Posted 11:24 AM by a
OpinionJournal - Extra Responses: "It Isn't Easy Being Green
Roy Fassel - Los Angeles

You can talk all you want about the makeup of the 'International Community' as expressed through the U.N. The debate about the Iraq matter has had many diversions such as WMD and countless resolutions which Saddam Hussein violated openly. All of Saddam's recent actions prior to going into hiding were based on one certainty. Saddam Hussein was absolutely sure that France, Germany and Russia would never approve the overthrow of his regime in Iraq. Repeat! Saddam Hussein was 'absolutely sure' that his regime would never be removed by the 'International Community.' Never. Ever.

There is an old saying. If you owe the bank a little, they own you. If you owe the bank a lot, you own the bank. Saddam Hussein owed France, Germany and Russia an awful lot of money. So much so that he 'owned them.' Saddam was right. France, Germany and Russia did everything they could to stop the overthrow of Saddam. Saddam Hussein made one miscalculation. Probably with the advice of France. He miscalculated that 'the willing coalition' would follow through with the 'serious consequences.' My hunch was that he never thought the coalition would attach until they entered Baghdad.

Why was he so sure? France, Germany and Russia are owed $7 billion to $8 billion from the 'Saddam-era' Iraq. France, Germany and Russia were willing to allow the killings and open human rights violations to hopefully get repaid. If France, Germany and Russia would have had their way, the U.N. inspectors would, by now, been relieved of duty and Hussein would have been given a clean bill of health and the sanctions would have been lifted.

That is the only other alternative. The Bush-Blair plan or the 'International Community's' plan to be "

Posted 12:52 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Wonder Land Responses: "The PC Nomenklatura
Denis Armstrong - West Des Moines, Iowa

"We are no longer free to express our opinions in this country without assessing the potential damage to our careers, livelihoods and reputations. We are being forced into an Orwellian straitjacket of politically correct speech tailored by an ideological nomenklatura who will relentlessly seek and destroy anyone who sins against their dogma.

Ironically, the political liberals who are the enforcers of these new speech codes are the same crowd who constituted the 'free speech' movements of the mid 1960s."

Posted 7:21 PM by a
William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn on Middle East on National Review Online

"To create a new state under the current conditions would be to reward terrorism. Yasser Arafat and the terrorism he has brought to the modern world have wreaked enough havoc. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Arafat taught the world the "benefits" of hijacking civilian airliners — he was rewarded with U.N. resolutions, U.N. speaking engagements, and U.N. status. From the U.S. he received respectability, including multiple White House visits and meetings with President Clinton. Over the past several years, just as Israel was moving toward implementing full Palestinian statehood, suicide bombings began in Israel."

Posted 7:16 PM by a
Byron York on Janice Rogers Brown on National Review Online

"In the end, what was striking was how little Democrats seemed inclined to dig into the actual questions involved in the cases Brown has decided; each time Brown delivered a crisp defense of her reasoning, Democrats simply moved on to another sound bite. It was as if Durbin and his colleagues had chosen to make a series of short-form attacks, get the hearing out of the way, and then move on to the more serious matter of filibustering Brown's nomination."

Posted 6:32 PM by a
Walter E. Williams: Racial censorship:

"The true tragedy of the flap over Limbaugh's remarks is that it's reflective of an ongoing process in our increasingly politically correct world where people are losing the freedom to say what they think lest they be subject to intimidation, extortion and other costs by our well-established grievance industry."

Posted 12:18 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Wonder Land Responses: "Theophobia
Ed McMerty - Springfield, Pa.

"What Mr. Henninger describes is basically another 'religion,' although not God-based: secular humanism. It is what's essentially taught now in the public schools--a non-God-based state religion.

It is interesting that many tenets (abortion, euthanasia, homosexual unions, this atheism in the public schools, etc.) of this humanism have been imposed on us; i.e., not by laws by our elected officials, but by 'judicial' rulings.

In effect, the liberal wing of both parties are populated by (to imitate a word created by them) theophobes.

The tragic fact lurking is that if they succeed, especially through the courts (no surprise that it now takes 60 senators to confirm a practicing non-theophobe), they will leave all of us with a country without a soul and filled with people never 'endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.' In short, a country not worth fighting for."

