Was surprised (and gratified) to see the usually-typically-anti-American Berliner Morgenpost's headline (only in German) for Sunday about Putin, Schroeder, Chirac meeting: "Summit of Losers Ends"

Also glad to note that protests have decreased from several hundred thousand protestors in Feb. to 50,000 in March to 15,000 this Saturday. I just wish the demonstrators would notice how silly and ironic it is that the marchs always end at Berlin's Victory Column. (Victory over who would be a fair question.)

During the Dark Ages, Roman Catholic monks kept civilization alive by gathering and copying books within their monastery fastnesses, until such time as literacy and learning could re-emerge. One thinks of them, perhaps, when reading this story, which reports the news that the eminent literary critic Harold Bloom, who is not a Christian, has chosen to donate his library not to Yale, where he teaches, but to a small Catholic college in Vermont. Writes Dinitia Smith in the Times:

Harold Bloom has always railed against what he calls "the school of resentment," Marxist, feminist, Afrocentric and deconstructionist scholars who, he says, deny the aesthetic and spiritual values inherent in great literature. So when it came time for Mr. Bloom, 72, to choose a place to donate his immense personal library and his archives, he bypassed several larger prominent universities that in his opinion house those very practitioners of resentment in favor of a small, relatively unknown Catholic college in Colchester, Vt.

"Dear child," Mr. Bloom said in a telephone interview, using the appellation he applies to friend, stranger, male and female, alike, "with rare exceptions the universities and colleges in the English-speaking world that have sustained some sense of literature as a matter of powerful cognition and extraordinary aesthetic beauty tend to be the Roman Catholic institutions."

I assume the 12 hour break was either, a: a pause to let your logistics catch up, or, b: the beginning of a quagmire.

In remarks to the annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Mr. Rove lamented what he described as news organizations' changing interpretations of how the war was proceeding. He said "the euphoria of April 9," when news coverage was dominated by images of a statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled to the ground in Baghdad, did not match the earlier "flood of commentary that the military was bogged down and the strategy flawed." "So much information is coming so fast and from so many different directions that it can also make it difficult to maintain perspective," Mr. Rove said. "Ultimately, we must have the capacity to stand back and see the deep currents and the important shape of events."

I will be speaking on Monday, the 14th, at Metro State College in Denver. It will be at 1:00 PM at some place called Tivoli Turnhalle. It's open to the public, except for people named Tod who only use one D in their name.

From a reader:

Jonah, regarding Ritter. (Insert spitting sound here). The many Marines (and ex-Marines) I am proud to know, upon seeing children in any such predicament as Saddam's kiddie gulag, would have taken "direct action", regardless of the personal or political consequences to themselves. He is not worthy of the characterization "ex-Marine".

Andrew Sullivan has dug up an unbelievable quote about the Kiddie Gulag they found in Iraq. It's from Scott Ritter in an interview with Time magazine from last year:

"The prison in question was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children - toddlers up to pre-adolescents - whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace."

Parse the morality here: I saw an unspeakably horrible kiddie torture house. I could tell you about it, but that might result in people trying to do something about it. And, since that would not be peaceful, better I keep quiet and help perpetuate a regime which will torture more children. If this doesn't constitute peace-at-all-costs idiocy, I don't know what does. But the jerk is right about one thing, if I'd known about a chamber of horrors, I would have used the information to advocate doing something about it.

The relatively quick fall of Baghdad shows that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a "paper tiger" rather than a major threat to world peace, Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said Thursday. "What we were told and what you saw in the press last fall and earlier this year is that he had a massive war machine," said Harkin, the most outspoken critic of the war in Iraq among members of the Iowa congressional delegation. "It looks now like this was just a Third World country - there were people fighting with tennis shoes on, on the Iraqi side," Harkin told reporters. "I don't know what else we're going to find, but they didn't fly even one airplane in the air. They had almost nothing. "So if they were that weak, where we could just roll over them like that, tell me again how he was such a big threat in the past?" the senator added.

Peter Jennings could find not one second for the pro-war rally at Ground Zero yesterday with a crowd estimated by AP at 15,000. But hours before the war began, Jennings demonstrated that no anti-war demonstration is too small for him to consider it newsworthy as he picked up on a solitary effort: "And in San Francisco, a man apparently leaped to his death from the Golden Gate Bridge. Our affiliate there, KGO, reports that he read an anti-war statement before jumping."

A reader informs me that NRODT can't be an acronym because it's not a "word" like Scuba etc. I don't know what he's talking about. We've always pronounced it Nrrr-RAH-Dt.

I've been told the Baghdad looting joke was on Leno last night.

If you were ever confused by what NRODT stood for, you can look it up in this handy acronym finder:

"NRODT National Review on Dead Tree (slang for the paper version of National Review magazine)"

It's about time the military clamped down on the chaos in Baghdad. We haven't seen looting and vandalism like this since the last few days of the Clintons in the White House.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hundreds of desperate Iraqi civilians stormed the headquarters of Iraq's military intelligence on Friday and started digging the ground to try to find relatives they believe are trapped in dungeons below.

U.S. soldiers, who took Baghdad on Wednesday and are trying to secure and restore order to the city, later moved into the sprawling compound in the northwestern district of Kadhimiya with tanks and armored vehicles.

Family and friends of detained Iraqis earlier appealed for help from the U.S. military to rescue people they said were in underground jails. As they dug, voices could be heard below the surface.

"I am afraid the people in here are going to die," said a man in the crowd who gave his name as Mohammed Saleh.

Egyptians with close professional or cultural ties to the United States say the U.S.-led war on Iraq has tarnished their image of the country they most admired.

"Before the war, I was undecided about America's commitment to its promises," said Mai Ezz el-Din, 29, who works for a U.S. insurance firm in Cairo.

"Now I have seen them breaking their word and changing their stance. I don't believe what they say anymore."

I'm still having a hard time understanding the ethical justfication for keeping this stuff secret. If CNN had gotten kicked out for standing up to such brutality against its own employees and associates, I don't see such a huge downside. What were the CNN stories that had to be reported from the scene that compensated for the dishonesty of not telling the whole story? Besides if CNN left on such principle, it would make other media organizations look like lapdogs. The tumult from that would have either forced more honest coverage from those organizations or resulted in more organizations leaving Iraq. Ultimately, this would have been a PR disaster for Iraq which desperately needed to win over world opinion and they would have had to have treated all employees of foreign media more gingerly. There was a similar dilemma during the Cold War when journalists were accused of "writing for their visa" -- i.e. softening their reportage in order to stay in the Soviet Union. This was always justified on the grounds of getting out the bigger story. The problem with this approach is it tends to make evil countries seem like normal countries and hence foster a climate of moral equivalence.

Full disclosure: I work for CNN and I would like to continue doing so, but I can't in good conscience say that Jordan's explanation, as offered in the Times, is persuasive. I don't mind the use of journalistic ground rules, but I do think it is unethical not to tell the reader or viewer what those ground rules are. For example, when Barbara Walters types interview stars she'll agree to a host of ground rules about what they will and won't discuss. That's fine. But if you don't tell the viewer what those ground rules are, you are implying that the issues which are off limits are in fact not newsworthy. If CNN agreed not to report certain events or to soften its reporting in anyway, it should have made it clear early and often that it is impossible to provide a clear picture because of the climate of fear and intimidation. I am sure that some disclosures along these lines were offered over the years on CNN, but I don't think there were a lot of them.

