isn't exactly Churchillian either. But every time we get frustrated that Bush isn't doing better, Kerry shows up to remind us that the country could have done a lot worse.

No wonder the troops won't eat with him!

* "My mom passed away a couple years ago, just before I was deciding to run. And she was in the hospital, and I went in to talk to her and tell her what I was thinking of doing. And she looked at me from her hospital bed and she just looked at me and she said, 'Remember: integrity, integrity, integrity.' Those are the three words that she left me with."

Nothing to See Here
"The American military is holding at least four Iranians in Iraq, including men the Bush administration called senior military officials, who were seized in a pair of raids late last week aimed at people suspected of conducting attacks on Iraqi security forces," the New York Times reports:

Gordon D. Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said two Iranian diplomats were among those initially detained in the raids. The two had papers showing that they were accredited to work in Iraq, and he said they were turned over to the Iraqi authorities and released. He confirmed that a group of other Iranians, including the military officials, remained in custody while an investigation continued, and he said, "We continue to work with the government of Iraq on the status of the detainees."

It was unclear what kind of evidence American officials possessed that the Iranians were planning attacks, and the officials would not identify those being held. One official said that "a lot of material" was seized in the raid, but would not say if it included arms or documents that pointed to planning for attacks. Much of the material was still being examined, the official said.

Don't worry, though. We have it on no less an authority than the Iraq Study Group that Iran wants stability in Iraq. So we're sure this is all perfectly innocent.

Not Bird Nor Plane Nor Even Frog
Is Jimmy Carter an anti-Semite? Shmuley Boteach, who styles himself "America's rabbi," argues in the Jerusalem Post that the answer is no:

Jimmy Carter is not so much anti-Semite as anti-intellectual, not so much a Jew-hater as a boor. The real explanation behind his limitless hostility to Israel is a total lack of any moral understanding.

Carter wants to do what's just. His heart's in the right place. He just can't figure out what the right is. He is, and always has been, a man of good intentions bereft of good judgment. He invariably finds himself defending tyrants and dictators at the expense of their oppressed peoples. Not because he is a bad man, but because he is a confused man.

Carter subscribes to what I call the Always Root for the Underdog school of morality. Rather than develop any real understanding of a conflict, immediately he sides with the weaker party, however wicked or immoral.

Israel has tanks and F-16's. The Palestinians don't. Therefore the Palestinians are being oppressed. Never mind that the Palestinians have rejected every offer to live side by side with Israel in peace and elected a government pledged to Israel's annihilation. Their poverty dictates the righteousness of their cause even if their actions speak otherwise.

Boteach likens this attitude to that of marriage counselors "who always take the side of the wife in an ugly dispute in the belief that a woman, inherently weaker than her husband, is always the innocent and aggrieved party. Even where the evidence points to the wife as being violent and unreasonable, such arbitrators cannot conceive of the husband as anything but the oppressor."

But the "Always Root for the Underdog school" is even more perverse when applied to international relations. It's not just that to side with Yasser Arafat--or Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein or Robert Mugabe--is to choose the wrong side vis-à-vis Israel, America or some other Western power. It is that to side with these dictators is to side against their own people, who are the actual underdogs in the situation.

Meanwhile, America-hating polemicist Robert Fisk, in London's Independent, sings the praises of Carter, whom he describes as "the only American president approaching sainthood." That Lincoln was such a slacker!

Andrew Sullivan Is Shocked to the Core
"Forcing store clerks to listen to the same holiday music over and over could be akin to torture and should change, a British noise pollution group said."--United Press International, Dec. 24

This Just In
"Candidates Turn to Web to Reach Voters"--headline, Associated Press, Dec. 24

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
"Uma Thurman Breaks Wrist, Shooting Delayed"--headline, United Press International, Dec. 23

Should Be Easy to Thread Up Such a Large Space
"Atrium Gets FDA OK for Catheter"--headline, Telegraph (Nashua, N.H.), Dec. 22

Who Needs Alcohol?
"Parasite Makes Men Dumb, Women Sexy"--headline, Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 26

News You Can Use

• "Risky Behavior Can Be Costly"--headline, Signal Item (suburban Pittsburgh), Dec. 20
  
  
• " '07 Outlook Unknowable"--headline, Star-Gazette (Elmira, N.Y.), Dec. 24

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Ukrainian Tinned Cucumber Export Rates Remain Record Low"--headline, Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits (Kiev), Dec. 22
  
  
• "Louisiana Man Released From Hospital"--headline, Baxter Bulletin (Mountain Home, Ark.), Dec. 27
  
  
• "Flaws Are Detected in Microsoft's Vista"--headline, New York Times, Dec. 25
  
  
• "Popular Hip-Hop DJ Dies of Gunshot Wounds"--headline, CNN.com, Dec. 24
  
  
• "Noam Chomsky Comments on the Iraq Study Group Report"--headline, Middle East Online, Dec. 26

Spanish Flier
Cuba's health-care system, a favorite of pinkos everywhere, turns out not to be good enough for communist dictator Fidel Castro, as Reuters reports from Madrid:

A renowned Spanish surgeon has been rushed to Cuba to treat ailing leader Fidel Castro, a Spanish newspaper reported on Sunday.

Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, an intestinal specialist, traveled to the Caribbean island on Thursday aboard an aircraft chartered by the Cuban government, according to Spain's left-leaning El Periodico de Catalunya newspaper.

The plane carried medical equipment not available in Cuba in case the leader needs further surgery due to his progressively failing health, the newspaper reported.

Of course, Spanish doctors have lots of experience dealing with dictators who are still dead.

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Today on OpinionJournal:

• Review & Outlook: Will Bush's legacy be a huge tax increase on the most productive Americans?
• Jonathan Stevenson: What's going on in Somalia?
• Tom Bray: A joint biography of Reagan, John Paul II and Thatcher makes good use of Moscow archives.