Author: VD

Lisa writes: Though, true, the Republican Party may not notice your withdrawal, Republicans do. Miss Mercer I will not miss, yourself and Mr. Farah are another issue. And though I will not join you, at this juncture, I will wish you a fond farewell and God Speed in the hopes that those of you who choose that path will lead the political landscape to the right. If nothing else, perhaps you all will provide some anchorage to at least slow or stop the left tilt. As I said, though I do not join your split, I really hope that it helps. And, I believe it might. Good luck.

Well, that’s just, really nice. I’m sorry to disappoint LD and others who, after reading today’s column, requested that I post hate mail from irritated GOPhers. Lisa is correct, though, in her optimism that ex-Republicans can pull the Republican party to the right. The Greens and Naderites have done so on the other side of the political spectrum, and certainly, the Republican leadership just demonstrated very clearly in the case of the Specter nomination that it is not the least bit interested in what those conservatives and libertarians remaining in the party have to say.

Alex writes: “But if it is wrong to compare the Iraqi situation with Vietnam, it is equally wrong to attempt to equate it with the German or Japanese occupations. I am quite sure that we would have either withdrawn or nuked either of the two defeated Axis nations had we taken as many casualties in the post-WWII occupation as we did in the conquest.” You say it is wrong to equate, then you do just that.

Okay, think about it for a second. I said something should not be done… and then I demonstrated why. How is this difficult to grasp? Those who swiftly dismiss the Iraq-Vietnam analogy are quick to turn to the post-WWII occupations as a model, but that analogy fails as being even less apropos to the present situation, as I showed easily in my previous post. Still, the fact that the four occupations cannot be equated does not mean that nothing can be learned from the past.

The reason that Bush has sunk in my already low estimation is that he is neither fish nor fowl. He has neither the courage to abjure the UN, abandon the failed vision of Pax Americana and bring home our soldiers from 100 countries around the world, nor the steel to declare war and embrace the clash of civilizations. If I had written a novel postulating a president whose battle cry was “we are at war, so support your country by going to the malls and shopping,” it would have been dismissed as a laughable absurdity.

I don’t hate Bush, but I have a very low regard for a Republican who sells out republican principles in order to wage an incompetent, half-hearted ur-war. FDR, for all that he was the worst president in American history, at least did not attempt to argue that we were only at war with extremists who hijacked National Socialism. This is somewhat ironic considering that FDR had far more in common with the national socialists than Bush does with Islam.

Katherine Lopez writes on NRO: A-PLUS I was at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night and think the president did a perfect job.

I pay precisely zero attention to these sorts of things, but K-Lo’s review caught my attention because this is the sort of review that she and Peggy Noonan write after every State of the Union address. Then, of course, by the time the next one rolls around, Robert Novak is talking about how the president must avoid the disaster of the previous one. I’m sure the president is a good-humored guy and all, but what is with this need to gush and fawn?

She’s very sound on the unfortunate accident of history that is Maureen Dowd, though. One thing I noticed in the critique she linked to is that Dowd and Neil Cavuto use precisely the same monotonously repetitive and massively annoying wordplay in their commentaries. What some find enthralling, I find appalling. I can’t even watch Cavuto, because always knowing what the second half of the sentence is going to be causes me actual physical discomfort. It’s like Doctor Seuss for adults.

Alex writes: Pardon me while I wave the American flag, but in case you haven’t noticed, very few Americans, Left or Right, seem so apathetic about advancing basic human dignity to other countries. Go ahead, pick out exceptions, at home and abroad. But like Libertarians, most Americans agree in theory. They just can’t make it work perfectly in reality. It seems that you can find nothing supportive to say about military efforts in Iraq, for to do so would imply support for the re-election of GWB. I for one, would not be fooled.

I am not apathetic about “advancing basic human dignity to other countries”, I am against it. Among other things, that’s the United Nations’ line and I follow the Founding Fathers in this regard. Also, if we have the right to wage war in order to build other nations in our image, so does the Socialist International as well as, for that matter, the Islamic Jihad. Furthermore, in case everyone hasn’t noticed, the more America extends its power abroad, the less liberty we have at home.