Where Jordan might deserve credit is for at least being the first of many to come forward. He suggests that this was a problem for numerous "international press services." It will be very interesting to see what kinds of confessions we get -- and don't get -- from other networks and newspapers. It seems to me this has the potential -- small though it may be -- of becoming a journalistic Enron scandal. Of course, when all of the media is complicit in something, it rarely becomes a big deal.

Funny how that works.

I think you were asking about our negotiations to be able to stay, with everything possible, we pointed out it was in everybody's interest and CNN's interest and Iraq's interest and certainly the interest of the world and of the American people to see what was going on in Baghdad and it was very important to have set of independent eyes and ears to report this. That's a point that we've always made to the Iraqi authorities throughout the years that we have been in Baghdad. We certainly made that point last night. In all of the years we worked there, we pointed out we have reported fairly. We followed the rules and it was in their interests, as well as ours.

Now, of course, it was a request by the network for an interview with the president. Interestingly enough, the Iraqis have never, as far as we could tell, taken advantage of the foreign media in the sense that all of the world, for example, the Bush administration, they take advantage of the media, they speak every minute that they can get of air time they take to get their point across to the world. This is done all over the world. The Iraqis, I think, has never taken full advantage of this. And I think it's a great missed opportunity because the world can hear and see what's happening if organizations like CNN are allowed to remain in Baghdad. And a great missed opportunity for everybody.

Here's the story

This confession really is staggering. One question I have is for the lefty Nation reading crowd. They've been saying the big time media has been banging the war drums in order to spike their ratings. Implicit -- and sometimes explicit -- to this charge is that the networks were willing to risk Iraqi lives in order to make a buck. Well, doesn't this story run the other way, at least a bit? If CNN put this news forward earlier, it certainly would have been considered "pro-war" to the extent it demonzied Saddam even more. And we all know that the left thinks demonzing Saddam was an illegitimate propagandistic ploy. How does Janeane Garafolo explain this admission? What does she -- and the Susan Sarandon crowd -- think about it?

The guys held responsiblee for attacking the USS Cole escaped from their Yemeni prison today according to the breaking news wires (no link yet). What I don't understand is why the TV networks, Fox included, are calling them "suspects." If they've been in prison for five years for committing the crime, maybe they're not "suspects" anymore?

Anyway, sounds too coincidental to me. Maybe they were sprung by folks upset by the war in Iraq? We'll see.

This has been bothering me for a long time. I say things like "Have you seen this morning's Washington Post?" all the time. I sometimes catch myself and realize that it's the same paper all day. The Post doesn't change in the afternoon. It occurs to me that this might be a holdover from the days when we did have afternoon, evening or late editions. I used to buy two New York Posts every day, for example. I might have picked this up from my parents who used to buy more than one edition of the same paper everyday all the time. Maybe there are other explanations as well, but I think this has to be part of it. "The morning newspaper" is now the only newspaper we have all day (not counting the web stuff) but the phrase hangs around for the same reason we still say "dial" a phone number.

From my syndicated column, fyi:

I want to rub it in the anti-war crowd's face so badly. I want to hear the protesters explain why it's a bad thing we released more than 100 children from an Iraqi gulag for underage political prisoners. I want them to talk about how they were fighting for the Iraqi people as the Iraqi people hug and kiss the American forces in Baghdad and greet the human shields with signs reading "Go Home You Wankers." I want them to explain why it wasn't worth it.

On the Syrian border? Very interesting story about the battle for Qaim on the Syrian border. Could be a fight to defend Baathist leadership or WMD. Once again the news is where the cameras aren't.

Young America's Foundation and Citizens United Foundation are hosting a "Rally for America, Rally for the Troops" (and I suppose now we can add "Victory Rally") from noon to 3:00 p.m. on the Mall at the Capitol (between 3rd and 4th Streets).

G. Gordon Liddy, performance by country music star Aaron Tippin ("Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly"), NYPD officer Danny Rodriguez, the singing cop former senator and actor Fred Thompson . Video greetings from Ben Stein and performances for the troops by Toby Keith, Travis Tritt, Charlie Daniels Band.

All information at www.yaf.org.

I leave for 24 hours and the limeys start busting out into the sort of argy-bargy we expect in a Dickens story?

Anyway, I'm home and off to work on my syndicated column.

One of the TV embeds is with my brother’s battalion. This morning they captured the former UN headquarters in Baghdad. The place was overrun with looters, whom they dispersed.

Apparently the phones there at the old U.N. are still working, because our corporal gave us a call today (a bit after 10 AM Chicago/Dallas time, April 10). He tried his wife first but she wasn't home so he called my dad. He only had about 2 minutes. Here is some of what we learned from him:

--The Iraqi citizens love them and treat them like kings.

--His battalion has been involved in the heaviest fighting of the war, both in An Nasiriyah and Baghdad.

--Spirits are very high.

--Any time anybody shoots back at all, embedded reporters call it "fierce resistance."

--Reports that the battalion is walking the streets intentionally trying to draw fire to smoke out the enemy are false; they are not intentionally exposing themselves to fire, but they are patrolling Baghdad in an attempt to find those that want to fight and then engaging and killing them.

--Most of their heavy fighting is against the Fedayeen, who are rarely Iraqis but rather volunteers from other Arab countries.

--His battalion--and our corporal personally (he acknowledged after being asked)--are killing the Fedayeen "by the bucket load."

--Brian captured an Iraqi general himself at a checkpoint. A man trying to get through a checkpoint that they had set up to allow civilians to leave didn't look right to Brian. Brian searched his stuff and found a very ornately engraved plated pistol. The man insisted that he was just a farmer. Brian wasn't having it, so he called over his battalion intelligence officer who actually is a farmer (his battalion is made up of reservists). The farmer/intel officer said, "Show me your hands." Upon seeing the general's silky smooth hands, he said, showing his own hands, "Those aren't farmers hands; THESE are farmer's hands!" They handcuffed the general who proceeded to bawl like a little girl as they carried him away. Brian later learned that the pistol engravings indicated that it was a gift from Saddam. [PLEASE tell me that he's bringing home that pistol!]

a Lebanese satellite TV channel interviewed a British woman who went to Iraq to serve as a human shield. She said Iraq was free until the U.S.-led troops arrived.

I'm at Albany International Airport. Had a very nice time last night. I think the speech went ok. I'm a terrible judge of these things. But, no one vomited -- in my presence -- so I take that as a good sign. I must say even the antiwar kids were polite. I'm about to dive into the newspapers and I haven't had time to follow much of the news other than a few minutes of the CentCom briefing. But I can report that the pay phones here at the airport have an interesting feature. They have speed dial buttons for a host of services: security, weather reports, NY State travel intro, etc. And right after the button for "thruway road conditions" is a speed dial for "Lottery Info."

I just love the idea of lots of people arriving after a long flight and racing to the phones to get the 411 on their lottery tickets and being ecstatic that it's already on speed dial! I wonder how many people have missed their flights because they had to check for lotto info one more time before getting on the put-put plane to Boston.

