NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER: In my light-blogging weekend, I missed the story of how Martha Burk’s Augusta National campaign fizzled, with only 40 protesters showing up despite massive support from The New York Times.

Will Burk’s strategy work after a demonstration at which Burk arrived with a group of 40 protestors?

“It seems obvious to me that her credibility has been shattered,” said Jim McCarthy, Augusta National’s media consultant. “Her whole campaign was premised on widespread support, and she delivered an embarrassingly small number.”

I don’t think this does a lot for Howell Raines’ credibility, either. If flood-the-zone coverage can’t fill a single bus, what does this say about the Times’ influence?

RUSSIAN GENERALS ARE DEEPLY UPSET by the U.S. victory in the Three Weeks War:

Like its Soviet prototype, Iraq’s Army was huge but made up mainly of young, poorly trained conscripts. Its battle tactics called for broad frontal warfare, with massed armor and artillery, and a highly centralized command structure. But those forces were trounced in a few days by relatively small numbers of US and British forces, who punched holes in the Iraqi front using precision weapons and seized the country’s power centers more rapidly than traditional military thinkers could have imagined. “The military paradigm has changed, and luckily we didn’t have to learn that lesson firsthand,” says Yevgeny Pashentsev, author of a book on Russian military reform. “The Americans have rewritten the textbook, and every country had better take note.”

Yes. If the Russians want to learn more, they should read my TechCentralStation column for today, which is all about those issues.

BAD NEWS FOR CHIRAC:

PARIS, April 15 — An American backlash against French products and businesses has started to bite, dashing hopes here that appeals in the United States to punish France economically for opposing the war in Iraq would go unheeded.

American importers of French wine are reporting sharp drops in sales in the past two months, and other French products also have been affected. The Federation of Wine Exporters has called a meeting Thursday to discuss how to respond. . . .

“It’s a very, very deep reaction,” said Carreras, who is French. “We would never have expected something so lasting. I think it has been accelerating even in the last four weeks.”

The importers, angry and frustrated, said the government in Paris did not comprehend the effect of its war position on French businesses.

Heh.

UPDATE: MerdeinFrance notes another anti-American remark by De Villepin. Yeah, that’ll help.

Daniel Drezner has more, and it’s all bad news for Chirac. And Jim Treacher, who has contacts everywhere, has mysteriously obtained a transcript of the Bush-Chirac phone conversation. It’s about what I expected. . . .

UPDATE: On a more serious note, this is worth reading.

JUSTIN WEITZ THINKS SANCTIONS AGAINST SYRIA ARE A BAD IDEA. I think he’s probably right. The track record of sanctions is pretty unimpressive.

MAX BOOT WONDERS why the media are so glum, given that the war went so well:

I was recently interviewed by a reporter for one of the major network affiliates in New York City. All his questions were about looting, suicide bombings, civilian casualties, Arab resentment of Christian military forces, the possibility of protracted guerrilla warfare, and even the specter of “another Vietnam.” That’s pretty typical of the news coverage, especially among overseas news outlets, but also among many U.S. papers and TV networks.

And mainstream TV executives wonder why the Fox News Channel–which has been a notable dissenter from this gloomy orthodoxy–has suddenly become so popular!

The rest of the press should get a grip. This is the most successful U.S. military intervention since 1945. This was no half victory like Kosovo, in which U.S. forces liberated only one province, or Afghanistan, where the U.S. left warlords in control of much of the country. This was the real deal: marching to the enemy capital and imposing peace on our terms. This calls for champagne and tickertape. Instead the press, and opponents of the war, are moving the goalposts.

It’s not enough to win a smashing military victory at small cost. To listen to the critics, if Iraq doesn’t suddenly become as law-abiding and peaceful as Switzerland, then we haven’t really won.

A little perspective is in order here. The French, after their liberation in 1944, took a cruel revenge on many of those who had collaborated with the Nazis who had occupied their country for just four years. It would be unnatural if Iraqis were not bent on revenge against those who had oppressed them for three decades. It is hard to be overly troubled by the sight of Iraqis looting the homes and offices of leading Baathists. Why shouldn’t the people take back a few of the regime’s ill-gotten gains? To add a touch of poetic justice, Iraqis also cleaned out the German embassy and the French cultural center in east Baghdad, well aware that Germany and France tried to block their liberation.

Historical perspective? To a lot of these guys, talk about the 2002 elections counts as “historical perspective.”

SOME THOUGHTS on university culture and file-sharing.

LOOTING: I have comments on the Left’s dual fantasies of U.S. impotence and U.S. omnipotence over at GlennReynolds.com — and Jeff Jarvis has this observation:

Hey, I’m sorry that antiquities got lifted. I’m sorry Iraqi museums didn’t have better locks. I’m sure Tommy Franks is sorry he didn’t have an extra tank to park in front of that museum.

But let’s check our priorities, people. This is a war. In a war, you’re a bit busy worrying about things other than the priorities an NPR audience would set.

Read the whole thing. Er, things.

REVOKETHEOSCAR.COM is a website dedicated to getting Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine oscar, uh, revoked.

SHELLSHOCKING AND LETTERS FROM THE OLD COUNTRIE have merged to form Across the Atlantic.

