From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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News
by Stereotype
Last Wednesday the Star Tribune of Minneapolis published a front-page story
following up on a deadly incident three days earlier. The headline: "Did
War's Demons Follow Iraq Veteran in I-94 Chase?" Well, as it turns out,
probably not:
When Brian William Skold died shortly after dawn Sunday on a rural stretch of interstate highway in central Minnesota, he may have been drunk. Members of his family told authorities that he may have been suicidal.
Was he still at war? Members of his family said no. . . .
"We want you guys to know that this incident was not a direct result of his service in Iraq. He loved his country and he served it proudly," his ex-wife, Amanda Skold, told reporters Tuesday.
Others aren't so sure.
"I don't know enough about his situation, but it doesn't surprise me that we're seeing more incidents like this," said James Schulze of rural Stewart, Minn., whose son Jonathan, a 25-year-old Marine veteran, committed suicide in January. . . .
Don Pappenfus, a Vietnam-era veteran and a Sauk Rapids City Council member, also wants to know whether the mental scars of combat could have been a factor in Skold's death.
"They're going through hell over there, and then some of them are coming home and not getting the help they need," he said. "I'm mad about it."
On Sunday Kate Parry, the Strib's "reader's representative," rightly pegged this as shoddy journalism:
Authorities reported no clear link. . . . One source had never met Skold. The other knew him only in passing.
That's not much foundation for the premise of [the] story. . . .
Several readers complained the story was straining to tie another sad incident to the Iraq war. I thought it was an angle worth pursuing, but when the facts didn't fall into place, an editor should have applied the brakes and held it for more reporting or recasting.
The reporter and a central editor on the story disagreed with me. "The family said they don't believe this is related to Iraq. We reported that," said reporter Chuck Haga. "With all due respect to them, I'm not sure they're able to truly judge what role if any his experience in Iraq played in shaping his life and outlook and mental wellbeing. To a lot of other people, there's an obvious connection. We raised the question and let people speak to it."
This is ridiculous. There is zero evidence that Iraq drove Skold bonkers. Those closest to him say it didn't. Others, who had no knowledge of the particulars, think "there's an obvious connection." To us it seems likely, almost to the point of obviousness, that the reporters and editors who worked on this story shared the prejudices of the latter sources, and thereby printed their claims as if they were authoritative--even though in fact they were prejudices and nothing more.
Justice
Delayed, Again
"The White House suffered an embarrassing setback in its effort to try
detainees at Guantánamo Bay on Monday when military judges threw out all charges
against the first two prisoners to come before the newly-constituted commission,"
the Financial Times reports. Note the way the FT immediately portrays this as
a matter of domestic politics--an "embarrassing setback" for "the
White House"--rather than reporting the legal story straight.
What actually happened, as Andrew McCarthy explains, is that the two judges threw out the charges on the most niggling of technicalities. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 authorizes the commissions to hear war-crimes cases against "alien unlawful enemy combatants." The military's Combatant Status Review Tribunals designate detainees "enemy combatants," and the judges held that the omission of the word unlawful precludes trials. (Presumably their alien status is not in doubt.)
But as McCarthy points out, the act defines an unlawful enemy combatant as "an individual determined by or under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense--(A) to be part of or affiliated with a force or organization--including but not limited to al Qaeda, the Taliban, any international terrorist organization, or associated forces--engaged in hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents in violation of the law of war; (B) to have committed a hostile act in aid of such a force or organization so engaged; or (C) to have supported hostilities in aid of such a force or organization so engaged." Since all the detainees at Gitmo are part of al Qaeda or the Taliban, it would seem reasonable to say that they qualify.
As we explained last year, the military was under no legal obligation to establish the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. Ironically, had it not done so, the defendants would have lacked the legal fig leaf they employed to get the charges dismissed.
Presumably the military can bring detainees it wants to charge with war crimes before reconstituted tribunals to determine whether they are unlawful enemy combatants. As an alternative, the detainees can be held without charge for the duration of hostilities, and only then to be charged with war crimes, à la the Nuremberg tribunals.
This may be the most sensible option. Although the execution of a Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for war crimes would have a useful demonstration effect, so far the commission system has produced nothing but the release of one detainee and a lot of fruitless litigation, not to mention confusion about the purpose of Guantanamo, whose primary purpose is preventive (keeping combatants off the battlefield), not punitive (meting out justice to criminals). Perhaps it would be wise to give up for now on the idea of trials at Guantanamo.
