From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Trouble
for the Taliban
Reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan, CNN's Mike Chinoy says there are signs the
Taliban are weakening:
- Islamic schools are being closed so students can join the Taliban military, but "many of these young men are avoiding conscription by returning to their villages or heading to Pakistan."
- The number of Taliban security checkpoints has "dropped considerably."
- The Afghan currency, the afghani, "has begun to strengthen considerably, possibly a sign that Afghan businessmen and money dealers see prospects for political change."
So where do the tottering Taliban turn? To Jesse Jackson. CNN reports the frequent foreign-policy freelancer "is still considering an invitation by the Taliban government to come to Afghanistan to negotiate a peace deal." Jackson says his actions are "not in defiance of our government": "When this call came, I immediately called Secretary of State Powell; I called Dr. Condoleezza Rice. If we are able to appeal to the Taliban to choose . . . the world court and to release (Osama) bin Laden, rather than seeing more innocent people killed, that must be seen as a good thing."
Isn't it odd that Jackson, one of America's more liberal politicians, is apparently urging a course of action that would leave in power one of the world's most illiberal governments?
Rules
for Terrorists
CNN also reports on a document found in a rental car one of the hijackers returned
in Portland, Maine, on the day of the attacks. A "law-enforcement source"
tells the network the document, written in Arabic, "contains reminders
and 'rules of engagement' for carrying out a strike against the enemy."
Among them: "strike your enemy above his neck" and "be very punctual."
What's
Next?
ABC News's "PrimeTime Thursday" tonight carries an interview with
an Osama bin Laden associate identified only as "Max," who tells ABC's
John Miller: "The next plan is to release Omar Abdul Rahman from jail."
Rahman is the blind sheik who was convicted in 1995 in a plot to blow up the
United Nations, assassinate Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, and bomb tunnels
and FBI offices in New York.
"Asked by Miller how al Qaeda might hope to free Rahman, 'Max' says 'Maybe they kidnap [an] ambassador there . . . and bring him to Afghanistan and ask for release.' He says he believes bin Laden would be willing to conduct an armed operation to obtain his goal, noting that while 'it would be very difficult for them to do this release . . . they are trying, even now, just looking for a chance."
A 1995 CNN report quotes Rahman's lawyer as blaming his conviction on jury bias. How's this for a touching moment: "The sheik's attorney, Lynne Stewart, said he told her not to cry after the verdict was announced. 'He said, "I'm not the first person to go to jail for his beliefs, I won't be the last. There are always pitfalls when you choose this road and this is one of them," ' she said."
'Islam's
Flawed Spokesmen'
Salon's Jake Tapper has an excellent piece on the problem (which we noted yesterday)
of finding responsible spokesmen for America's Muslim community. "Unlike,
say, the Catholic Church, Islam in the U.S. doesn't have an organized hierarchy,"
Tapper notes. Reporters typically rely on groups like the Council on American
Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Council. "Very often whoever's
speaking for them represents a very homogenized global form of Islam that refuses
to recognize diversity of opinion," Ali Asani, a Harvard professor of Islamic
studies, tells Tapper.
CAIR and AMC are virulently anti-Israel but temporize when asked to condemn acts of terrorism by Muslims. When Tapper asks CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper to condemn specific terrorist groups, Hooper replies that the questions are simply "word games from the pro-Israel lobby": "This is a game they play. They give me a long list of people to condemn and if you don't give sufficient condemnation you're a terrorist. We would condemn any person or any group that kills innocent civilians. But it's not my duty that when the pro-Israel lobby says 'Jump' I say 'How high?' "
Liberty Belz
We heard from Joel Belz, whose World magazine article we criticized Tuesday
and yesterday.
He writes:
May the fellow you described as an "anti-American," the one who just came down from my office's rooftop where I had personally planted an American flag where more people could see it, join briefly in your discussion of "pluralism"?
Very simply: The "pluralism" you described--something "that allows everyone from evangelical Protestants to Catholics to atheists, from Mormons to Muslims to Jews, to live in the same cities and towns, free of the religious wars that divide such places as the Middle East"--that is something I applaud and thank God for.
The pluralism which I call a false god is a pluralism which suggests that all religions are equally true or valid. When pluralism moves beyond the protection of everybody's right both to believe and even to propagate that belief peacefully, and then also argues that none of those beliefs is more true than any other of those beliefs--then something that started off as very good has become a false god.
I will always be a defender of the first kind of pluralism, even while I understand that it contains within itself the seeds for occasionally producing the second.
I thank you for extending the discussion.
We're grateful for the clarification. We usually like being right, but in this case we're glad to hear we were wrong.
Justice
and Mercy
Another interesting Christian view comes from John Piper, pastor of the Bethlehem
Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Is it possible, Piper asks, to "pray for
justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time"? He answers in the affirmative:
We will magnify the mercy of God by praying for our enemies to be saved and reconciled to God. At the personal level we will be willing to suffer for their everlasting good, and we will give them food and drink. We will put away malicious hatred and private vengeance. But at the public level we will also magnify the justice of God by praying and working for justice to be done on the earth, if necessary through wise and measured force from God-ordained authority.