Posted 11:32 AM by a
OpinionJournal - Featured Article Responses:

"If the Democratic Party really wants a sheep in wolf's clothing they should all get behind Sen. John 'I served in Vietnam, threw my medals on the steps of the Capital to protest that war, married into money, and America should pander to the United Nations' Kerry. If Sen. Kerry becomes president and it is necessary for him to send our troops into battle, he can send them in and then just walk outside the White House and protest the war himself. Then he could walk back inside, order the troops home, and ask the United Nations to send in peace keepers to just stand around and watch all the ensuing crimes against humanity. If Kerry needs France's vote in the Security Council, he can have our troops surrender instead of just pulling them out of the fight."

Posted 12:41 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today:

"President Bush spoke at a New Hampshire National Guard base today, part of what the media are inevitably disparaging as a 'public relations campaign' to call attention to progress in Iraq:
Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power? Surely not the dissidents who would be in his prisons or end up in mass graves. Surely not the men and women who would fill Saddam's torture chambers, or the women in his rape rooms. Surely not the victims he murdered with poison gas. Surely not anyone who cares about human rights and democracy and stability in the Middle East. There is only one decent and humane reaction to the fall of Saddam Hussein: Good riddance."

Posted 12:21 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Featured Article:

"It's now up to Governor Schwarzenegger to do something about the 'progressive' train wreck he's inherited. That won't be easy with hostile Democratic majorities in the legislature. But Arnold brings considerable assets to the fight, not least of which is his star power. The state legislature in Sacramento has been operating under a rock for 20 years with almost no news coverage. Mr. Schwarzenegger can turn over that rock, shine a light and threaten to take issues to the voters if the legislature resists."

Posted 2:51 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today:

"The Moral Authority of the United Nations

"The UN has told the Canadian government to ban all forms of corporal punishment of youngsters--including even a light slap,' reports the CanWest News Service. The Committee on Rights of the Child said Canada, as a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is obliged to make spanking illegal. So if you're a Canadian parent and you want to discipline your children without running afoul of the U.N., you may soon have to hire a Palestinian to blow him up."

Posted 4:37 PM by a
WorldNetDaily: Hillary's name filed for president

Then what to make of ID # P00003392, an electronic filing to be found at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) database?

"Clinton, Hillary Rodham – Office Sought: President; Election year 2004; State: Presidential Candidate; District 03; Party: DEM (Democratic Party)."

A call to Sen. Clinton's Washington office elicited a surprised reaction from a spokesman who said: "I don't know anything about it."

Posted 12:20 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Featured Article Responses:

"Excellent article on the abject failures of liberalism. What continues to astound me is the socialist liberalism promulgated at the vast majority of our universities, supported, of course, by our liberal media. It seems that both the media and the university professors are self delusional since all they need do is look at California to see the failed policies of liberalism; flight of businesses and population. Then, too, if one looks across the pond at socialist Europe and looks at the unemployment figures for the past decade, ones sees an average unemployment rate of 10%! Liberalism definitely hurts the little guy more than wealthy people. Why don't the Republicans harp on this?"

Posted 12:09 PM by a
OpinionJournal - The Western Front:

"The difference in the California race is that challenges normally reserved for primaries are playing themselves out in a high-profile general election. Messrs. Bustamante and McClintock are showing off the strength of their supporters not only within their parties, but among the electorate at large. Far from 'wasting a vote,' anyone who pulls the lever for two candidates projected not to win today will be sending a clear signal on how he wants the state to be governed. And that's a signal that will be heard loud and clear by all Golden State politicians--including the governor."

Posted 5:57 PM by a
washingtonpost.com: Surprise Front-Runner In La. Governor's Race:

"He spent a year in Washington as executive director of a federal commission charged with saving the nation's Medicare system, then two more years in Louisiana as president of the University of Louisiana System, overseeing eight four-year universities, 80,000 students and 4,000 faculty members. In 2001 he joined the Bush administration as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation for the Department of Health and Human Services -- against the advice of his mentor Foster, who publicly urged him to stay home and run for office."

