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Saturday, August 28, 2004

Intervening In Iraq - Why the U.S. Was Right

The Washington Times published an intriguing OpEd by Sylvain Charat.

What’s particularly compelling about this opinion piece is that the author was chief of staff for Alain Madelin, former secretary of finance for French President Jacques Chirac.

I thought that having someone who used to work in the Chirac Administration supporting the War in Iraq warranted your attention.

“Indeed, there is no room for balancing, nor for regrets. In the light of the above facts, President Bush’s decision was responsible and legitimate. International law was not despised, it merely showed its limits and should be reconsidered and even rebuilt in the light of warfare changes. And at least now, there’s hope for democracy in Iraq, even if the fight for it will be hard. But it is worth fighting.”

CLICK HERE to READ THE OP ED

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A Country Not a Cause

I found this essay by Amir Taheri interesting.  He does a good job of defining what is at stake in post-war Iraq and he deftly casts aside the side-arguments by some with agendas of blocking progress for the Iraqi people.

Here’s an excerpt:

A COUNTRY, NOT A CAUSE

By AMIR TAHERI


What is the real issue in Iraq today? It is to create a new government whose legitimacy is based on free elections. Opponents of the democratic option, however, constantly try to shift the focus to other issues.

For example, they say the Arabs are humiliated because non-Arab armies changed an Arab regime. Well, the reason that that happened is simple: Saddam created a regime that could not be overthrown by the Iraqi people alone, and there were no Arab armies to come to the rescue. So the Americans led a coalition that liberated the people of Iraq from their oppressor.

Does that amount to a political version of the original sin? Should the Iraqis be forced to live under another despotic regime simply to cure the Arabs of their supposed humiliation?

The U.S.-led Coalition was able to enter Iraq because Iraq had been denied normal, not to say democratic, politics for half a century. The only way to get the Coalition out of Iraq is to allow that country to have normal democratic politics. Car bombs, throat-cutting, hostage-taking and hiding in shrines will not drive the Coalition out. Only a freely elected government can ask it to withdraw in accordance with the latest resolution by the U.N. Security Council.

By opposing democratization, Sadr, Saddam and Zarqawi are, in fact, prolonging the country’s occupation. Free elections in Iraq would not only spell the end of occupation but could also end all three careers.

The Iraqi people should do all they can to prevent their country from becoming a “cause” for pan-Arabists and Islamists. Iraqis want a country in which they could live as normal human beings. They don’t want a cause for which they die while other Arabs nurse their humiliation.

CLICK HERE to read the entire column.

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Saturday, August 21, 2004

Al-Qaida Said to Recruit in Latin America

Be sure to check out this wire report on Al Qaida’s efforts to recruit supporters in Latin America and exploit our poorly enforced southern border as a means to enter our nation.

CLICK HERE to read the report from AP.

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You Can Do Something to Help the War on Terrorism

I wanted to call everyone’s attention to this website - www.DivestTerror.org which I became aware of through Frank Gaffney’s column in the Los Angeles Times.

Put The Heat On If Your Pension Fund Aids The Terrorist Cause

By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

For the first time since Sept. 11, Americans have a chance to do something that millions of us have yearned to do: help win the war on terror.

Millions of people who invest in public pension plans can act to deny upward of $70 billion to nations that finance, train, arm and otherwise sponsor terrorist enemies of the United States. The Center for Security Policy, in a report titled “Terrorist Investment of the 50 States” (www.DivestTerror.org), identifies where much of this money goes and through which companies.

There can be little doubt about the effect of keeping such immense sums out of the hands of the Iranian, Libyan, Syrian, North Korean and Sudanese regimes. They would have less money to fund their terrorist allies, less money to buy or build weapons of mass destruction, less money to threaten U.S. interests and allies. It might even precipitate the sort of cash-flow crisis that ultimately destroyed the Soviet Union — catalyzing regime changes where they would do the most good without firing a shot.

Read Gaffney’s entire column by CLICKING HERE

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Vote for Move America Forward - Help Us Outpoll MoveOn.org

PoliticsOnline is an outfit that follows the use of the Internet in politics.

They asked their subscribers to nominate the top political websites and Move America Forward was one of the top nominees.

We will now be in contention with MoveOn.org, Al Jazeera, John Kerry’s E-Team, Joe Trippir from the Howard Dean campaign, and many others.

You can vote for Move America Forward - just look for my name, Howard Kaloogian, on the list of nominees:

VOTE NOW - CLICK HERE

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Friday, August 20, 2004

Michelle Malkin, Move America Forward and Chris Matthews

Kudos to columnist Michelle Malkin for noting our work in monitoring anti-war protest plans for the Republican National Convention.