The sight of Iraqis pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad brought a lump to my throat. As a boy I remember well the day that we heard Hitler was dead. As a young man I saw the plinth on Gellert Hill in Budapest where Hungarians had wrecked the statue of Stalin,leaving nothing but his bronze boots. Grown up, I shall never forget the look on Ceausescu's face when he realised in 1989 that the Romanians in the square below were booing him - or the deep satisfaction of watching people smashing the Berlin Wall. So it is with Saddam. To hell with tyrants, one and all, and so say all free people.

‘Peace’ protestors seem to like clowns and performers on stilts. In Kurdistan the liberation crowd prefer rather different props:

“We have been afraid so long. We have not been able to sleep. Now we can." Behind him a group of youths danced on the roundabout, waving a 4ft replica of a B-52. They grinned and waggled several homemade cardboard cruise missiles. “I want to drop this on Saddam Hussein’s house,” Hoyshar Rashid,20, joked.”

The House voted 414-0 last night on a resolution "Stating the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro regime; calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners and supporting free elections for Cuba." The vote was 414-0.

11 Voting "present"
Frank Ballance
John Conyers
Jesse Jackson Jr.
Sheila Jackson-Lee
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Carolyn Kilpatrick
Barbara Lee
Ron Paul
Bobby Rush
Maxine Waters
Albert Wynn

"He told me that he was going to wash his hair and brush his teeth in Saddam's private bathroom," Gloria Presnell said. "The only thing I could say to him was, 'I hope you use your own toothbrush.'"

Arabs clustered at TV sets in shop windows, coffee shops, kitchens and offices to watch the astounding pictures of U.S. troops overwhelming an Arab capital for the first time ever. Feeling betrayed and misled, some turned off their sets in disgust when jubilant crowds in Baghdad celebrated the arrival of U.S. troops.

"We discovered that all what the [Iraqi] information minister was saying was all lies," said Ali Hassan, a government employee in Cairo, Egypt. "Now no one believes Al-Jazeera anymore."

In a live report from Baghdad, correspondent Shaker Hamed of Abu Dhabi Television said: "We are all in shock. How did things come to such an end? How did U.S. tanks enter the center of the city? Where is the resistance? This collapse is puzzling. Was it the result of the collapse of communications between the commanders? Between the political leadership? How come Baghdad falls so easily."

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud, looking upset at a news conference, called for a quick end to Iraq's "occupation." In a rare departure from diplomacy, Saud responded to a question about Arab anger toward the United States with: "I don't want to talk about anger if you don't mind today."

Another e-mail, from another professor, this time Matthew Franck of Radford University:

On this happy, happy day, I just heard Daniel Schorr's commentary on NPR's "All Things Distorted" (no Fox News at the office, just radio). Could he bring himself to congratulate the Iraqis on their liberation, or the U.S. and the Coalition for bringing that about? Not on your life. Instead he obsessed about as-yet undiscovered WMDs, saying that Pres. Bush and his advisors were "sweating this one out," that they would be "embarrassed" if no such weapons are found--that they'd have a lot of 'splainin' to do about "disrupting the UN inspections process" and "splitting the western alliance" in order to bring about "this destructive war." So far the most significant way in which this war has been "destructive" is with respect to Saddam Hussein's tyranny. But somehow Schorr forgot to mention that. Will he eat crow on the air when we do find the weapons we've known along Saddam had? I won't hold my breath.

Creators Syndicate writer Norman Solomon is dismayed with the cheerleading approach many U.S. newspapers are taking in the initial days of war. And the media columnist said the practice of "embedding" journalists with U.S. soldiers is partly to blame.

"Embedding means the journalists covering the U.S. war on Iraq are 'in bed' with the military," said Solomon, explaining that the system can lead to reporters losing objectivity as they bond with troops.

"If journalists are going to embed themselves with U.S. troops, they should also embed themselves with Iraqi families," he told E&P Online Friday. "But it's obviously better to be on the sending rather than the receiving end of missiles."

At 10:45am this morning, the President watched live television coverage of attempts in Baghdad to topple the statue of Saddam Hussein. At that time, he also was briefed on the Iraqis climbing the statue, and the arrival of the US vehicle. He watched it briefly from the outer office of the Oval. He had previously been in an NSC meeting in the Situation Room and another meeting with the Secretary of Defense, and had not yet seen any of the television coverage. He then met with the Slovakian President. Following the meeting, at 11:20am, he again briefly watched television coverage from the outer Oval. He saw the statue was on the ground and he said, "They got it down." He continued to watch with interest for a few moments. His reaction was what was expressed at the gaggle this morning: this remains a time of the utmost caution, and the power of freedom.

"Marines leapt out, training their guns and binoculars on surrounding buildings, checking for snipers. They received a warm welcome -- except from one European woman, who had come to Baghdad as a human shield. "Children killers!" she yelled at a U.S. tank commander.""

On my desk I have one of those "page-a-day" calendars, this one filled with facts about America, historical trivia, etc. Today's page, April 9, has a picture of the flag, and these lines from Henry Ward Beecher:

"Not another flag has such an errand, carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope for freedom - such glorious tidings."

Why would soldiers fight for a country led by someone like Saddam Hussein? For a life and a land held down and terrorized by such repression? Well, the fact is they do. They are. The Vietnamese defended not Communism but their country. The Russians fought for Mother Russia, not Stalin's Soviet Union. Maybe that's what we're seeing in parts of Iraq. Men fighting not for their leader but for themselves, for the primitive but recognizable notion that they'd rather be ruled by a bad one of their own than by even the most high minded of outsiders.

This is an incredible day. I am a U.S. citizen, but have been living in the interior of Panama for about ten years. The perspective from here has been sort of interesting since most people readily make the comparison between a despotic Iraqi leader, and a despotic Panamanian leader who was toppled by unilateral U.S. action.

But today, incredible! My wife (Panamanian) and I got up at 5:30 this morning and, of course, turned on the TV to see what was transpiring. As we sat and watched the looting in Basra and the people cheering and happy in the streets she said, "It looks just like it did here, it's just like it was here."

As I type this, here in my office, one of our employees walked in and and asked what was going on as he watched me excitedly explain about the falling statue. What did he say? "It's just like it was here."

I hope so, I really hope so, I hope that in a short time the Iraqi people can realize the fruits of liberation.

Just like it is here.

CNBC Tim Russert

April 5, 2003

Tim Russert: "As we speak on this day, Tom Ricks, what's the latest? What, where are we in this operation?"

Tom Ricks, Washington Post: "We're in Baghdad. It's really striking when you see that, this U.S. Army move last night, daytime their time, where they did basically what armored guys call a 'Thunder Run.' They just went hell, hellbent for leather straight into downtown Baghdad. And it reminded me of that old gay slogan. I mean no disrespect here. 'We're here. We're queer. Get used to it.' It's, 'We're here. We're the U.S. military. Get used to it.' And no matter what that information minister may be telling you, you can't deny the sound of tank treads coming through downtown Baghdad."

It kills me I can't hang around during all of this. But a deal's a deal. Thanks for the all the nice email re the Goldberg File I will try to respond to some of it in the Corner upon my return. Be nice to Kathryn. All "guys" send info to K-Lo.

1. Pacifica played Edwin Starr's song "War," as in "what is it good for, absolutely nothing." Talk about a soundtrack for the clueless played at EXACTLY the wrong hour. 2. ABC reported 20,000 anti-war protesters expected in Washington this weekend. Sorry, kids there are no statues of George W. Bush to topple...yet.

