« March 31, 2003 | Main
| April 02, 2003 »

April 01, 2003

Inspectors speak
: Die Zeit in Germany talks to U.N. weapons inspectors and if my translation is correct (never a good bet; correct me if I'm wrong), they say that peace would have been possible through inspection but that they were hurt by France's, Germany's, and Russia's refusal to back military force; that took the "teeth" out of their authority; it was "crazy."

LINK | Comments (6)

Even reporters are human
: Lt. Smash has a great story of a CNN correspondent moved by the humanity of the soldiers around him.

LINK | Comments (1)

CNN plug
: A Jeff Greenfield report on blogs -- including this one -- is scheduled to be on CNN tonight between 10 and sometime after midnight (news notwithstanding).
: Glenn Reynolds is supposed to be on CNN next. He should always have such an easy act to follow.
: Meanwhile, ABC (Australia) has a report on warblogs (no mention of Blair, though!)

LINK | Comments (1)

Strange bedfellows
: Entre Nous discovers that anti-war veteran Nat Hentoff isn't against this war.

LINK | Comments (0)

Self-hating Americans
: In the Jerusalem Post, Daniel Pipes and Jonathan Calt Harris report that Prof. Nicholas De Genova isn't the only Columbia faculty member who is a "self-hating American." There's quite a dirty laundry list. They conclude: "This self-hatred points to an intellectual crisis at a school long considered one of the country's best."

LINK | Comments (2)

Take that!
: Andrea Harris takes on Dave Winer, AKA "you sorry-ass excuse for a human being never mind American," on war. Click and enjoy.

LINK | Comments (0)

Advertising freedom
: The anti-war crowd, being an artsy bunch, has lots of nice graphics and posters and banners and buttons. The pro-war crowd doesn't. It's time to fix that. Here's my humble (if less than artsy) contribution. Anybody want to add a banner?
: Feel free to take this humble banner.

LINK | Comments (2)

Now this is war...
: The Times of London translates a Le Monde poll that says...

...only a third of the French felt that they were on the same side as the Americans and British, and that another third desired outright Iraqi victory over “les anglo-saxons”.

It's one matter not to support the war or support our effort. But to actually support Saddam Hussein and hope he wins over us.
Scum supports scum, slime roots for slime, evil consorts with evil.
The Times also reports that...

...54 per cent of Britons no longer regarded France as a close ally because of its opposition to the war.

See also the desecration of British war graves, below (photo here).
: Note Emmanuelle's surely more reliable translation of Le Monde in the comments.

LINK | Comments (20)

Flag tug-of-war
: The Guardian says the peace movement in the U.S. is trying to paint itself red-white-and-blue.

Haunted by accusations of anti-Americanism from the Vietnam era, and under pressure from a growing atmosphere of intolerance towards protesters, one anti-war group has unveiled a huge billboard with the message "Peace is Patriotic" against the image of an unfurling Stars and Stripes.

LINK | Comments (13)

Loose lips sink hopes
: So we waited for an hour for Centcom to give a mid-night briefing and it came in once sentence that was already leaked: a POW was rescued. Bravo.
But I imagine the families of all the missing and POWs watching TV tonight, praying, praying, let it me ours.
There shouldn't have been a leak. It was almost cruel. But this is what live 24/7 is like. All sides need to get used to that.

: But God bless Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the freed POW. She's just 19.

LINK | Comments (2)

by Salam Pax
: The Guardian prints Salam Pax' most recent posts, which is a smart and good thing to do. (I do hope they pay him a correspondent's fee when he's freed.) [via Denton]

LINK | Comments (1)

Micropayment
: A nonwar post:
For those of you waiting for micropayment to arrive, here's a step in the right direction: The AT&T prepaid content card. PaidContent.org reports on it here. Sounds like a good idea. But keep in mind that selling anything at retail is still tough.

LINK | Comments (0)

Giving your life
: Look at any man or woman in uniform and know that they are risking their lives. These people volunteered for this. Most go in with their eyes wide open.
Listen to Donald Sensing, an Army veteran and now a Methodist minister (and a blogger), as he talks about his son's decision about whether or not to enlist:

One of the characteristics of asymmetrical warfare is that future enemies will attempt to strike our non-combat units, as we have seen the Iraqis do for the past two weeks. Logistic trains have always been primary targets, of course, but future conflicts will see a lot more guerrilla-type encounters than the American Army is used to, historically.
Like any father, I want my son to come through his military service alive and well. Where can he serve and do so? At the junior enlisted level, there are really no safe jobs any more, because any soldier can be assigned to a combat theater. And once there, all soldiers are liable to attack in some way.

Eyes wide open.
Now compare that with a twit profiled in today's New York Times (and, I believe, interviewed on Today): a Marine volunteer who decided that he doesn't want to fight.