Posted 12:20 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Thinking Things Over:

"America's citizens had the patience to support resistance to Soviet expansion for a half-century, until the threat vanished in 1989. We now face the threat of terrorism allied with Arab radicalism. In Iraq, we've set back terror and won the opportunity to nurture a modern Arab state. The American people will support this; George Bush's task is to brush aside the carping and rally them."

Posted 1:06 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Extra Responses:

"Why Bush Will Win
Stefania Lapenna - Cagliari, Italy

"There is an anti-Bush campaign around the world, specially in Europe. It's not only the Democratic Party that wants Mr. Bush to be beaten, but the major part of Europe. The media make us believe that Mr. Bush has already lost the re-election campaign. In reality, they ignore some important facts: The Americans could focus more on the economy than on Iraq. And the economy seems to be doing better, according to yesterday's news. Also, they ignore that the Democratic candidates are not as popular as many believe. Even Mr. Clark, despite some say that he has good chances to beat Bush, he lacks of much knowledge on many issues. The word 'general' will not make him win. Americans will be looking at important issues such as the economy and the war on terror. The first seems to improve and so in the next months. The latter can be handled only by a strong leadership, which is Mr. Bush's. The American people knows this very well. The liberals want a Vietnam-style end in Iraq. For this they will be judged by the voters."

Posted 12:49 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Extra Responses:

"Sorry, Marquess
Michael Page - Phoenix

I hope you're right, but the Dems and their allies in the media have proved that lying pays--especially if there's no rebuttal or if there's evasion rather than a full-blown counterattack.

Logical explanation is futile with a populace that has been 'dumbed down' by years of an educational system that scorns the basics, negates logic and promulgates 'politically correct' speech, leasing to absolute thought control that makes the Inquisition and its predecessors seem like an 'opening act.

George W. Bush has fallen in my opinion because of his reverence for the U.N., where we give our taxpayer money to a flock of sworn enemies, and invite them to partner up with us in Iraq, where all opposed us because of their selfish financial interests.

Someone once said something to the effect that 'the best defense is a good offense.' If the left is going to play dirty, we are under no obligation to play by the Marquess of Queensbury rules."

Posted 12:05 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Featured Article Responses:

"Yes, it is time to quit playing patty-cake games with terrorist organizations and those countries that foster and provide support for them. At the same time let us acknowledge our own stupid diplomatic blunders of the State Department 'ass kissing,' and 'money wagging,' tactics. When you play with fire, you can get easily get burned or get consumed by the flames. Evil does exist; to play with it is to court disaster, and to ignore it only opens the back door so it can enter into one's reality to do as evil does. The road to peace is not by ass kissing or buying off terrorists countries or leaders. The road to peace is made possible by an instillation of virtuous character and the will to do good. Hatred, prejudices and biases all foster the roots of evil actions through one's 'ego.' Master the ego and then the personality can shine the light of peace and good will toward all life--this is the true road on which 'peace,' can be achieved."

Posted 11:49 AM by a
OpinionJournal - Featured Article Responses:

"Those who berate Messrs. Bush and Blair for implementing the pre-emptive regime change in Iraq are also saying they wish that Saddam Hussein would still be in total power in Iraq continuing all of his activities, which included both attempts to develop better WMD and the continuation of sponsoring terrorism overseas and practicing terrorism within his own borders. If people were not for the complete overthrow of the Saddam requiem, then by simple deduction, they were 'for' allowing Hussein to continue his operations. There were, and are still, no other options. Ask the people of Iraq for the truth. Don't ask the Democrats in America."

Posted 7:47 PM by a
Eject! Eject! Eject!

SIMPLY THE BEST FROM BILL WHITTLE.

"As we began to fight back against the worldwide terror network, their corrupted ideology, and the states that harbor them, I and many of my fellow countrymen were shocked to discover all of the sympathy and affection generated by our status as victims suddenly evaporated the moment we decided to utilize our power to try to put an end to this threat. We were counseled by our moral superiors that terrorism was a fact of life in this new millennium – best just to ignore it as much as possible, and not make things worse by poking it with a stick. And as for all those new skyscrapers and super-jumbo airliners and all those other dreams…forget it. Too much of a target. Who would ever want to inhabit the building replacing the fallen towers? The terrorists will just blow it up again. Better to build a park or something less provocative."