Oh yeah...the Iraqi people really want the U.N. involved in their country. That's why they are looting the local HQ - just like the Baath party offices. Now think about this. You are an Iraqi. You have been going through Hell for 15 or 20 years. The U.N. not only did not help, not only did not stop it,. but tried its level best to stop the people who did stop it. Do you want to let those people run your country? I would be amazed if the average Iraqi even wanted his new country to be a member of the U.N. He probably would rather apply for U.S. statehood.

I was out looking at some soldiers and one of them was sharing some cookies he had just received in the mail. A photographer walked over to him and asked in a heavy French accent for a cookie. The soldier glanced up and told him no cookies for anyone from France. The photographer claimed he was half Italian. Without missing a beat the soldier broke a cookie in half and handed it over.

Found in Lloyd Grove today:

"Iraq will not be defeated. Iraq has now already achieved victory -- apart from some technicalities."

-- Mohsen Khalil, Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League, as quoted yesterday in Cairo by the Associated Press.

Forget about chemical weapons. We should plant a letter in one of Saddam's offices addressed to Trent Lott. "Dear Trent, I think you were spot-on about Strom Thurmond....."

That'll put steel in their spines.

Iraqis are cheering in the streets.

The Minister of Information is dressed like a woman in the back of a chicken truck barrelling for the Syrian border, explaining to the flock that the infidel invaders are being slaughtered in the desert.

Jacques Chirac snorted his cafe au lait through his nose when he turned on CNN this morning. He turned to al Jazeera, but there were still Iraqis dancing in the streets.

Janeane Garafolo is shopping for knee pads because she promised to crawl on broken glass to Fox News and apologize if this happened. She'll weasel out, but that's okay because Iraqis are beating statues of Saddam with their shoes.

The wobbly hawks like Josh Marshall are wondering why they switched teams in the third quarter. Maureen Dowd still doesn't get it, but it takes more than a war to make her understand. But that's okay because kids have been released from the Tyke Gulag -- and the gang at the Nation need to come up with a reason why that's a bad thing.

Antiwar protestors are circling their picnic blankets and fingering the dregs of their trail mix bags, wondering what to do next like dogs whose food bowl's been moved. They'll figure something out, alas. But they'll have to explain how sanctions and inspections would have resulted in Iraqis cheering in the streets.

The war isn't over, of course. Our troops who've made us all so proud are still in harms way. Tikrit must be deloused. Weapons must be found. And the really hard work of making Iraq a decent country must still get underway. But you can't take away from the fact that today is a very good day.

Jonah, speaking as a Brit (Derb is the 'former Brit'), I’m sorry to have missed out on this controversy (I was in Toronto). The fact of the matter, of course, is that both Jacobins and Jacobites were thoroughly bad people. What’s more, the former were French and the latter were supported by France.

''It was a place of evil,'' resident Hamed Fattil said. Hamed told British reporters that Iraqi police locked him and his two brothers in a jail dungeon in 1991, and that he was freed after eight months but his brothers were still missing. ''They used to strap a leather cord around our head, hands and shoulders and hoist us two feet off the ground. Then they would beat us as we hung there,'' Hamed said. ''They did unthinkable things electrocution, immersion in a bath of chemicals and ripping off people's finger and toenails.''

"I'm happy to be here, but a little disappointed there weren't more soldiers to fight...still, it's a good feeling knowing people are that afraid of us," said 32-year-old Sergeant Brian Dow. "I kinda felt like Madonna there, having flowers thrown at me."

I've been running around Dallas for two days trying to buy a car, set up a bank account, cope with the fact that there are six or seven Pentecostal preacher channels on our cable system, but no Fox News, and basically get my new life in order. So I haven't been following events as closely as I otherwise would have. Tonight, I drove around the neighborhood looking for take-out food, until a sign at a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall caused me to pull over: NEW BIG WONG was the name of the joint. I mean, wouldn't you have stopped? Turns out the proprietress was interested in the New York-centric sweatshirt my wife had on. She'd just gotten back from NYC, where she'd been visiting her son, who studies at the Parsons School of Design. She's got another child studying at Cornell, and a third at UCLA. And here she is, a tiny little immigrant woman who speaks halting English, working her butt off cooking food for people in Dallas, and just bursting with pride over what her children have accomplished here, the fruit of honest labor.

What a great lady. What a great country. Viva New Big Wong, say I.

A post from Democraticunderground.com about my talk at Williams tomorrow night:

...In fact, I just tore down a poster of a right-wing speaker Jonah Goldberg that is scheduled to speak to the school tomorrow. I am hoping I can find more and tear them down before there are any interest generating.

Hopefully Mr. Goldberg will wind up with only ZERO audience.

The local Peace Camp thinks that Goldberg is a jerk (The peace camp is right in the middle of the quad and check Al-Jazeera every day and refuses to leave until war is completely over.

I think we are in a very disturbing period. I've never seen anything like it. I've lived through the Depression, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, the rise of the conservative movement, the nuclear age, all of these changes. I've never seen anything like this.

"We are no longer in an era where one or two countries can control the fate of another country," Chirac told a news conference after a meeting with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. "Therefore, the political, economic, humanitarian and administrative reconstruction of Iraq is a matter for the United Nations and for it alone."

Your post of 3:51pm "David Gregory, Voice of Reason" is actually a transcript of last Saturday's "The Chris Mathews Show," which was broadcast on NBC (the network), not "Hardball" on MSNBC.

From a reader:

Hi Jonah,

I never, ever agree with you. At least I can't say I do as a good liberal because the leftie thought-police (LTP) will take away my card (10% off all foreign movies!).

I have to agree with you on your critique of Joshua Marshall, whom I read often. I find myself in the silent majority of left-leaning voters who support this war, and I have had to turn to NRO and Andrew Sullivan and Fox News for a slanted, biased, Yankee imperialist, yet somehow proper discussion of the real issues. Thanks.

Why, you don't ask? Because the cabalistic, sinister, bagel-eating neo-cons that must be pulling W's strings have a point--they have focused our foreign policy on truly moral aims. Democracy, a free society, self-governance-- whatever we call that thing we set up in Iraq, it will be the right thing however half-assed it ends up.

I must say that I'm caught off guard. I'm surprised at the position I've come to, and even more at how easy the liberal status quo was to go with until now. Until basic principles were actually put into play over Iraq, and liberals were found wanting.

It is forcing me to reevaluate my next vote in ways I never thought possible. I'm comforting myself with the thought that there is still plenty of time, that Bush can still screw everything else up, but below the surface I now quietly root for the usurper of the 2000 election. I want him to win today. And I guess I'm preparing myself not to be surprised if I still feel that way in 2004. That tells me plenty of other indie liberals are probably thinking the same thing.

Better get off now. The LTP might accuse me of rendering aid and comfort to the enemy. Final thought--cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys is in very poor taste, but I still laugh my ass off every time I hear it. Cheers.[Name withheld]

This tall to go on the Iraqi jail ride.

(Joke originally from the folks at Lucianne.com).

From a reader:

Jonah, some interesting historical ironies concerning units currently in the thick of the fighting , not sure if they have been pointed out:

3rd Infantry Division is also known (since 1918) as "Rock of the Marne" for their refusal to retreat from the Allied line when other (ahem, non-American) units did so. It was also Audie Murphy's division in WW2.