Read her column CLICK HERE

Be sure to also read about the abusive treatment she received from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.  Read that column by CLICKING HERE

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See our NEW Move America Forward TV Ads

You can view our latest television ads online by CLICKING HERE

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Thursday, August 05, 2004

Another take on the REAL Iraq Story

The Real Iraq Story
Americans don’t often get the right picture out of Iraq.
By Karl Zinsmeister

How insightful is the Iraq reporting that you’ve been consuming? Take a little test.

If I tell you that scores of Iraqi detainees have been killed and maimed this year in Abu Ghraib prison, you may not be surprised. But you’re probably guessing wrong about who hurt them. The moronic American guards who are now on trial for improperly humiliating some Iraqis caused no deaths or injuries: The many casualties in the prison were all inflicted by Iraq’s guerilla terrorists.

During this spring’s frenzy of reporting on the plight of detainees at Abu Ghraib, I was surprised that none of the stories mentioned what anyone who has spent time at the prison (as I have) knows is the central danger to the prisoners there. By far the gravest threats to the Iraqis in that facility are the mortars and rockets that guerillas regularly lob into the compound — knowing full well that the main victims of their indiscriminate assaults will be fellow Iraqis. One attack on April 21 of this year, for instance, killed 22 detainees and injured another 91.

The number-one priority for Arabs and Americans concerned about the rights of Iraqi detainees, therefore, ought to be eliminating the merciless assaults of the terrorist insurgents. The sexual indignities imposed by the prison’s rogue guards would have to come second on any sensible list.

Shouldn’t the reporting on Abu Ghraib have provided some context along those lines? Wouldn’t a fuller media presentation of these facts on the ground in Iraq have given the public a better perspective on the various problems at the prison?

Or take another of the Iraq stories most loudly trumpeted in our media: the electricity shortages. You know Baghdad continues to suffer periodic blackouts — news reports remind us of that ad nauseum. Just one more example of U.S. ineffectiveness in this war: The generating system is broken and nothing gets fixed, right?

Wrong. Despite continuing efforts by guerillas to sabotage the grid, Iraq is now generating more electricity than existed in the country before the war. So why do we continue to hear about shortages? Two reasons:

First, Saddam shamelessly hogged the country’s electricity in his capital, shunting 57 percent to Baghdad while the provinces were starved for juice. Today, power is distributed fairly to all population centers, and Baghdad gets 28 percent of the total. Though that means occasional shortages in privileged neighborhoods unused to such things, Iraqis as a whole are better off.

Second, Iraq is in the midst of a consumer surge. The economy will grow an estimated 60 percent this year. Iraqis, who have flocked to cell phones and imported a million cars, are also snatching up washing machines, air conditioners, and electronic devices never before available to them. A third of the country now has satellite TV. Electricity demand is thus rising even faster than the steady increases in generation.

CLICK HERE to read the entire story from National Review Online

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The REAL Iraq Story

This is a letter from Ray Reynolds, a medic in the Iowa Army National Guard, serving in Iraq:

As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you. This is the list of things that has happened in Iraq recently: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing.)

* Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
* School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
* Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.
* The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.
* The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
* Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
* The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
* 100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before the war.
* Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
* Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.

CLICK HERE to read the entire report.

P.S. Here is a comment about this report from Ray Reynolds:

I did write it and I am in Kuwait now on my way home. I wrote it while at home because I felt that too many people were exploiting the violence in Iraq to sell papers and gain votes. Sometimes the silent majority need to be awakened to respond to the bad things in our world. I am passionate about our President’s decision and support this rebuilding whole heartedly...Yes legit..I am a fire fighter in Denison, Iowa and to verify, call Mike McKinnon of the Denison Iowa fire department.

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Friday, July 23, 2004

Iraqi, American fighter pilots band together at Balad

An interesting report by Staff Sgt. Jason Lake of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs unit.  The first steps in building a trust (trust but verify comes to mind) between Iraqi and American pilots.

7/22/2004 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) —Two former enemies came together for lunch in the spirit of friendship July 20.

Six Iraqi air force pilots and 10 American pilots shared stories over lunch at a dining facility and then took pictures together in front of an F-16 Fighting Falcon here.

Despite speaking two vastly different languages, the pilots had no problems understanding each other. Like American pilots, the Iraqi pilots used hand gestures to describe the details of their adventures.

“There is a special language between us pilots,” said Col. Khaled Khadem, the former deputy commander at Balad Air Base before Operation Iraqi Freedom began. “We like to talk with our hands.”

CLICK HERE for the complete article.

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