There’s already a heated grits vs. Marmite debate, a claim that y’all isn’t part of the Queen’s English, questions about Uday’s penis size, and a stirring call for gender equality in vibrator usage. In other words, about what you’d expect. . . .

WILL FEMIA ASKS “Why do I blog?”

Well, I do it for the money. And the chicks!

Uh oh. . . .

YOU CAN’T NOT READ A POST ENTITLED “ATOMIC HAIRSPLITTING FOR FATBOY” — and when you do read it, I think you’ll be amused.

SOME PEOPLE ARE ALREADY SUFFERING from the war.

TIM BLAIR REPORTS on “PSYOPS mavens from the Australian SAS’s elite mockery division.”

They do good work.

TERRORIST ABU ABBAS HAS BEEN ARRESTED IN IRAQ:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Abu Abbas, the Palestinian terrorist who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea, has been arrested by U.S. personnel in Iraq.

Abbas was arrested about 50 miles west of Baghdad after being turned away from Iraq’s border with Syria, a Palestinian source told CNN.

The hijacking of the ship led to the killing of disabled passenger Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jew. Klinghoffer was shot in his wheelchair and thrown overboard by Abbas’ men.

So — explain to me again how the Iraq/terrorism connection was just a bit of Bush Administration PR. Go ahead. I’m waiting. . . . [crickets chirping] . . .

UPDATE: Note how the BBC plays it:

During the hijack, an elderly American passenger was killed.

No mention that he was Jewish, or in a wheelchair, or tossed overboard — all details that would have been lovingly emphasized in the unlikely event that such an atrocity had been perpetrated by, say, a U.S. Marine.

Well, except for the Jewish part, which is only emphasized when the Beeb discusses people like Paul “Wolfivitz.”

UPDATE: Well, a reader notes that the wheelchair is in the story now. Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Travis Smith notes:

Makes you wonder exactly why this guy was hanging out around Baghdad when he knew the US was around, and looking for his type. Maybe those borders are being watched more closely than we’ve been led to believe, otherwise why wouldn’t this guy bolt the country? This event also highlights how good (or improved) our human intelligence in Iraq is…….you just don’t think the US bumped into someone who said “Hey, I know where Abu Abbas is!” do you? Can Saddam be far behind? After all, this guy did his deed almost 20 years ago, but our intel was good enough to dig him up……assuming Saddam isn’t under a building somewhere, wouldn’t you think someone would give a good tip on a high profile (=high reward $) target like him sooner or later?

You would. The CNN story says he was turned back at the border after trying to enter Syria — more evidence that the pressure on Damascus is doing some good.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Daniel Freitag emails:

You noted that the BBC was rather tepid in its online coverage of the Abu Abbas capture.

The broadcast version was even worse (last night).

The onscreen bulletin (below the broadcaster) described Abu Abbas as a Palestinian ‘activist’ (As if he was working to improve educational standards for migrant workers).

The BBC newsreader said that Abu Abbas masterminded the Achille Lauro hijacking…and I quote…”which led to the death of elderly American Leon Klinghoffer”.

Got that? It ‘led to his death’ as if he couldnt take his medicine because of the inconvenience….

If you can get a transcript you ought to.

Just checked Nexis — nothing there yet. If anybody knows where this can be found on the web, let me know.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Just looked at the BBC story again (the online one, of course, not the broadcast one) and now the wheelchair item (which was added about halfway down earlier) has now been moved up to the top of the story, just below the bolded introductory paragraph. Congratulations to the BBC for making that change. I hope that next time it will note important factors like that in the story’s first iteration. But, hey — we bloggers update our stories all the time, so I won’t kick ’em for doing the same.

OKAY, ONE MORE: Just noticed via Andrew Sullivan’s page that the original BBC story on this just said that Klinghoffer “died.” Like the broadcast version referenced above, I guess.

Nice to see that the Beeb has been engaged in what Mickey Kaus calls the “asymptotic approach to truth” here, anyway. Maybe next time, they’ll start from a bit closer. . . .

BILL HERBERT admits he was wrong.

UPDATE: Read this, too.

IS THERE A DICTATOR, ANYWHERE, WHO HASN’T SHAKEN JACQUES CHIRAC’S HAND? And recently?

THE JAMES UJAAMA PLEA BARGAIN looks like a big win for Ashcroft:

James Ujaama, 36, who was charged last August with attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon, said as part of a plea agreement that he sought to provide “jihad fighters, currency, computers, software, computer disks and other items” to the Taliban, the Afghan rulers who sheltered al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and were crushed by U.S. forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. . . .

One of Ujaama’s attorneys, Peter Offenbecher of Seattle, called the agreement “a favorable outcome for both the government and Mr. Ujaama.” In addition to a recommended two-year sentence, the deal will also rescind severe restrictions on Ujaama’s contact with the outside world.