The
ACLU as Big Brother
The American Civil Liberties Union supports the right to privacy, doesn't it?
Not necessarily. Check out this report from the Associated Press:
Ohio has found itself in the crosshairs of the latest national debate over the death penalty: Should executioners' identities be protected?
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio begged the question [sic] with a wide-ranging request for state records seeking information on the May 24 execution of an inmate whose veins took 90 minutes to find and whose death came a record-setting 16 minutes after the toxic drugs began to flow.
Among other things, the ACLU asked for the names of Christopher Newton's execution team--a group of volunteer medics and guards whose identities are routinely shielded by the state.
Though the hooded executioner is so common as to be iconic, the ACLU and other death penalty opponents say they have new cause for seeking complete information on the people carrying out state-sanctioned deaths by injection.
And what is that "new cause"? Well, here's an example:
They point to the case of Dr. Alan Doerhoff, a participant in Missouri's execution process who was revealed in press reports to have been sued for malpractice more than 20 times.
Well, OK, but how many of those plaintiffs were guys he helped execute?
Moonbats
Who Don't Know Their Place
The Sacramento Bee reports on a Hillary Clinton fund-raising party gone bad:
Outside stood anti-war protesters, a flag-draped coffin and more than 100 guests in dinner attire, all waiting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. . . . Mainstream Democrats mixed with liberal activists in the street outside the home of developer Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis. . . .
She was . . . upset with anti-war activist Stephen Pearcy, partly because he had disrupted her reception and partly because she sees herself--and [Mrs.] Clinton--as opponents of the Iraq war. "I don't understand why in the world he would disrupt something like our event because, frankly, it is simply appalling that he and his friends are not going after the people in this (Bush) administration who have caused this war," Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis said Monday. " . . . That man has got the wrong people, us and her, and he should be ashamed of himself. He should be absolutely ashamed." . . .
"I think a lot of people were somewhat irritated by these protesters," [guest Jim] Moose said. "On the other hand, I think people have the right to protest. I'm not outraged by these people expressing their free-speech rights, but I think these protesters are missing the boat. . . . They could have found someone more politically conservative to protest than major Democratic candidates."
Don't these moonbats understand that they're supposed to be political pawns who serve the Democrats? They have some nerve to protest them instead. Some people just don't know their place!
This
Just Makes Us Cry
"Louisiana congressman William Jefferson received more than $500,000 in
bribes and sought millions more in nearly a dozen separate schemes to enrich
himself by using his office to broker business deals in Africa, according to
a federal indictment Monday," the Associated Press reports:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to push this week for Jefferson to be stripped of his seat on the Small Business Committee, according to a leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.
"If these charges are proven true, they constitute an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "Democrats are committed to upholding a high ethical standard and eliminating corruption and unethical behavior from the Congress."
Good for you, Nancy! The American people elected Democrats because they were fed up with corrupt Republicans like William Jefferson!
Uh, he is a Republican, isn't he?
Actually, the Associated Press never tells us his party affiliation. Neither does the biography on his Web site. But the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress does.
Are you sitting down? Turns out Rep. Jefferson is a Democrat.
We're so disillusioned. We really thought the Democrats were going to be different!
An
Anxious Nation Holds Its Breath--Day 86
Sen. Chuck Hagel's prospective presidential campaign continues to generate excitement.
While not yet issuing a formal endorsement, Andrew Sullivan offers these words
of praise:
He does appear to me to be committed to a wrenching, if sometimes incoherent, process of conscience and judgment. What drives him is not just patriotism, it seems to me, but a long-delayed desire to make sense of his own life and his country's past. He has gotten his fair share of obloquy. But we need more politicians like Hagel.
Just what America needs, a president committed to a wrenching, if sometimes incoherent, process of conscience and judgment! (Trivia question: Who was the last U.S. president committed to a wrenching, if sometimes incoherent, process of conscience and judgment?) "My fellow Americans, if elected, I promise to make sense of my own life." There's a stirring cry we can all rally behind!
The
Poor Little Rich Boy
Here is one of the funniest exchanges in Sunday's Democratic presidential debate;
Wolf Blitzer: What is a "rich person," Senator Edwards?
The Lovely and Talented John Edwards: I don't know if I know what a rich person is.
Reader Bart Harmon offers Edwards a little help:
You might be rich person if . . .
- You pay 400 bucks for a haircut, and that's with the ladies' day discount.
