Shock. Horror. Chop Spree. - Broadsides

Israel, Iran and the Bomb By John R. Bolton

ZOIDBERG — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:11:19 +0000

The Wall Street Journal

OPINION

Israel, Iran and the Bomb
By JOHN R. BOLTON
July 15, 2008; Page A19

Iran's test salvo of ballistic missiles last week together with recent threatening rhetoric by commanders of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards emphasizes how close the Middle East is to a fundamental, in fact an irreversible, turning point.

Tehran's efforts to intimidate the United States and Israel from using military force against its nuclear program, combined with yet another diplomatic charm offensive with the Europeans, are two sides of the same policy coin. The regime is buying the short additional period of time it needs to produce deliverable nuclear weapons, the strategic objective it has been pursuing clandestinely for 20 years.

Israel Is Paying For Its Defeat By Jeff Jacoby

ZOIDBERG — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:32:31 +0000

ISRAEL IS PAYING FOR ITS DEFEAT

By Jeff Jacoby

The Boston Globe

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

It was two years ago this month that Israel and Hezbollah went to war.

On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored and Syrian-backed political and terrorist organization, staged an unprovoked raid across the Lebanon-Israel border, killing three Israelis and kidnapping two others, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The war that ensued -- a war for which Hezbollah had openly prepared for six years, constructing fortified bunkers and amassing thousands of Katyusha artillery rockets along the border -- was a disaster for Israel. The fighting lasted for 33 bloody days, during which Israel achieved none of its key objectives: It didn't destroy Hezbollah, it didn't stop the barrage of rockets slamming into its northern cities, and it didn't rescue its kidnapped soldiers.

Trial in Error By Victoria Toensing

Robber of Zork — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:06:49 +0000

washingtonpost.com

Trial in Error
If You're Going to Charge Scooter, Then What About These Guys?

By Victoria Toensing
Sunday, February 18, 2007; B01

Could someone please explain to me why Scooter Libby is the only person on trial in the Valerie Plame leak investigation?

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald charged Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff with perjury on the theory that Libby had a nefarious reason for lying to a grand jury about what he told reporters regarding CIA officer Plame: He was trying to cover up a White House conspiracy to retaliate against Plame's husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson had infuriated Vice President Cheney by accusing the Bush administration of lying about intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald apparently concluded that a purported cover-up was sufficient motive for Libby to trim his recollections in a criminal way. So when Libby's testimony differed from that of others, it was Libby who got indicted.

There's a reason why responsible prosecutors don't bring perjury cases on mere "he said, he said" evidence. Without an underlying crime or tangible evidence of obstruction (think Martha Stewart trying to destroy phone logs), the trial becomes a mishmash of faulty memories in which witnesses can seem as guilty as the defendant. Any prosecutor knows that memories differ, even vividly, and each party can be convinced that his or her version is the truthful one.

If we accept Fitzgerald's low threshold for bringing a criminal case, then why stop at Libby? This investigation has enough questionable motives and shadowy half-truths and flawed recollections to fill a court docket for months. So here are my own personal bills of indictment:

The Consequences of Failure in Iraq By Reuel Marc Gerecht

Robber of Zork — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 02:53:26 +0000

The Weekly Standard

The Consequences of Failure in Iraq
They would be awful. But failure can still be averted.
by Reuel Marc Gerecht
01/15/2007, Volume 012, Issue 17

What would be the consequences of an American withdrawal from Iraq?
Trying to wrap one's mind around the ramifications of a failed
Iraq--of an enormous, quite possibly genocidal, Sunni-Shiite clash
exploding around American convoys fleeing south--is daunting. In
part, this is why few have spent much time talking about what might
happen to Iraq, the region, and the United States if the government
in Baghdad and its army collapsed into Sunni and Shiite militias
waging a battle to the death. Among its many omissions, the Iraq
Study Group's stillborn report lacked any sustained description of
the probable and possible consequences of a shattered Iraq.