I haven’t had much positive to say about the military effort since Baghdad was taken. The execution of the invasion was excellent. The postwar occupation shows every sign of what has already been admitted by the adminstration – they didn’t really have a clue as to what to do. Every occupied nation in WWII had a government-in-exile, yet we didn’t bother to build and support a credible one. I see no reason whatsoever to believe that our long-term strategy, if there is one, will be successful. If you are wondering about my increasingly pessimistic tone, I have read a lot of information recently about the structural difficulties that our forces are facing, from ammunition shortages to massive draw-downs from European depots and the difficulty of delivering supplies from Kuwait. In case you haven’t noticed, Col. David Hackworth has also become increasingly critical of the operations side as well. Supporting the troops does NOT require supporting those who are actively working to make their jobs more difficult and dangerous.

The only reason that Bush’s supporters are so annoyed now – as opposed to six months ago – is that the president, having foolishly sacrificed his conservative base, has no serious argument for his re-election other than his performance as commander-in-chief. If that performance is not looking very good these past few months, that’s his responsibility, not mine. I was calling for bringing the troops home from around the world before this bloody April and I will continue to do so no matter how the occupation continues. I hope it goes well. I don’t expect that it will.

Bane forwards this response: “A military iniative of the American Marines“. Chalabi and Mahdi are worried about this bootless force not so much for what it is, but what it portends. Indeed, they might be forgiven for thinking that the sudden appearance of this Brigade is some kind of American trick, a reminder that Washington too can play the game of divide and conquer by dealing directly with local political figures and arming factions independent of the new Iraqi Army. The process being used to settle the parallel problem of Sadr’s Mahdi Army is an eerily similar combination of force and political negotiation.

Perhaps this game-playing will be more successful than the tactics that cost nearly as many fatalities in a month of occupation as were taken in the actual conquest itself. I certainly hope so. But if it is wrong to compare the Iraqi situation with Vietnam, it is equally wrong to attempt to equate it with the German or Japanese occupations. I am quite sure that we would have either withdrawn or nuked either of the two defeated Axis nations had we taken as many casualties in the post-WWII occupation as we did in the conquest.

The American public is already disenchanted with the nation-building concept, and rightly so. They signed on to take out Hussein and make sure there were no WMDs pointing in their direction. Iraq is the responsibility of the Iraqi people, not the American people. If they are going to simply fall into another dictatorship, so be it. America itself is moving in that direction; I’d feel more optimistic if the same people promising freedom and liberty to Iraq were not working against it at home.

From the Washington Times: Gunmen waved their weapons in Fallujah’s streets and outside car windows yesterday, cheering what they called a victory as U.S. forces pulled back. However, the Marines insisted they weren’t going far and that a new Iraqi force taking the front line will root out die-hard insurgents. The new Fallujah Protection Army, put together by Iraqi generals from Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime, likely will include former army soldiers who fought American forces over the past month, Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway said…. Scores of Iraqis gathered in the streets, some flashing “V” for victory signs and raising the Iraqi flag. Motorists shouted, “Islam, it’s your day,” and “We redeem Islam with our blood.”

Tell me again that we can’t pull out because it would send a bad message… that message has already been sent and received. A complete pull-out would at least demonstrate that we have an understanding of what we can do – remove unsavory regimes – and what we can’t. Since any regime wants nothing more than to stay in power, we’ve already demonstrated the only thing that really matters. Unfortunately, this notion of nation-building and trying to impose democracy without conceding power to the religious extremists has already obscured that object lesson. Whatever happened to Hussein anyhow? Next thing you know, they’ll be putting him back in charge.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus greeted his country’s entry to the European Union on Saturday by warning Czechs that they risked losing sovereignty and being disillusioned in their union with western Europe. “I want to welcome both those who look forward to EU entry and those who have serious qualms. And I want to warn that they could be disillusioned,” he said in comments broadcast shortly after midnight on the private television network Nova from a fabled mountain in the center of the country. Earlier, Klaus had in Prague reiterated his view that his country would lose much of its decision-making powers to the EU. “Many of the decisions will be made in Brussels and our voice in the decision-making process will only be part of that. That will confine our sovereignty and anyone who thinks about it will see that,” he told journalists.

