Archive for 2003

MERYL YOURISH ANSWERS: “More than once a day.” She also opines on France and Germany.

IRAQI COOPERATION: Death threats.

A PRO-WAR DEMONSTRATION at the University of Oregon.

GERHARD SCHROEDER’S COALITION IS “NEAR COLLAPSE” as a result of the leaked Franco-German plan to send bodyguards for Saddam more inspectors to Iraq.

IF AMERICA REALLY WERE AN IMPERIALIST BULLY, how would it act? A thought experiment, along with some warnings about the “American Street,” takes place over at GlennReynolds.com. I hope someone forwards a copy to Schroeder, Chirac, and Annan.

JOHN MCCAIN IS INVOKING THE “AMERICAN STREET” in a speech in Munich. My MSNBC piece for today — which was delayed for technical reasons — is about the same topic. It should be up shortly.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the text of McCain’s speech. Read it. It’s terrific. Here’s an excerpt:

Foreign Minister Fischer recently warned against “primitive anti-Americanism.” I thank and commend him for his statement. But I am concerned, we should all be concerned, not only with the “primitive” anti-Americanism of the street that resents America’s successes, exults in our misfortunes, and ascribes to us motives that one must be a fool or delusional to believe. We should also be concerned with the “sophisticated” anti-Americanism, or perhaps more aptly, the “cynical” anti-Americanism of political leaders who exploit for their own ends the disinformed, “primitive” hostility to America voiced in some quarters of their societies; to further their ambitions to govern or to inflate perceptions of their international influence.

Just as some Arab governments fuel anti-American sentiment among their people to divert them from problems at home, so a distinct minority of Western European leaders appears to engage in America- bashing to rally their people and other European elites to the call of European unity. Some European politicians speak of pressure from their “street” for peaceful solutions to international conflict and for resisting American power regardless of its purpose. But statements emanating from Europe that seem to endorse pacifism in the face of evil, and anti-Semitic recidivism in some quarters, provoke an equal and opposite reaction in America.

There is an American “street,” too, and it strongly supports disarming Iraq, accepts the necessity of an expansive American role in the world to ensure we never wake up to another September 11th, is perplexed that nations with whom we have long enjoyed common cause do not share our urgency and sense of threat in time of war, and that considers reflexive hostility toward Israel as the root of all problems in the Middle East as irrational as it is morally offensive.

The legacy of the German election campaign last fall has complicated and harmed U.S.-German relations.

There’s much more. Bravo.

D.C.’S HANDGUN BAN IS BEING CHALLENGED as violative of the Second Amendment. Here’s a link to a press release, and here’s a link to the complaint.

I hope, of course, that the Justice Department — already on record as believing that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to arms — will simply admit that the law in question is indefensible. This will be a real test of Ashcroft’s commitment to a civil liberty that he (along with President Bush) has endorsed, and I imagine the gun-rights community will be paying very close attention.

UPDATE: A reader sends a link to this story on a proposal to arm D.C. cabbies. Dumbest quote:

“There is no question in the universe that can be answered with more guns,” said Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), head of the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary. “The District of Columbia is clear on this: We oppose guns.”

Who knows — maybe one day the District of Columbia will decide to oppose crime, instead. But what’s notable about this proposal isn’t that the usual gang is opposing it, but rather that it’s getting some serious support.

I’M HAVING TROUBLE reaching quite a few sites on the Web today. (I went to Slashdot to see if something was up, but I can’t reach it, either!). I wonder what’s going on? I guess when Kevin Mitnick is being hacked, all bets are off. . . .

I DON’T USUALLY SHOW FILMS IN CLASS, but in light of the Trent Lott affair, I decided this year to show the film Separate But Equal, about the Brown decision, in my Constitutional Law class. (Here’s a link to the Amazon page with reviews.) I’ve only shown the first installment, but it seems to have worked well — as a film should, it has far more impact in a room full of people than when watched solo.

Unlike most legal docudramas, it pays a lot of attention to actual lawyering, and to the strategic and tactical decisions that lawyers have to make. If you haven’t ever seen it, you may want to check it out. It’s rather long, but it’s worth your time.

DONALD SENSING offers a firsthand account explaining the real purpose of American troops in Europe:

There were no reporters present, so people spoke pretty freely. During the course of the discussion, Herr Leutnant General said that the only reason Europe had enjoyed its longest period ever of uninterrupted peace was that there were two US Army corps in western Germany, and significant US forces elsewhere in Europe. He didn’t quite say that without American boots on the ground there, Europe would have gone to war with itself again, but we clearly understood that’s what he meant. The British and Italian representatives nodded.

What will happen if NATO dies? Nothing good, I’m afraid.

Meanwhile, reader Jaikumar Ramaswamy emails:

I am an avid instapundit reader and usually agree with you, but it seems to me that you draw the wrong conclusion from the BBC article that you link to–a mistake that I think many other commentators are also making.