When Stephen E. Funk enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves last fall, going to war was the last thing on his mind. He was 19 and, as he put it, adrift after a year at college when a recruiter sold him on the Marines by talking up the leadership skills, camaraderie and confidence he would learn in the armed forces.
But while in boot camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Mr. Funk said, he began to feel like "a hypocrite" when he was ordered to shout out "Kill!" as the recruits drilled....
"War wasn't a part of it at all for me. I never even thought about it," said Mr. Funk, from Seattle, who plans to turn himself in for punishment today at his base in San Jose, Calif., for being absent without leave. "I thought it would be like Boy Scouts."

Let me say it again: Twit.
I have nothing against anyone deciding not to serve in the armed forces and I'm grateful it is a choice today. In my day, during Vietnam, fate and your birth date determined your odds; there wasn't a choice.
Soldiers today chose this life; they chose the hardship and the risk and I respect them for it.

LINK | Comments (3)

In exile
: Blogspot's having trouble (!?!?) and so Blogs of War has invited Tim Blair over for a barbie party.

LINK | Comments (0)

With friends like this...
: Peter Arnett finds a defender... at Alternet, of course.

In these days of lies and propaganda swallowed whole and dissenters chewed up and spit out similarly, what's amazing is that the old war dog lasted through almost one whole spin cycle before getting the boot. But then, his traitorous crime was committed on a weekend, when only the right-wing watchdogs who never sleep were holding the perimeter.

Take your blood-pressure medication now and you'll be fine in a few minutes.

LINK | Comments (0)

It's not just us
: The anti-you-name-it French have gone after the British, vandalizing a British war memorial in France.

The words "Rosbifs [British] go home! Saddam Hussein will win and spill your blood" were painted in French over the base of the cemetery's main monument - an obelisk topped by a cross.
On one side was a swastika and the words "death to the Yankees".
Also daubed were the words "dig up your garbage, it is fouling our soil," and "Bush, Blair to the TPI (International Court of Justice)".
Some 11,000 British dead are buried at Etaples, which lies on the Channel coast around 24 kilometres south of Boulogne.

Let's remember that they are buried there because they lost their lives defending France. Well, we remember that. The French are having trouble remembering that.

LINK | Comments (7)

The world's watching
: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledges that all the live coverage of this war could have an impact on the tactics:

"If there'd been live television coverage of the action on the Somme, I doubt whether it would have continued with that sort of carnage over the weeks or months," Mr Straw said.

LINK | Comments (2)

For your protection
: Will, a blogging soldier, just arrived in Kuwait and reports on handy personal hygiene items for the soldier:

Condoms have a specific (and VERY necessary) purpose in the civilized world, but here they are great for keeping the dust out of the barrel of your weapon. On a side note, lubricated is not recommended by the author for it serves no purpose in this effect, and only makes the weapon slippery.

LINK | Comments (0)

The other side of the ocean
: Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan writes in the Jerusalem Post about the growing split between America and Europe.

It would seem, then, that the trans-Atlantic rift, and the anti-Americanism it inspires on the European side, is not a transient affair. Rather, it reflects basic philosophical differences rooted in the realities of power. Put bluntly, Americans believe in power as a legitimate instrument of national policy because Americans have power. Europeans eschew the use of power in favor of diplomacy, international conventions and foreign aid because they don't have power. One side practices the strategy of the strong; the other, the strategy of the weak.

That's the lead article in a whole package under the provocative (especially for Israel) title: Why do they hate America?
In another piece, Per Ahlmark, former deputy PM of Sweden, looks critically at five faces of anti-Americanism in old Europe.

Instead of supporting Israel together with America, Europe has taken part in the delegitimization of the Jewish state, not least when voting for extreme resolutions in the UN. This outrageous part of European foreign policy might change in the future when countries, which were recently liberated from communism, become full members of the European Union.
But the jury is still out here. Will Poland, the Czech Republic and the other new democracies of Europe make the EU more understanding of both America's responsibilities and Israel's struggle to defend itself? Or will France, Belgium and some other old democracies contaminate also East and Central Europe with their anti-Americanism and repeated condemnations of Israel?

Moshe Zimmerman writes about German schizophrenia regarding America:

Being a nation that was beaten, liberated, occupied and economically catapulted by America, creates a serious psychological problem for Germany: how to be thankful and bear a grudge at the same time?

And there is much more. Click away here.

LINK | Comments (0)

On CNN
: The Jeff Greenfield piece on weblogs, including mine, is scheduled to be on tonight between 10 and midnight. But, of course, this is TV. Anything could change. Or, like Madonna, they could think better of it.

LINK | Comments (0)

Oh, no, don't tell me he's coming back here?!?
: More late-breaking Geraldo news. Now CNN says he's leaving voluntarily rather than being kicked out. I'm a little surprised; he was brown-nosing the soldiers so much you'd think they'd hire him on as a flack; he antimatter to Peter Arnett's matter; he turned himself into the Arnett on our side. But he didn't follow orders. So he's shipping out. KP for Geraldo. Clean those spuds, soldier, we're making ourselves some freedom fries!

LINK | Comments (1)