The European Union will be a human tragedy. I guarantee it. How long it will take, I don’t know, but the foolish people who elected to give up their sovereignty will be no more pleased to live under the rule of the Fourth Reich than they were under its predecessor. It will take a little longer for them to realize it, that’s all. If Hitler had been more clever, he would have used financial grants in the place of panzers and won a more lasting victory.

I wonder how long it will be before the grants stop and the iron hand inside the velvet glove begins to show itself. The Euro is forever, as Romano Prodi once said. I wonder, too, which state will be the first to attempt, unsuccessfully, to leave.

The reaction of various female columnists and bloggers to the latest reality show, The Swan, is really funny. First, the notion that women are significantly affected by media images is a complete load of nonsense. They may be emotionally affected – as in jealous – but this pernicious media bombardment still hasn’t prevented them from getting fatter than ever before in all of human history. Terms like “morally offensive” and “harmful” are thrown around with abandon, demonstrating that there is no televised sin, be it murder, blasphemy or adultery, so grave as a woman making her sisters look bad by comparison. There’s a reason, after all, why little butterballs get off on telling each other that they are really looking too skinny.

Sure, surgery can be dangerous, as is being overweight. But it seems that many women would prefer to get up in arms about a television show helping women look the way they want than the fact that the percentage of obese women aged 20-34 has increased from 18.5 to 25.8 percent in the last six years. And 63.6 percent of the 35-44 crowd is overweight. And yet, we only hear warnings of that devil D-cup.

Another complaint is that men don’t value women for their careers, education and intellect. Well, tough. Who are you to tell us what we should value? Unless I’m planning to sponge off a woman and let her pay the bills, why would I care what she does for a living? I spoke with a 30-something architect who has had trouble finding dates, and she was horrified when I told her that perhaps 5 percent of the men out there would consider her education and employment to be a significant relationship asset. She’s a smart girl, but had never stopped to think about what men actually like in a woman for ten seconds.

Seriously, look at the facts. Men like pretty girls. Men like women who smile, not lecture. There has never, in the entire history of magazine publishing, been a men’s magazine dedicated to women’s resumes and test scores. Think maybe there’s a reason for that? Because we don’t care! Intelligence isn’t a negative – Space Bunny could argue rings around half the people who email me – but it’s generally not an attribute any man would place in his top five. What attributes are most important? It varies of course, but this list is probably fairly common:

1. Pretty face

2. Nice body

3. Pleasant demeanor

4. Sexual compatibility

5. Sense of proportion

6. Sense of humor

7. Intelligence

Notice that there’s nothing about money, careers or any of that sort of thing on the list. Religious guys will probably have religious compatibility somewhere in the top three, but almost never at #1. Sure, there’s the occasional John Kerry who rates financial assets above all, but that doesn’t hasn’t entered into most men’s thinking since the days of Middlemarch. Men, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but be honest about your priorities. Save the PC sensitive New Age male stuff for the office.

Macedonian police gunned down seven innocent immigrants, then claimed they were terrorists, in a killing staged to impress the United States, authorities said Friday. Speaking after a two-year investigation, a police spokeswoman, Mirjana Konteska told reporters that six people, including three former police commanders, two special police officers and a businessman, have been charged by police with murder…. Konteska said the killings were an attempt to “present themselves as participants in the war against terrorism and demonstrate Macedonia’s commitment to the war on terror.”

Since breaking away from Yugoslavia in 1991, Macedonia has been eager to win U.S. political and economic support in its search for acceptance into the Western camp of nations. It took Washington’s side against traditional U.S. allies in supporting the ousting of Saddam Hussein and now has troops with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Blame Derbyshire. Reading the poem in light of yesterday’s conversation just caused the title to leap out at me. With deepest apologies to Mr. Yeats:

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innesmouth

And a small altar build there, of clay and fishbones made;

Nine dread nights will I have there, enshrouded in darkling myth,

And live alone in the lurking shade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes creeping slow,

Swelling in the veils of the black tide I hear the chittering;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and dawn an eerie glow,

And evening full as the deep ones sing.

I will arise and go now, for always night is day

I hear the Shoggoth calling with vile sounds by the shore

While I stand by the mirror, my face a pallid gray,

I hear it in my cold heart’s core.