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Tuesday, March 28, 2006
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Democrats choosing to run on OBL while Justice Breyer says there is no war. WTF
Breyer said
I take [your] argument as saying you want to try a war crime. You want to say this is a war crimes tribunal. One, this is not a war — at least not an ordinary war.
Let's see, the enemy wants to kill us. Sounds like an ordinary war to me. They said as much already. It is the enemy that is different this time. The New York Times version did not include this in their reporting.
 Democrats Pledge to 'Eliminate' Osama (AP).
AP - Congressional Democrats promise to "eliminate" Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in an election-year national security policy statement.
[Yahoo! News: Politics News]
11:37:19 PM 
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Wouldn't be my choice either.  But he did the right thing by letting them know. That is, if what the NYT is reporting on is actually a true story. Disclaimer noted.
Seems al-Jaafari and al-Sadr are buds, and as the most powerful and organized militia, al-Sadr is a big supporter of al-Jaafari.
Tomorrow's news will be sure to include a bombing or terrorist attack by one of al-Sadr's militia. One thing is for sure, the wart in Iraq is beginning to show. The Iraqi people need to remove it.
Bush Opposes Iraq's Premier, Shiites Report. The Bush administration does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain the leader of Iraq, Shiite leaders said today. By EDWARD WONG. [NYT > Home Page]
11:25:51 PM
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More From Saddam's Archives.
A reader calls our attention to another of the audio tape recordings from Saddam Hussein's office. This one is ISGQ-2003-M0004667, and appears to have been recorded around 1996. Like most of the audiotapes, it is rambling, confusing and often incoherent. The ambiguity of most of what Saddam and his henchmen say is maddening. However, there are some interesting nuggets. This one suggests that the Russians have been paid off:
We have succeeded in a few of the U.N. paragraphs, we have won Russia, ahhh ... we have convinced Russia by way of generous accounts [payoffs], in which, you remember how and why it happened...
Iraq's lies to the U.N. inspectors are again acknowledged, although the actual state of Iraq's weapons programs at the time can't be deduced from the tape:
They have a bigger problem with the Chemical progam than the Biological program, a lot bigger... It is not the weapons, the size of the imported material, the size of [UNINTELLIGIBLE] that we presented to them or the size of the stockpile. They knew that not all of this was true. We have not told them about the size or kind of Chemical weapons that we produced, and we have not told them the truth about the imported material. Therefore, sir, if they want to raise an issue, I mean, they will see that our argument is the issue of the Biological program.
It is clearly stated that nuclear materials were moved out of Iraq, and it seems, although less clearly, that Iraqi "teams" were still working on nuclear weapons:
Sir, where was the Nuclear material transported to? A number of them were transported outside of Iraq. *** Sir, about the Nuclear program, we say that we have uncovered everything. In addition, we have an unannounced problem with the Nuclear program, and I think they know about it. I mean, there is working teams that are working and some of these teams are not known to anyone.
As we've said before, each of these documents is a very small piece of a very large mosaic, and it would be a mistake to try to draw conclusions prematurely. But some of these comments are certainly suggestive. [Power Line]
11:09:04 PM
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OK, who is surprised that we're not winning the war in the media? Rumsfeld wanted a  department to deal with media perception. Pointing out that the enemy uses the media to its advantage in a way that we need to deal with. It was killed in and by the U.S. media before it even got started, and by politicians that didn't have the stomach for it.
"If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a `D' or a `D-plus' as a country as to how well we're doing in the battle of ideas that's taking place in the world today," Rumsfeld told a questioner from his audience at the Army War College in Carlisle, PA today. "I'm not going to suggest that it's easy, but we have not found the formula as a country" for countering the extremists' message.
Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations last month, Rumsfeld said "We meet today in the sixth year in which our nation has been engaged in what promises to be a long struggle against an enemy that in many ways is unlike any our country has ever faced. And in this war, some of the most critical battles may not be in the mountains of Afghanistan or the streets of Iraq, but in newsrooms -- in places like New York, London, Cairo, and elsewhere."
Consider this statement:
"More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. . . we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of [Muslims]."
The speaker was not some modern-day image consultant in a public relations firm in New York City. It was Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Rumsfeld has been right on this aspect of the war from the beginning. And who hasn't? Just about everyone.
Rumsfeld Grades U.S. Poor in Global Debate (AP).
12:28:06 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Ross Calloway.
Last update: 4/2/2006; 11:29:50 PM.
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