“He’s acknowledged his personal responsibility for the facts that are stated in the plea agreement,” Offenbecher said. “He stepped up to the plate and said, ‘I did these things and I regret them.’ “

“I did these things, and I regret them.” But only a two-year sentence? Either (1) the case was weak; or (2) he’s really helped them a lot. The other possibility would be that the plea bargain was coerced, which is an issue for concern in the Lackawanna cases, but — judging by the very light sentence — not one here. But, you know, the Lackawanna stories have made me a bit more skeptical of plea bargains in terrorism cases in general.

UPDATE: Judging from this story, it looks like the answer is (2).

“ANTI-WAR FRONT COLLAPSES AS IRAQ GOLD RUSH BEGINS:”

BERLIN (Reuters) – They couldn’t prevent the war, but that hasn’t stopped the “Non-Nyet-Nein” coalition of France, Russia and Germany from staking their individual claims to a role in shaping, and profiting from, the new Iraq.

Even before the fighting stopped, the three European powers were moving to build bridges to the United States and Britain to ensure their companies get a share in rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq.

France says it wants to be pragmatic, Germany says it is an honest broker because it has no economic interests in Iraq, and Russia says it will consider Washington’s call to forgive some $8 billion in Soviet era debt.

All three have sounded conciliatory in the past week, while saying they want to see the United Nations (news – web sites) play the lead role in post-war reconstruction — tactics widely seen as an effort to avoid being locked out of business deals by the United States.

Hey, it’s not called the “Axis of Weasels” for nothing.

DAN KENNEDY PUBLISHES A LONG LETTER FROM CNN’S EASON JORDAN — and replies.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

If a CEO of a tobacco company were making the type of statements Jordan makes in the letter on Media Log, it would come in for derision and ridicule in newsrooms (and supposed “watchdog” groups likethe Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy) across the country. Instead, there will be a willingness among all too many “cynical reporters” to not dig deep into this one. . . .

Cynicism only goes so far.

LETTER FROM GOTHAM IS NO MORE:

Diana Moon announces that due to problems at work, she must not only stop
blogging but take down her blog altogether. She will return to blogging as
soon as possible.

We’ll miss her.

EXPLOITING THE WAR WOUNDED: Denis Boyles is very upset. Excerpt:

In the last week, Ali Ismail Abbas has sold perhaps more British newspapers and magazines than any other single person in Iraq, with the possible exception of Saddam Hussein. He’s been featured in virtually every newspaper in the UK, often more than once. In Europe and America, by now almost every major newsmagazine has run the pathetic photo of the boy along with his sad tale. . . .

In today’s Daily Telegraph, Ali Ismail Abbas finally hits back: “‘The journalists always promise to evacuate me – why don’t they do it now?’ he asked, his brow furrowed with pain and glistening with sweat.” Day after day, reporters and camera crews have wallowed into Ali’s view, making promises they can’t keep.

“The Mirror launched an appeal on Ali’s behalf and the London Evening Standard used his face to launch their Red Cross ‘victims of war’ appeal,” the Telegraph’s man reports. He has listened to the hacks and listened to their promises. But no more. “‘You are coming to make fun of me because I have lost my arms?’ he asked. ‘Doctor, doctor, no more journalists please.'”

Somebody get this kid some help. And a lawyer.

UPDATE: Howard Owens has more thoughts on exploitation. Meanwhile Ali is being airlifted to Kuwait by the U.S. military.

I SUPPOSE THE FRANCE-BASHING WILL HAVE TO SETTLE DOWN SOON, but I find this account amusing:

Consul General Jean-Luc Sibiude of France recently requested a meeting with Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. Here is a portion of Owens’ reply, from a letter dated April 10: “I am sorry I will be unable to meet with you during your visit to Colorado. I feel it would be inappropriate to do so at this time. I have been active for many years in the international arena … I am also proud of my uncle who was killed in action in France on his eighteenth birthday. I give you this background as a preface to my feeling that France’s actions over the past few months will have serious and long-term consequences on relations between our countries.”

One hopes that the French leadership is getting the message.

APPARENTLY, CNN’S SUCK-UP TO SADDAM STARTED A LONG TIME AGO:

In each of these meetings, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jordan made their pitch: Saddam Hussein would have an hour’s time on CNN’s worldwide network; there would be no interruptions, no commercials. I was astonished. From both the tone and the content of these conversations, it seemed to me that CNN was virtually groveling for the interview.

The day after one such meeting, I was on the roof of the Ministry of Information, preparing for my first “live shot” on CNN. A producer came up and handed me a sheet of paper with handwritten notes. “Tom Johnson wants you to read this on camera,” he said. I glanced at the paper. It was an item-by-item summary of points made by Information Minister Latif Jassim in an interview that morning with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jordan.

The list was so long that there was no time during the live shot to provide context. I read the information minister’s points verbatim. Moments later, I was downstairs in the newsroom on the first floor of the Information Ministry. Mr. Johnson approached, having seen my performance on a TV monitor. “You were a bit flat there, Peter,” he said. Again, I was astonished. The president of CNN was telling me I seemed less-than-enthusiastic reading Saddam Hussein’s propaganda.

I might have been inclined to doubt a story like this a week ago. Now it seems entirely believable.

DELAWARE’S OWN BLOGOLUTION is fact-checking Joe Biden on North Korea.

ANDREW SULLIVAN’S VACATION is prompting efforts to steal market share.