5th Marine Regiment (along with the 6th) wears to this day on their dress uniforms a "fourragere" (a green braid around the left shoulder) awarded to them by France for their incredible accomplishments at Belleau Wood, Champagne and Soissons in WW1. It is the only distinguishing unit device allowed on any Marine uniform. France renamed Belleau Wood "The Forest of the Marines" after the war.

Now the British have done it again. The looters have had a free reign in Basra, and people are being ruined in the process. British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon made light of the looting of palaces in the Commons on Monday—as though the mob would stop there. It hasn't. Basrans would have been grateful had the British fired warning shots over the heads of looters—and then made an example of a few of them by shooting a tad low. It's a bad start, and reflects too dogmatic an adherence to the "Iraqi freedom" mantra—which, in these circumstances, translates into Iraqi lawlessness. The Iraqis will get their freedom later, when they are ready to assume it. What they need now is firm policing from a resolute army of occupation.

From an article describing how some US soldiers who shook Geraldo's hand had a secret retail bio-weapon program:

"We later found out a few who shook his hand had put those hands in unmentionable places prior. Army justice?"

Woops, I'm sorry. I didn't see this email from the first Jacobite emailer:

Dear Jonah, Far be it from me to defend Jacobitism, which, after all, entailed a belief in hereditary divine right legitimacy utterly at odds with the republican and proto-liberal impulses that animated the American Revolution. But the reader who commented on Jacobitism below repeats one of the serious historical misinterpretations of the Whigs. James II (and indeed his brother Charles II), far from emulating Louis XIV's "religious intolerance", made sustained efforts to establish religious toleration via parliamentary act and royal edict. James did this because his Catholic co-religionists were persecuted in Protestant England, but he extended religious toleration to Protestant sects as well. It was the revolutionary Whigs of 1688 (and the Tories allied with them) who manifested extreme religious intolerance. Their coup against James was almost entirely motivated by a bias against his Catholicism. Once he was gone, they reestablished most (although not all) of the religious monopoly enjoyed by the Church of England. The Toleration Act of 1689 was utterly meager when compared with the religious toleration that both Charles II and James II sought.

Okay, as I expected, I have now received some 20 to 30 emails for and against the Jacobins. If you'll go back and read my posts, however, you will see that I never really took sides on the issue. I merely posted reader email. Why so many people think that posting someone's email means I endorse the content of that email remains a mystery to me.

I was hoping that the subject of Jacobites would have enticed the Brits Derb and Stuttaford (former Brits, whatever they want to be called) into the Corner. Alas, it was not to be. Regardless, I stumbled into this whole squirrels nest a long time ago. I accidentally said Cosmo didn't like Jacobite squirrels and it set of a firestorm among people who really need to update their bed time reading. Here's the column where I first addressed the issue. Scroll down to the subhead "The Jewish Afterlifes & Jacobite Squirrels."

Anyway, I knew the moment I'd said anything about Jacobites, we could get the whole thing going again. But now, I think we can -- or at least should -- put it to rest again for a while.

From Military Guy, re Jacobin Versus Jacobite posts:

...should scare hell outa the lefties! We got the brains! We got the brains!

That's why I love this place - we start out shamelessly hawking Cosmo stuff (hey, I got a mug) and it devolves into a history lesson. Where else? Where else indeed!

From a reader:

Dear Jonah,

I usually never write, but a recent post on the corner has demanded my response. Good King James might have been an ‘absolutist’ (though, I would argue, far less than the Whig oligarchy to follow), but he was certainly no bigot. His Declaration of Indulgence afforded toleration to Catholics (1687) and dissenting Protestants, and was swiftly revoked by the fine ‘Dutch model’ usurper that followed him. James was, all told, the best that the race of Stuarts offered to England, and his ousting was opprobrious to the extreme. Your expert on British history might think Test Acts (discriminating against Catholics for more than a century afterwards) of the post-1688 regime to be the heights of enlightenment, but as a Catholic and loyal subject of the Crown, I would politely demur. He is, however, correct that Toryism does not necessarily equal Jacobitism, but it is
nevertheless true that very few Tories actually wished to see James deposed (and very few Whigs, for that matter). As for the ‘massive state apparatus’, that is quite laughable. Simply compare the size of the bureaucracy of James II and
that of the Parliamentary regime 100 years later and come to your own conclusions. And ‘anti-market political economy’? What the deuce?! The advent of highly irresponsible monetary policy and ‘mercantilism’ was largely owing to the writings and influence of Locke and other radical Whigs (Joyce Appleby). Besides, why should we celebrate the ‘market’ forces that helped to create and to sustain the slave trade? In any event, I think the Odious Revolution of 1688 to be among the greater misfortunes of British History….only Vicky reconciled me at last to the House of Hanover. Otherwise I would still be toasting the ‘King o’er the water’ (and I might well be doing so when our next monarch arrives). But whatever that prejudiced reader might say, your Cosmo should sport his White Cockade with pride!!

A. Jacobite

Well, the Info Minister has been telling them -- as recently as Monday -- that it is safe, that the Americans are nowhere near Baghdad, etc. And many news outlets (especially overseas) have been giving him equal weight as US "propaganda," if not dismissing US "claims" outright and listening to Baghdad Bob instead. So, actually, he probably is being honest that he didn't know...

Chris Matthews: "Will this war stop terrorism?"

Robert Kagan, Washington Post: "Of course not."

Matthews: "Will it help to stop it?"

Kagan: "It, it, it will help to stop terrorism but I also I have to say I don't believe this war was just about terrorism. It was about this very dangerous man who had invaded two countries on his border and who is still, was still an aggressor and was building weapons of mass destruction. There is a terrorism issue as well but I think that there has always been a special Iraq question."

David Gregory: "Oh I, I'm sorry I, I don't think it was an 'as well.' I, I think that, that the President has staked this war as being what makes America safer. There are other rationales, and he's talked about them, being essentially an act of humanity and, and perhaps people believe that on its face if you see some of the awful images coming out of Iraq."

Matthews: "Right."

Gregory: "But this is about making America safer. It's about self-defense."

Matthews: "Self-defense."

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation: "This was not, this was not a war of self-defense! This was a war of aggression and if I might add, just quickly, this is not going to enhance America's national security. You can be left of center and also..."

Gregory: "I'm sorry, I think that's an irresponsible statement to say it's a war of aggression! I really do. I mean you can challenge the, the notion..."

[Matthews interrupts to move onto new topic.]

G-File is up

Kids in jail! This isn't long division, children are not supposed to be political prisoners. Of course, Michael Moore believes it would have been morally preferable to keep them there until the Iraqi people changed the regime themselves.

From a reader:

I thought until today that Cosmo was your child. Just with a hippy name.

Babies can dislike squirrels also.

From a reader:

Jonah-

Just out of your curiosity, why exactly are you defending Jacobitism? Are you suggesting that the outsting of a Catholic Francophile absolutist Stuart monarchy and the erection of constitutional monarchy with its concommitant bill of rights and the 1689 Toleration Act were somehow historical missteps? Not to mention the revolutionary shift in political economy away from the state-centered monopolistic crony capitalism of the later Stuarts toward something approximating a free-market system on the 'Dutch model'? This is not to be unduly Whiggish about British history, but James II was a bigot and an absolutist who pattered his brief administration on Louis XIV (after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). The current historiography has, I think, rendered the idea that Toryism = Jacobitism as something of a myth; the earliest Tories of the Exclusion crisis and the post-Revolutionary period were more concerned about the autonomy and supremacy of the Church rather than the monarchy (cf. Mark Goldie's essays). Is this just some dim ghost in the basement of modern conservatism or are you actually defending the massive state apparatus, religious intolerance and anti-market political economy of the later Stuarts? Not to draw any kind of moral equivalence between the historical periods represented, but why is this dreary, poorly thought out romanticization any less inimical to the professed tenants of modern conservatism than Trent Lott's?