Pacifism
Is Evil
Columnist Michael Kelly weighs in with a typically bracing column denouncing
American "pacifists" who urge that their country surrender to the
terrorists:
As President Bush said of nations: a war has been declared; you are either on one side or another. You are either for doing what is necessary to capture or kill those who control and fund and harbor the terrorists, or you are for not doing this. If you are for not doing this, you are for allowing the terrorists to continue their attacks on America. You are saying, in fact: I believe that it is better to allow more Americans--perhaps a great many more--to be murdered than to capture or kill the murderers.
That is the pacifists' position, and it is evil.
Rules
for Activists
The good news is that the pacifists may be as impotent as they are evil. Instapundit.com
calls our attention to this list of "Tools for White Guys who are Working
for Social Change and Other People Socialized in a Society Based on Domination."
Among them:
1. Practice noticing who's in the room at meetings--how many men, how many women, how many white people, how many people of color, is it majority heterosexual, are there out queers, what are people's class backgrounds. Don't assume to know people, but also work at being more aware.
8. Practice asking more people what they think about meetings, ideas, actions, strategy and vision. White guys tend to talk amongst themselves and develop strong bonds that manifest in organizing. This creates an internal organizing culture that is alienating for most people. Developing respect and solidarity across race, class, gender and sexuality is complex and difficult, but absolutely critical--and liberating.
12. Remember that social change is a process, and that our individual transformation and individual liberation is intimately interconnected with social transformation and social liberation. Life is profoundly complex and there are many contradictions. Remember that the path we travel is guided by love, dignity and respect--even when it is bumpy and difficult to navigate.
How much harm can these jokers do when they're so busy bean-counting, hand-holding and navel-gazing?
Murrow
Transplant
Victor Davis Hanson (whose article on how war forges great leaders appeared
here
on Monday) pens a biting satire for National Review Online. The premise: Legendary
newsman Edward R. Murrow reports on Dec. 8, 1941--from a country dominated by
2001-style "pacifists":
President Roosevelt will call for a joint session of Congress today to discuss yesterday's bombing of Pearl Harbor and the reported loss of 2,400 Americans. I can report that our commander-in-chief is calm and will not ask for a precipitous "outright" declaration of war against the Japanese, but instead leans toward a general consensus to "hunt down the perpetrators" of this act of "infamy."
Speaking for the Congress, Senator Arthur Vandenberg promised bipartisan support to "bring to justice" the Japanese pilots. Many believe that the "rogue" airmen may well have flown from Japanese warships. In response, Secretary of War Stimson is calling for "an international coalition to indict these cowardly purveyors of death," and will shortly ask the Japanese imperial government to hand over the suspected airman from the Akagi and Kaga--"and any more of these cruel fanatics who took off from ships involved in this dastardly act." Assistant Secretary Robert Patterson was said to have remarked, "Stimson is madder than hell--poor old Admiral Yamamato has a lot of explaining to do."
'D' Is for 'Demented'
This one isn't a satire, more of a self-parody. Doris "Granny D" Haddock,
the nonagenarian campaign-finance agitator, delivers a lunatic speech in the
ironically named town of Unity, Maine:
This is not a time for all good Americans to forget their political differences and rally behind the man in the White House. The man in the White House should apologize for the most serious breach of internal security in the nation's history, not disguise his failure in calls for war. Can he hope that the fiery explosions in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania will be more acceptable to us if they are placed in a larger context of explosions of our own making? I do not rally around that idea. It is "wag the dog" taken to an extreme level, for he is not covering up his failure with a fake war, but with a real one.
He has taken every opportunity to make the world less safe, first in North Korea and then in the Mideast and in Russia and in China. He needs a dangerous world to sell his military vision of the future. He is getting it. We must not go along with him.
The international community may soon have to rescue the Afghan people from the Taliban just as we had to rescue Europe from the Nazis, and rebuild it and let it find its way to self-government, but that is not the same issue and that will not resolve international terrorism at its roots. It is a diversion of our attention from Bush's catastrophic failure at home and abroad.
How
China Treats Muslims
Those who would have America surrender to the terrorists often suggest that
we "had it coming"--that America oppresses Muslims by supporting Israel, imposing
sanctions on Iraq and so forth. If this is so, why didn't the terrorists target
China, which treats Muslims in a truly barbaric fashion? The Times of London
reports on the execution of some Islamic militants Tuesday:
In the afternoon sunlight bathing the People's Square in Kashgar, northwestern China, several dozen Islamic prisoners were lined up on blue lorries, dazed and barely comprehending.
Standing under a 100ft granite statue of Chairman Mao, the handcuffed Islamic prisoners swayed gently, steadied by white-gloved policemen. Their eyes were bloodshot, their unfocused gaze testament to their confusion. They did not realise they would face the executioner within the hour. As a final insult to their faith, they had been fed alcohol with their last meal. . . .
Hundreds of Communist Party members seated in neat rows, with the lorries of Islamic prisoners arrayed before them, applauded a series of blood-curdling speeches quoting President Jiang Zemin. Ringed by banners, flags and propaganda pictures, the prisoners silently peered through their alcoholic haze.