Posted 7:10 PM by a
To The Editor:

"Retired TV anchorman Walter Cronkite, once known as "Uncle Walter," is sounding a little like Helen Thomas, American journalism's crazy old aunt in the attic. In his newspaper column, he writes:

In his two and a half years in office, Attorney General John Ashcroft has earned himself a remarkable distinction as the Torquemada of American law... He was largely responsible for its methods, including torture and the burning of heretics--Muslims in particular.

Now, of course, I am not accusing the attorney general of pulling out anyone's fingernails or burning people at the stake (at least I don't know of any such cases)..."

The Opinion Journal concluded, "Wow, this is loopy stuff. Either Cronkite is lost without a script, or he's lost his mind. And that's the way it is."

In the Philadelphia Enquirer, Cronkite wrote this: "Since I won't like the look of that vast field of towers; and I won't like their interference with glorious sailing in the Sound; and I will worry about the wildlife, including porpoises and whales and several birds of endangered species on their annual migrations; I'm opposed to the project."

The project consisted of placing wind-turbines in Nantucket Sound.
Walter reversed course when his position became national news.

Cronkite's hit pieces on the Bush administration are purely hogwash, worthy only of a second class political hack. What justifies their publication in the center of the opinion page, displacing Letters To The Editor, other than being in sync with the In Our View column?

Carthel Williams
136 Clubhouse Lane
Santa Maria, Ca. 93454

Posted 12:25 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Thinking Things Over:

"Now comes George Bush asserting that American power will be used pre-emptively to avert terrorist attacks on America, to establish American values as universal values. This so profoundly challenges the activists' self-image that they can only lash out in anger. Not many of them actively hope the U.S. fails in Iraq, of course, but they are in a constant state of denial that it might succeed.

What's more, this challenge is brought to them by a born-again MBA from Midland, Texas. This is a further challenge to their image of the best people, secular Ivy-league intellectuals. And to twist the knife, President Bush actually comes from an aristocratic family and went to prep school, Yale and Harvard. He has rejected these values for those of Texas."

Posted 12:18 PM by a
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today:

"George W. Bush is a liar. . . . Lying has been one of the essential tools of his presidency. To call the forty-third President of the United States a prevaricator is not an exercise of opinion, not an inflammatory talk-radio device. Rather, it is backed up by an all-too-extensive record of self-serving falsifications. While politicians are often derided as liars, this charge should be particularly stinging for Bush. During the campaign of 2000, he pitched himself as a candidate who could 'restore' honor and integrity to an Oval Office stained by the misdeeds and falsehoods of his predecessor. To brand Bush a liar is to negate what he and his supporters declared was his most basic and most important qualification for the job.

This is calm only by contrast with Chait. And the idea that Bush is a liar must seem counterintuitive to ordinary, nonpartisan Americans. After all, he is a pol who generally does what he says he's going to do: He said he'd cut taxes, and he did; he said he'd liberate Afghanistan and Iraq, and they're liberated. On the really important matters, Bush has to be reckoned one of today's more honest politicians."

Posted 11:45 AM by a
OpinionJournal - Extra:

"I belong to that camp of Americans known as 'Clinton-haters.' At The Wall Street Journal, I wrote Clinton-unfriendly editorials. On the day of his impeachment, I radiated joy. Once, over dinner at New York's Metropolitan Club, Jean Kennedy Smith told me I was mentally ill. Others have told me that Clinton-hatred is a sexual thing, mixing frustration, envy and dysfunction.

Maybe this is true, although the Lewinsky business never bothered me; there's something endearing about Bill's taste for zaftig women. But perjury is no less a crime than burglary, and there's no question Mr. Clinton perjured himself in his deposition to Paula Jones's lawyers. If you think Nixon deserved to go down, then so too did Mr. Clinton."

Posted 11:08 AM by a
Memory drain at dis-United Nations - The Washington Times: Commentary:

"The United Nations, which has repeatedly failed to usher in peace on Earth, good will to men, has a chance to help the United States guarantee a better life for millions of Iraqis. By doing so, it would greatly improve its standing in this country and much of the rest of the world. I'm betting it won't. It is difficult to stand up when one lacks a skeletal structure."