8 p.m. Lecture: "War in Iraq: A First Step to Rebuilding the Middle East?" Chapin Hall. Pants required.

From a reader:

I'm not quite sure how to tell you this, and I always enjoy Cosmo stories, but running deer is not really considered, um, "proper". In fact, in some jurisdictions (certainly where I used to live in upstate NY) it is against the law, and game wardens, or Environmental police, whatever they are called these days, will shoot any dogs seen chasing deer. The point is that sooner or later dogs can outlast the deer, especially, as at this time of year, does with child so to speak, and when they catch up to the exhausted deer, well it's not pretty. I would probably want to get rid of this post, if possible.

I won't get rid of the post, obviously. But just in case more of you have similar concerns, let me say, not to worry. Coz starts from about 200 yards away (he spots them from an adjacent ridge) and loses the deer before he comes even close to closing that gap. Moreover, as some of you will remember, Cosmo had surgery on his leg a while back and simply cannot run like that for too long. And last, my wife, a native Alaskan, cannot be dissuaded in this regard since she has more contempt for deer than Coz does for squirrels.

Thanks for all the interest about my speaking events. I still don't have much info on the Denver gig except that it's April 14 at Metropolitan State College I believe at 1:30 PM. Not positive about that yet, will confirm. It is open to the public and the subject is supposed to be "something funny and conservative." As for the Williams thing, that's tomorrow night. The topic is Democracy and the Mideast. I believe that's at 7:30, but you might want to check with them. Also, a local public access cable network called "Willinet" (which sounds to me like the mesh fabric in man's bathing suit) will be taping it for later broadcast.

Ramesh - I'm not worked up about it either, but I do think Kerry deserves the grief he's getting for the "regime change" comment. It drips with condescension, arrogance, moral equivalency and -- perhaps worst of all -- unoriginality. These are the attributes which best define much the Democratic Party today and should be open to thorough criticism and mockery.

That aside, I'm surprised you didn't make a different argument considering your expertise in certain areas. "Regime" -- especially in conservative circles -- has a larger meaning than simply which party is in power. The whole "First Things" controversy, you'll recall, was generated by the suggestion that conservatives should perhaps question the legitimacy of "the existing regime." This wasn't a reference to Bill Clinton but to the reigning American political order -- or at least that was the charge (my eagerness to wade into that briar patch is nil).

Now, I understand that Kerry didn't have this reading in mind since by this understanding Kerry isn't calling for a change of regimes so much as trying to take over the regime. Now that I've gotten this far, I'm not sure my point extends beyond pedantry, but I got a lot of pro-pedantry email last week, so what the hey.

Is on a mission of utmost importance right now -- protecting the womenfolk as they make their way to the Post Office (having a baby around has made him much more assertive when it comes to defending the fairer sex).

So let me take this one. First, it's not "Jacobian" or -- heaven forbid -- Jacobite but Jacobin. The orginal Jacobins -- or members of the Jacobin Club -- were the radicals of the French Revolution. Largely through British usage, the word has come to describe all leftist radicals. Cosmo, being thoroughly American in his mongrelness and powerfully Anglophillic in his sentiments, believes passionately in disliking French leftists. He believes squirrels are Jacobins because A) they are B) they jibber and jabber in high picthed squeaks C) they hide in the trees and presume to say they've taken the "high ground" D) they are not meat-eaters E) There is no proof they are not rats who don squirrel suits by day (When was the last time you saw squirrel at night?) and, oh, Cosmo's got another dozen or so reasons to hate them.

But, in the name of journalistic honesty, I should let it be known that Cosmo has largely graduated from squirrels. Yes, yes, if they cross him or if he seeks some amusement he will give chase from time to time. But Cosmo is now obsessed with deer. Ever since our trip back from Alaska last summer, Cosmo has become obsessed with the big game. We've found a spot here in DC where there are many deer and every Frday the fair Jessica takes Cosmo deer hunting. Truth be told, Cosmo isn't nearly fast enough to catch them. But, man, does he like trying. It is the only time Coz will run straight-out at full sprint for minutes at a time. On Friday nights you can see his legs kick as he sleeps as he mentally replays the day's hunt. I haven't asked him what he thinks the deer's politics are, but I will when he gets back. My guess is he doesn't care. For when they are nearby, politics are a trivial issue, a distraction of lesser mortals, for he has become The Deer Hunter.

I love dogs and enjoy Jonah's G-File. Inclined to buy a Cosmo T-Shirt but would first like a little help with "Jacobian Squirrel" Even after using google I am still not clear on the meaning. Thanks and keep up the great work. Also, I am a dead tree subscriber.

when you have news regarding something involving potential casualties as in the A-10 shoot down, I think it would be helpful to add that the pilot ejected safely and was recovered by our forces.

I'm officially fed up with the television media's insistence that their coverage is so great, so unprecendented, so you-are-there. All you need to do is read this story from today's Washington Post to see that television cannot come close to competing with print.

But I should say that I watched the Ted Koppel special on ABC last night. It was the first TV report which gave a real sense of the war as it happens -- and it used footage that was days old. The old system of non-instantaneous but comprehensive coverage really was superior to what we have today.

Correspondent: We now see American tanks on the river bridges. We see American helicopters just a short distance away in the air. Is it not time now that you surrendered or seek peace?

Al-Sahhaf: They are going to surrender. They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks.

Correspondent: You are not frightened now, Sir?

Al-Sahhaf: Not at all, and you do not need to be frightened. We are going to tackle them and to destroy them. Do not be afraid.

I finally bought my own subscription to NR. (Previously it had been a gift, but ran out a few months ago much to my dismay.) The final push? I showed up at Ashland University this weekend as a recent alumni...my former roommate and I were both wearing the NRO shirt with Cosmo on it. It was a sign from God that I should pay for the services somehow. Well, that or we're both such Corner addicts, that we both knew all the same stories and are pathetic enough to put a blogger's dog on our tshirts and think its cool. You decide. Thanks for all the good work...

CAIRO, Egypt, Apr 07, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Israel pushed America to wage war on Iraq and provided equipment and training to U.S. soldiers, Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League said Monday. "Iraq will not be defeated" in the war, Ambassador Mohsen Khalil told a news conference in Egypt. "Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities."

Fox just did it too. This drives me nuts. People keep saying that Uday Hussein owns Iraq's "most influential newspaper" -- as if it's just another publication like the Washington Post or the New York Times. The reason Uday's paper is "influential" is that it serves as a bulletin board for the regime. Somehow I doubt people say, "Man, did you read that editorial. They make a very persuasive case!"

"The sense in general is that it's a very exciting time in Augusta. The people who live here are going about their planning and their activities as if it's any other Masters year," Barry White, the executive director of the Augusta Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, told The New York Sun.