I think that what we are witnessing is the UN-ification of NATO that has resulted from the admission of France in the 90’s. At the time I feared that this was a huge mistake, and those fears are only now being realized (although arguably French intransigieance during the Balkan campaign was a harbinger of what we are now seeing).

As you probably already know, De Gaulle unilaterally withdrew France from the Nato command structure in 1965 (I think this is the right year). During that time France always saw itself as an independent actor and often worked to frustrate US policy. I think what we are now seeing is how lucky we were that France was not part of NATO for most of the cold war, and how much our foreign policy would have suffered if it had been.

The article points out how none of the other supporters of French policy who are long-standing Nato members are being as intransigeant as the French. (In addition it seems that the Dutch government sees how damaging French behavior is to the alliance.) The problem is only made worse by France’s self professed national interest–to contain American “hyperpower”–that has developed in response to the end of the cold war. Of course, in pursuing its interests France (not America) is willing to do great damage to the Western alliance.

I think that our policy makers do in fact realize this and that this was the strategic reason for Richard Perle’s suggestion last week for developing a parallel command structure within NATO that exclude’s the French. (I assume the talk was meant to tests the waters from someone not officially in the administration). It would essentially return us to the pre-1990’s status quo. If this is not done, then, NATO might die.

And another reader quotes Churchill: “The hardest cross to bear is the cross of Lorraine.” Heh. Hadn’t heard that one.

UPDATE: Several readers email to note that I haven’t heard the Churchill quote because it’s bogus. That is, it’s a real quote — but not from Churchill.

THIS SEEMS RIGHT TO ME:

Powell’s fury and determination is not because he has doubts about the United Nations, but because he believes in it. He wants the body to work. He’s not naive enough to believe that a body that can place Libya as the chair of a human rights commission has a moral center. And he’s not stupid enough to hold that power-politics don’t play a critical role in making the U.N. effective. But he does believe that the U.N. is the worst way of organizing international relations – except for all the others. He sees a real value in having world affairs channeled through a genuinely international prism. And he sees universal values – peace, human rights, disarmament, the prevention of genocide – as best enforced through collective rather than unilateral endeavors.

And that’s why Powell is now pro-war.

I don’t think that this French proposal is going to be enough. . . .

READER NIRAJ AGARWALLA EMAILS: “Perhaps the time has come that we start boycotting French and German products and services. Nothing will show more displeasure than hitting them where it hurts most– in the pocketbook.”

Yes. We own two German cars, but I don’t think my next one will be German. (And it was never going to be French. I drove a Peugeot briefly — which is the main way anyone drives a Peugeot — and that was enough!)

I’ve already started buying Australian, Argentine and Chilean wines in preference to the French wines. They’re better, and cheaper, anyway.

Here’s a contact page for Volkswagen, and here’s one for Mercedes. And here’s one for Siemens. Just in case you want to let them know how you feel.

“THE CONSTITUTION WAS WRITTEN ON HEMP!” One of the few bizarre notes in an otherwise orderly pro-America demonstration reported by Sasha Castel. And she’s got pictures!

IS NATO DEAD? Could be. Its original reason for existence is over.

I wonder, though, whether other European nations — even France — would trust Germany nearly as much in the absence of large numbers of American troops? We may be about to find out.

COULD THIS BE A PARALLEL TO THE MASSOUD ASSASSINATION that was the signal for the September 11 attacks?

Kurdish military officials in northern Iraq say one of their senior commanders has been killed by a militant Islamic group suspected of links to the al-Qaeda network.

A commander for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Sherkh Jafar said gunmen posing as defectors from the militant Islamic group, Ansar al-Islam, killed Shawkat Haji Mushir, along with five other people in an ambush on Saturday.

Probably not, but still. . . .

I ALWAYS WONDERED where Hollywood stars got all those ideas about foreign policy. Now I know. Maybe I should subscribe. . . .

Maybe not. (Via Flashbunny.)

WE’RE NUMBER ONE! Actually, InstaPundit is both the “best blog overall” and the “most overrated blog.”

I guess, technically, it’s possible to be both, right? Anyway, on the “most overrated” front, I just spent some time trying to convince a reporter (well, actually a producer) to turn a story about me into a story about some other, more interesting, bloggers. We’ll see if it works.

But it’s a big Blogosphere out there folks. Use InstaPundit as your jumping-off place, if you like, but don’t think that it’s all there is.

TIFFANY BAXENDELL has some observations about Prince Charles’ Arabophilia.

FRANCE TO NEW YORK: DROP DEAD! And see this cover image.

The “American Street” is unhappy.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING ENGLISH: Arnold Kling thinks it’s very, very great, though as he notes not everyone agrees.

This will be an interesting test of network effects and path-dependency over the next ten years.