Two of the prisoners were shot to death; the others were returned to prison. "According to local custom, the bullet will be sent to the family of the deceased as a warning to future generations."
A
Victory for the Union
The union representing Wal-Mart workers in Las Vegas says it's succeeded in
pressuring the store chain to allow workers to wear American flag stickers on
their name tags. According to the union's Web
site, Wal-Mart had been concerned that the stickers would obscure employees'
names.
We heard from reader Robert O'Brien, who saw our item yesterday on Starbucks and offers a different view:
I was at St. Vincent's Hospital on 9/11 with other volunteers and medical staff on Seventh Avenue. The local Starbucks could not have been more generous with water, coffee and food which they continued to distribute without charge throughout the afternoon. This was my actual observation.
Rejecting
the Pledge
The principal of McDougle Elementary School in Chapel Hill, N.C., is refusing
to begin the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance. In response, "a
group of about two dozen parents and their children have been meeting outside
the school at 7:30 every morning to recite the pledge together and also sing
the National Anthem," reports the Durham Sun Herald:
The group had been meeting at the flagpole in front of the school, but Roman-Oertwig, who recited the pledge with the group Wednesday morning, said they were impeding traffic at McDougle. The group moved to a spot on the sidewalk in front of the school, which also concerned administrators, so in the future the students and their parents will gather inside the McDougle gym.
Out in La-La Land, Los Angeles city councilman Ruth Galanter is proposing that the Council recite a "pledge of allegiance to the Earth" at the beginning of council meetings. It reads: "I pledge allegiance to the Earth on which I stand, one world, one people, undivided, with food, shelter and justice for all."
Councilman Nate Holden dismisses the idea as a "feel good" measure. Our reaction to the Galanter pledge is totally L.A.: Gag us with a spoon.
Strange
Bedfellows
Why was the airline industry able to secure a huge bailout package from Congress
so quickly? One reason, the New York Times (link requires registration) suggests,
is that industry lobbyists were sleeping with prominent members of Congress.
Don't worry, though, they're married:
Part of the reason the airlines scored so big--aside from their dire straits--was the platoons of high- powered lobbyists who scrambled to get the measure passed with lightening speed. Among them was Linda Hall Daschle, wife of Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Senate majority leader. Mrs. Daschle helped develop the lobbying strategy for American Airlines. "She is an aviation expert and she was extremely helpful to guide our company," said Al Becker, an American Airlines spokesman. Lobbyists for Continental Airlines included Rebecca Cox, wife of Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican.
Coming
Soon--to the Remainder Table
On Sept. 6, less than a week before the start of the war, The Atlantic Online
published a review of "The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National
Disorder" by Mark Crispin Miller. Review Jack Beatty begins:
Reading The Bush Dyslexicon is a threat to your mental health. It induces helpless despair. It will also cause you to weep for democracy, will renew your disgust with Al Gore, and make those of you who supported Ralph Nader reconsider your purity in the light of its price. Consisting of a few hundred pages of the shallow thoughts and illiterate speech of George W. Bush punctuated by the author's often brilliant interpretations of this mind-resistant flood, The Bush Dyslexicon raises a disturbing question. How can a man who says things like, "Laura and I don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis"; "My education message will resignate amongst all parents"; "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family"; and "I want a foreign-handed foreign policy"--how can this verbal sloven be President of the United States?
Whoops.
Satire Is Back
After a hiatus, The Onion returns with some surprisingly funny satire on the
Sept. 11 atrocities and the war. (Note that the site contains some rough language.)
The best is a piece titled "Hijackers
Surprised to Find Selves in Hell." The article, which bears the dateline
JAHANNEM, OUTER DARKNESS, "reports":
"I was promised I would spend eternity in Paradise, being fed honeyed cakes by 67 virgins in a tree-lined garden, if only I would fly the airplane into one of the Twin Towers," said Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, between attempts to vomit up the wasps, hornets, and live coals infesting his stomach. "But instead, I am fed the boiling feces of traitors by malicious, laughing Ifrit. Is this to be my reward for destroying the enemies of my faith?"
The rest of Atta's words turned to raw-throated shrieks, as a tusked, asp-tongued demon burst his eyeballs and drank the fluid that ran down his face.
According to Hell sources, the 19 eternally damned terrorists have struggled to understand why they have been subjected to soul-withering, infernal torture ever since their Sept. 11 arrival.
Monkeyfishing
in Mexico
On Monday we noted
an Agence France-Presse dispatch reporting that the mayor of Apatzingan, Mexico--supposedly
confusing the name of his town with Afghanistan--had asked President Bush not
to bomb Apatzingan. The report was genuine, but the mayor now says he was only
joking. The link above is in Spanish, but you can read a very rough translation
of it here.
(Thanks to Mike Basham, Damian Bennett, Philip Leeman, Edward Lanza, Edward Lilly, Rosslyn Smith, Jerry Skurnik, Frederick Larsen, Richard Bussell, Edward Schulze, Nigel Kassulke, Rohan Rangaraj, Glenn Reynolds, Jim Orheim, Andrew Taranto and Greg Horowitz. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