"We have every reason to believe this is going to be a banner year.We've seen a 33% increase in hotel reservations," said Mr. White of the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

All of the city's 6,000 hotel rooms are full this week, he said, and many people have to stay in adjacent towns. As for getting tickets to watch the tournament - forget it. It's still one of the hardest feats in all of sports: The waiting list to get a weekly badge has been closed since 1978.

"Augusta's a pretty resilient place. It bounces right back," said SteveVarnell, a local taxi driver who has lived here since 1962. "I'd say probably 90% of the town is against Burk. I support Hootie."

The trepidation on the paratroopers' faces as they began their walk into old Basra, splitting into two groups, taking separate parallel roads through the centre, was clear.It was soon apparent, however, that their fears were groundless when a young boy walked up to the soldiers and flung a wad of Iraqi banknotes on to the ground and deliberately trampled on the face of Saddam displayed upon them.

Suave in appearance, military in bearing, and uncouth in his use of crude language and Arabic dialect, al-Majid had few redeeming qualities. He relished torture, murder and rape.

“It seems that we have become a target,” said Allouni[an al Jazeera correspondent].

Another of Jazeera's Baghdad correspondents Majed Abdel Hadi called the U.S. missile strike and Ayoub's death a "crime".

"I will not be objective about this because we have been dragged into this conflict," he said, visibly upset. "We were targeted because the Americans don't want the world to see the crimes they are committing against the Iraqi people."

There's also that Koran Saddam supposedly had written with his own blood. Maybe we can get our hands on that.

Andrea Mitchell was on the Today Show this morning discussing the attack on Saddam. When she got to the tricky question of identifying what's left of what may or may not be Saddam, she said that we do have a DNA sample of Saddam's son-in-law. She said something like: "But intelligence sources tell me that's not a close enough relative for a match." Do we really need higher-ups in the CIA to tell us that Saddam Hussein's son-in-law doesn't have the same DNA?

Saddam would have said after the first bunker buster dropped: "Ow! Quit it!" And after the second: "Ow! Quit it!" The third: "Ow! Quit it!" etc.

An email from Poppa Goldberg (The "NANA" he mentions refers to the North American Newspaper Alliance, which he used to run):

You got Pete Hamill just right. When he started out at the New York Post (then extremely liberal - Dorothy Schiff owned it, James Wechsler edited it), NANA syndicated him. He was totally hung up on the Vietnam War (as was nearly all the press), and the quintessential column was the one he wrote the night of the Black & White Ball, which, thrown by Truman Capote on November 28, 1966, at the Plaza, was the social event of the decade, the closest thing to a "do" at Versailles. Five hundred of the optimates were there - Kay Graham, Cecil Beaton, Wlliam F. Buckley, Jr., Lee Radziwill, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Everyone was expected to wear only black & white - can you imagine anything more fun? (You can?) It was pointless, except to Capote, who spent the entire summer pruining his invitation list from 1,500 down to 500, but so what if it was pointless. Hamill wrote a column in which one paragraph depicted the party goers bantering with one another, imbibing, and fawning over the supercelebrities, followed by a paragraph such as (paraphrasing the gist of it) "Meantime, Cpl. Johnny Garanga had the left side of his face blown off by a sniper in Vietnam." And so forth throughout the column. The message was: "How dare anyone enjoy himself while our guys are dying in Vietnam?" It was bathos of the purest kind, designed to make everyone, except perhaps Pete Hamill, feel guilty. How can you go grocery shopping and buy some Twinkies while the deaths are piling up in Vietnam? Hamill's politics used to be more leftist than they are today, but throughout his career he has not been able to resist the temptation to pull out all the stops for some squishy cause. I've always said that it's unfortunate that Pete Hamill is such a good writer.

From air power guy:

What makes me crazy is every military talking head shooting off his mouth as to how this was done...Jaguar radio intercepts, Special Forces tactics, etc.

Shut up, already people! Yeah, yeah all that stuff's probably going to leak out anyway, but...at least make the Chinese work for their intel and war college syllabus edits.

Sheesh.

YES! YES!
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Then Chemical Ali, Saddam, and the Hussein boys are all gone. That means the Minster of Information and Tariq Azziz should sell their bonds because they're the last name brand Baathist honchos left.

My favorite movie critic, Steve Hunter, won.

Hamill tries to score points off of Kelly's death by making an argument Kelly completely rejected as reactionary and know-nothing.

From the guy formerly known as defending the French guy:

Hey wait a minute!

The info I sent you does not absolve the French of anything. This could still easily be prohibited dual-use materials.

No-one (well, no-one worth listening to) is accusing the French of selling chemical weapons to the Iraqis...but they are accused of selling dual-use chemicals and other technology in violation of the sanctions regime.

I guess I should have signed that last email "Speaking the French" guy, since I was only trying to shed light on what MSNBC was showing, not spin it one way or another.

"Defending the French" guy writes:

The French labelling on the barrels shown on MSNBC is "produit d'urgence," which translates roughly as "emergency product." I'm not a chem weapons expert, but the term is a relatively common one in the civilian world. It applies to things as diverse as contraception - the so-called 'morning after' pill is a 'produit d'urgence' - to a special spackle for large-scale leaks. It also applies to some emergency treatments for chemical burns. I have no idea one way or another whether any pesticides are considered "produits d'urgence."

Attention all Army guys: I didn't mean to suggest that I thought army didn't deserve to get there first. My apologies. The 3rd ID certainly earned their laurels -- and I'm the first to admit I'm hardly the arbiter of what they deserve or don't deserve in the first place. It's just that I remembered that Marine who said his mission was to beat army to Baghdad.

Charlie company rides under those giant swords in Baghdad. The only bummer is you know the Marines really wanted to get there first.

From a reader who defied me:

Yes, I know, I know.

But Arkham Asylum is where they send the crazy people. Regular ol' supervillains were sent to Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary (located in Rod's Louisiana; it was the home of Task Force X/the Suicide Squad) before it was blown up. Now, they go "The Slab," which I think is actually "Slabstone Federal Prison."

I don't write 'em, I just read 'em.

Pesticides ARE nerve agents. Cholinesterase inhobitors (nerve agents) were first developed in Germany as pesticides. This is the problem with non-proliferation efforts. So much of this stuff is dual use, it's hard to track legitimate use of WMD production material. Pesticide factory and pesticide ingrediants=Nerve Gas Factory Pharmaceutical plant involved in live agent vaccine or antibiotic manufacturing= Bioweapons plant. Machine tools used for computerized machining of metal to high tolerances= Nuclear weapons production facility. No wonder Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and other similar treaties are so hard to enforce, ANY modern or semi-modern nation has the inherent industrial base needed to produce WMD. All that is needed is the political will to do so.

The other pictures of the drums filled with chemicals being shown on MSNBC (not the ones K-Lo links to below) show the writing on the canisters. Guess what language it's in? Not English, not Arabic, not German....you're getting warmer....

The problem with nerve agents is that most of them started life as pesticides. So pesticides can give a false positive. Here is what is 'current' (who knows, in this environment?) about the barrels. Still doesn't mean those BM-21 rockets aren't real. Heck, I doubt we've heard the final word on the 'pesticides' either.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Robert Culp has got to play Don Rumsfeld. They both talk through their front teeth the exact same way.