Liberating Catholic Latin America By Samuel Gregg

Robber of Zork — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 05:00:00 +0000

Liberating Catholic Latin America

BY SAMUEL GREGG
December 29, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/45900

Few realize it, but May 2007 could be a decisive moment for Catholic Latin America. That is when Latin America's Catholic bishops will meet in Brazil for the Fifth General Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Bishops to consider the profound challenges confronting the area. The importance attached to this event by the whole Catholic world is evident from the fact that Pope Benedict XVI will be attending.

Bethlehem's Second Coming By Daniel Johnson

Robber of Zork — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:00:00 +0000

Bethlehem's Second Coming

BY DANIEL JOHNSON
December 28, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/45823

What's in a name? In the case of Bethlehem, a great deal. Few names on earth can compare in resonance to the birthplace of both King David and Jesus Christ. And the resonance of a place name can be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands.

Just before Christmas, the heads of the Anglican and Catholic churches in England — respectively, the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor — led a delegation of all the main Christian denominations in Britain on a visit to Bethlehem. Their mission was supposedly to draw attention to the plight of Christians there. Instead, they allowed themselves to become tools of Islamist propaganda. Here is how it happened.

Majority Maker By Kimberley A. Strassel

Robber of Zork — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 07:00:00 +0000

THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW

Majority Maker
Chuck Schumer: "If we are seen as just blocking the president, it will not serve us well in 2008."

BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Saturday, November 11, 2006 12:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON--Sen. Chuck Schumer, the architect of the Democrats' Senate win this week, has only just heard that Virginia has fallen and that his party is officially in control. He's in an irrepressible mood, and a chatty one--neither particularly out of character--and even gets to musing about family life and the benefits of having lots of children. "I wanted four. My wife wanted two. We compromised at two," he says, with a wry smile that suggests this famously stubborn New Yorker does know how to bend--when he's up against a tough enough foe.

Tuesday’s Ultimatum By William F. Buckley Jr.

Robber of Zork — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 18:30:00 +0000

National Review Online

November 08, 2006, 2:00 p.m.

Tuesday’s Ultimatum

By William F. Buckley Jr.

Partisans (both Democrats and Republicans) grieve especially, on Election Day Plus One, for individual legislators defeated, men and women, however few, who inspired confidence for whatever reason. Tenacity and right-mindedness, in the case of Rick Santorum. Geniality of intellect and an aura of idealism-in-hand, in the case of Jim Talent.

But on the big picture, what should one say, other than that if it hadn’t happened, democratic governance would have been guilty of being asleep at the wheel?

Stern Review By Bjorn Lomborg

Robber of Zork — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:04:47 +0000

The Wall Street Journal

Stern Review
By BJORN LOMBORG
November 2, 2006; Page A12

The report on climate change by Nicholas Stern and the U.K. government has sparked publicity and scary headlines around the world. Much attention has been devoted to Mr. Stern's core argument that the price of inaction would be extraordinary and the cost of action modest.

Unfortunately, this claim falls apart when one actually reads the 700-page tome. Despite using many good references, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is selective and its conclusion flawed. Its fear-mongering arguments have been sensationalized, which is ultimately only likely to make the world worse off.

Rushing for the Exit By Christopher Hitchens

Robber of Zork — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:48:58 +0000

Rushing for the Exit
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Oct. 30, 2006, at 6:14 PM ET

To say that "exit strategies" from Iraq have become the flavor of the month would be to exaggerate the situation to the point of absurdity. Exit strategies are not even the fall fashion. They are the regnant topic of conversation all across the political establishment and have been for some time. Even the Bush administration has some share in this discourse, having now abandoned the useless mantra of "staying the course" without quite defining what that "course" might be—or might have been. (A rule of thumb in politics is that any metaphor drawn from sporting activity is worse than useless, but at least one doesn't hear people saying that in Iraq we are "at the bottom of the ninth" or some such horse manure.)