- Your house has more square footage than most Central American countries.
- You leave a larger carbon footprint than the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
- Your last three jobs were medical malpractice attorney, U.S. senator and hedge fund manager.
- You can talk easily about two Americas because you own at least one of them.
- You are paid $55,000 an hour to speak about poverty, and that's your college rate.
Butterfield
Alert
"Violent crime in the United States rose for a second year in a row in
2006, increasing 1.3 percent," Agence France-Presse reports:
Criminologists told the [Washington Post] that gangs and the release of large numbers of prisoners were in part responsible for the rising crime.
So fewer people are in prison despite increasing crime? That's a paradox!
The
Latest Democratic Fund-Raising Scandal
"German Youths Pay to Treat Impotent Ostrich"--headline, Jerusalem
Post, June 4
We'll
Get Wild, Wild, Wild
"Obama Warns of 'Quiet Riot' Among Blacks"--headline, Associated Press,
June 5
Breaking
News From 1991
"Bush Declares Cold War Is Over"--headline, Associated Press, June 5
The
One Thing He Has Going for Him Is Humility
"Housing Bust Got You Down? Here's Another Dud: Gene Sperling"--headline,
Gene Sperling column, Bloomberg, June 4
Help
Wanted
"Police Looking for Naked Peeping Tom"--headline, Associated Press,
June 5
The
Vietnam Head Says the Aussie Has Overstayed His Welcome
"Australian Remains in Vietnam Head Home"--headline, Associated Press,
June 4
Can't
the Funeral Home Afford Screens?
"Beware of Mosquitos in Wake of Barry"--headline, BayNews9.com (St.
Petersburg), June 4
Someone
Set Up Us the Bomb
"Joost Tabs Former Cisco Star Volpi CEO"--headline, InternetNews.com,
June 5
News You Can Use
- "Eating Live Frogs, Rats 'Cures Tummy Upsets' "--headline,
Reuters,
June 5
- "Adopt a Wild Horse or Burro and Get a Free Gas Card!!!"--headline,
press release, Bureau
of Land Management, June 4
- "Don't Be a Fathead"--headline, Philadelphia Daily News, June 5
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Syracuse Parking Garage Sold"--headline, EmpireStateNews.net,
June 2
- "RBS Not in Talks With BofA"--headline, Reuters,
June 5
- "Utah Sen. Bob Bennett Exhibits Artistic Flair in Office Decor"--headline,
Salt Lake
Tribune, June 4
- "Presidential Long Shots Sticking Around"--headline, Associated Press, June 5
Civil
War II
Some people "want Vermont to secede from the United States," the Associated
Press reports from Montpelier:
Disillusioned by what they call an empire about to fall, a small cadre of writers and academics is plotting political strategy and planting the seeds of separatism.
They've published a "Green Mountain Manifesto" subtitled "Why and How Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the Union." They hope to put the question before citizens at Town Meeting Day next March.
Among those urging secession, as blogger Charles Johnson points out, is one Thomas Naylor, who in March issued a list of 20 tenets titled "Radical Nonviolence and the Power of Powerlessness."
Anyway, we think Vermont secession is a good idea, if for no other reason than that it'd be a nice morale boost for the U.S., which is weary of the long struggle in Iraq. Vermont has only a few thousand people, and most of them are hippies. It should be easier to pacify than Grenada.
After all, as Naylor's second tenet has it, "Violence begets more violence, not the other way around."
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Kurt Jarrett, John Williamson, Jerry Skurnik, John Nernoff, Mark Christian, Steve Prestegard, Monty Krieger, Chuck Bloomer, Aaron Shafer, Patrick Bedwell, Curt Strubhar, Christian Peck, Brian O'Rourke, Joe Hopkins, Scott Wright, Rebekah Kloeppel, P.J. Moriarity, Chris Overstreet, Tom George, Aaron Ammerman, C.E. Dobkin, Duncan Witte, Steve Karass, Andrew Robinson, Jeffrey Spiegel, Jack Archer, Rod Pennington, Robert Koslover, Kathleen Sullivan, Ken Jorgensen, John Graham, Jim Fehrle, Thomas Dillon, Ed Lasky and Andrew Levinson. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Dan Senor: On Iraq, Democratic presidential candidates should listen to the "experts" they so often cite.
- Bret Stephens: Most of the conventional wisdom about the Six Day War is wrong.
- Niall Ferguson: America is financially overstretched at home more than abroad.