Reporters and talking heads on the networks are quick to caution that the field tests have been known to register false-positives and that more testing is required. Fair enough and good for the networks. However, there are a couple reasons to believe this will pan out as real. First, US troops were tipped-off about the location by an Iraqi POW. Second, US troops had physical reactions totally consistent with the chemicals they are reported to have found (according to a former weapons inspector they just interviewed on Fox). Third, these chemicals were found on a military site, so whatever civilian-sector chemicals they might be confused for, they weren't found at a civilian site.

Initial tests come up positive for chem weapons. If all of this pans out, we should hang Kofi Anan and Hans Blix by their underwear from the UN rostrum until they apologize.

This will definitely cause the 101st to grind to a halt:

WIESBADEN, Germany (AFP) - A linguists' group called on Germans to replace commonly used English words with their French equivalents in a protest at the Anglo-American war on Iraq (news - web sites). Armin Burkhardt, chairman of the working group Language in Politics, said Monday English words such as "ticket" and "okay" should be replaced by "billet" and "d'accord".

Burkhardt, who lectures at the university of Magdeburg in eastern Germany, said the move was not about language purity but a political demonstration that the vast majority of people supported France and Germany's opposition to the US-led war.

Other words his group says ought to be replaced include "boom" by "hausse", "gag" by "pointe" and "T-shirt" by "tricot".

In Oakland police use rubber bullets on protesters.

This is the name of the Super-Villain prison in DC comics, mostly Batman if memory serves (I'm no DC guy). The Joker, Two-Face, the Riddler et al. are all put in one, apparently easily escapable, jail. I think we should do whatever it takes to keep Saddam, Milosovic, Noriega and all those cats from Chechnya, Rwanda, the Shining Path, etc in a single Stoney Lonesome somewhere along the lines of Arkham Asylum. I don't suggest this because I think it makes sense politically, legally, diplomatically or even in terms of security. I just think we should do it because it would be really cool. It would be a full emplyment act for all sorts of action-movie screenwriters who specialize in flicks involving bad guys escaping from such places.

(Note: While this post is technically Robert George bait (he's a crazy DC fan), I really don't need 8 billion emails about DC comics in any form. If you're a comic geek with questions in this regard I refer you to this site.

I bet I know which scenes he liked.

Spc. Robert Blake, 20, of State College, Pa., and the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry upon seizing Saddam's palace:

"This used to be a nice place, they should make it like a Six Flags, or something."

For those too busy to listen to audio. Here's a write-up.

Remember my post about how cool it would be if the Iraqi Minister of Information were captured mid press conference? Looks like the Washington Post's Tony Auth had a similar idea over the weekend (click on Auth).

That's what I'm doing apparently, according to this article tracing the history of the Cheese-eating surrender monkey phenomenon. Apparently the Simpsons writers are unamused. If only they'd punish me in some sort of couch gag!

Sounds too much like "Fox Force Five" from Pulp Fiction.

Iain Murray at TCS has a good piece debunking the Iraqi civilian deaths numbers game.

He uses the deaths of Michael Kelly and David Bloom -- two men he didn't know -- to make tired, cliched, and quite dumb chickenhawk/neocon arguments. "Paul Wolfowitz didn't resign from Donald Rumsfeld's staff to go to the war with foot soldiers. Kelly didn't see Richard Perle traveling with the 3rd Infantry Division...."

Um, maybe those guys were needed elsewhere?

If Hamill wants to say that pro-war journalists should cover them first hand, well, okay; that's an argument. One could say the same of anti-war journalists. Whatever, that's a subject for grad school seminars. But why should the number 2 ranking man in the defense department suit-up with the infantry because journalists are covering a war? Journalists have to cover wars when they're good ideas and when they're bad ones. Wolfowitz didn't send Bloom or Kelly to Iraq. Besides, did Hamill make similar arguments in favor of senior Clinton Administration policymakers fighting in Mogadishu or Kosovo? Or is this simply a matter of hackery? It would be one thing if grief were pushing Hamil to lash out, but he admits he didn't know either of them. This is just pure opportunism combined with stale ideas. Shame on him. I thought Hamill was better than this.

the uprising is being reported by irna, which until recently was the most unreliable news agency in the world, and kuna, which until recently ranked second. (how bad is kuna? bad enough that kuwait television didn't even use their stuff -- and they're the kuwait news agency!)

so there *really* needs to be independent confirmation. and no, given its track record of reporting its wishes as fact, fox doesn't count.

From: "So I Married an Axe Murderer."

NPR REPORTING:

Rockets found with mustard and sarin-loaded warheads. Got to NPR.org and click on "Troops Find Possible Chemical Warheads Site." Not 1,000% confirmed, but sounds like the real deal.

Guys - If you look just below my post on global warming, I had just gone on and one about how I was trying to bait other cornerites into posting. That's why my global warming post was title "Adler Bait." Adler's our enviro-guy. I actually think the story is perfectly legit. Please stop yelling at me!

according to the Iraqi Minister of Information.

Just kidding.

A friend writes from Seattle:

I was at the post office yesterday when a friend was mailing something to
his kid in the Persian Gulf. The postal lady at the counter asked him if he
was mailing anything "contrary to Islam".

Um, when the did the Feds become gatekeepers for the purity of sharia?

Is this official U.S.P.S. policy? What if you wanted to send your kid under arms a Bible, a cross, a rosary, etc.?

is up 215 points and Nasdaq is up 44 points.

Hmmm... I think this story that global warming isn't a big deal isn't legit.

Kathryn -

Maybe we should start goading various cornerites back into the fray. You know, say stuff like "Marmite smells like Michael Moore and explains why the sun set on the British empire!" (Stuttaford bait). Or: "The Supreme Court is the one and only defender of our constitutional rights in our federal system" (Ponnuru bait). Or: "Conservatives take no position on the question of organic versus conventional okra" (Dreher bait).

For those of you who remember the episode, what we are doing to Saddam right now is very similar to the way Frank Burns taunted Hawkeye when Hawkeye was under arrest and confined to his tent. Burns stood in the doorway of the Swamp and walked in and out saying "I can go in, I can go out, I can go in, I can go out." Well, we can go into Baghdad and we can go out, we can go in and we can go out.

If you haven't seen or don't remember the episode, this post is monstrously boring. And even if you did, it is of limited interest.

We thought it'd be cool if you collapsed from exhaustion and started posting items with your forehead on the keyboard:

GLUMBPTHHHHHHT [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sssft.

Soldiers, reporters decontaminated for sarin exposure.

That has got to be the longest string of single-author posts in the Corner ever.

All of us who were doing inspections in Iraq -- the first time! -- know that his Excellency's real nickname is "Sid". Incidentally, the Germans on our team used to call him "Karl Heinz" (apparently, akin to calling him "Joe Smith").

David Bloom is dead.

On the Batchelor & Alexander show on 77-WABC on Friday night (before today's attack), a guest with intelligence connections said that the Ministry of Information broadcasts are being conducted in a basement under the Palestine Hotel. Coincidence?

Just finished watching “Battle of the Bulge” on the History Channel (for about the 50th time) and a couple of things struck me:

The scene where the Germans backed the trucks up to the corralled GI prisoners and killed them in cold blood. was very Sadaam-like it seemed.

The battle took 44 days!!! Could you imagine if Eisenhower was held to the same standard as Franks and the boys are today? Operation Iraqi Freedom has clearly, for anyone without an agenda, been a remarkable military success thus far.