OBVIOUS TO A BLIND MAN
I suppose if you live long enough you get to see everything at least twice, and in recent days I've seen replays of two old blunders that I'd hoped I wouldn't have to endure again. The first is the Friend Who Has Gone Too Far, and the second is the Enemy Who Is Really Our Friend. The first time I saw the Friend Who Has Gone Too Far was in December 1981, a very long quarter-century ago. Reagan was finishing his first year in office, and the first signs of the fall of the Soviet Empire were bubbling to the surface in Poland, where the Solidarity trade union was challenging the Polish Communist regime. Pope John Paul II was using the word "solidarity" in some very provocative ways, and you could feel the earth shifting beneath the feet of the Soviets. It was pretty clear, even then, that if the Kremlin did not find an effective way of breaking Solidarity, the entire structure of the Soviet empire might well crack wide open. And so, late in December, as I recall, military rule was declared in Poland, Soviet military forces were moved to the borders, and Solidarity leaders were rounded up and arrested. And a liberal Republican Senator got on national television to excuse the Soviets.
THE ROAD TO AGRA
If I ask you to think of India, the image that most likely appears in your mind's eye would be the Taj Mahal. Arguably the most famous building in the world and considered by many to be the most beautiful structure mankind has ever created, it was completed in 1648 by the ruler of India, Shah Jehan, to immortally entomb his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. There is a painful problem with this image, however, for the great majority of folks in India: the Taj Mahal isn't an Indian building. It's Moslem, and thus for Indians a symbol of Islamic imperialism. The Moslem invasion of India had begun with Mahmud of Ghazni (now in present-day Afghanistan) in 1001. Historian Will Durant observed:
The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.The Taj Mahal is in Agra, about 120 miles south of New Delhi - and it was on the road to Agra that I reflected on the extraordinary complexity of Indian history.
A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
9/11 happened when Osama bin Laden looked at us, and thought we were ready to be had. We were politically divided, and squabbling over everything. We clearly were not prepared to take casualties in direct combat. The newly elected president seemed unable to make a tough decision. And so Osama attacked, expecting to deliver a decisive blow to our national will, expecting we would turn tail and run, as we had in Somalia, and expecting he would then be free to concentrate his energies on the defeat of local apostates, the creation of his caliphate, and the organization of Muslim revenge for the catastrophes of past centuries.
PROTECTING YOUR CHILDREN
A few of my friends caught their children on websites that I'll describe below. They asked me what to do about it. I did some searching on the Web, and this article is a compilation of what I found out. As you read you'll find it's really fearsome. The short answer is: Your kids aren't going to stop using MySpace and Facebook, but at least you can give them safety helmets and kneepads.
THE SAME WAR
No one should have any lingering doubts about what's going on in the Middle East. It's war, and it now runs from Gaza into Israel, through Lebanon and thence to Iraq via Syria. There are different instruments, ranging from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon and on to the multifaceted "insurgency" in Iraq. But there is a common prime mover, and that is the Iranian mullahcracy, the revolutionary Islamic fascist state that declared war on us 27 years ago and has yet to be held accountable. It is very good news that the White House immediately...
HIGH NOON FOR MOONBATS
High noon approaches for the moonbats. We'll soon know if they'll sit above the salt at the Democratic table, or be exiled to the outer darkness. High noon is Aug. 8, the date of the Connecticut primary. The "netroots" gang of left-liberal Web loggers have picked a fight they must win, or suffer a potentially catastrophic loss of face.
In Connecticut's Democratic primary, three-term incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman is being opposed by millionaire businessman Ned Lamont in a race in which there is essentially only one issue:
SIAMESE YELLOW
Bangkok. Western tradition associates royalty with the color purple. Not in Siam, or as it's called today, Thailand. The royal color here is yellow - and the whole country right now is wearing yellow, yellow shirts, hats, sashes, or ribbons, in celebration of their beloved King Bhumibol's 60th anniversary of his reign. The King's picture is everywhere, and not because of a personality cult. He is genuinely revered as the embodiment and father-figure of the Thai nation. And at the same time, the streets of Bangkok are clogged with protestors in yellow shirts waving yellow banners, demanding their democratically elected government be overthrown. The Siamese are an interesting people.
KILL TERRORISTS, DON’T CAPURE THEM
THE British military defines experience as the ability to recognize a mistake the second time you make it. By that standard, we should be very experienced in dealing with captured terrorists, since we've made the same mistake again and again. Violent Islamist extremists must be killed on the battlefield. Only in the rarest cases should they be taken prisoner. Few have serious intelligence value. And, once captured, there's no way to dispose of them. Killing terrorists during a conflict isn't barbaric or immoral - or even illegal. We've imposed rules upon ourselves that have no historical or judicial precedent. We haven't been stymied by others, but by ourselves.
THE MYSTERY OF ANGKOR
You couldn't imagine a more peaceful place than Cambodia in 1961. Sure, the Vietnamese to the east had split into a Communist North and Free South after the French defeat at Dienbienphu - but that was a problem of despised Cham (the ancient name for ‘Nam). A flight on Royal Air Cambodia from Phnom Penh (the capital) to Siem Reap (near the ruins of Angkor) provided an unforgettable example of just how laid back the place was. It was a DC-3, and the stewardess served us a small cup of orange juice, then strapped herself in the jump seat near the exit door and fell fast asleep. The plane landed, taxied to the tiny terminal, the ground crew opened the door, and we all walked past her to deplane - she was still out cold in Z-land. Must have been a long night in Phnom Penh. I stayed in this small hotel, Auberge de Temples, run by a French lady, right across from Angkor Wat. There were a handful a visitors and I was the only American. As I explored the magnificent ruined cities and temple complexes of Angkor Thom, Ta Prom, Ta Keo, Angkor Wat and others, they were like deserted lost cities that I had all to myself. Wow, is it different today.
IT’S THE TERRORISM, NOT THE NUKES, IN IRAN
Iraqi and U.S. troops battled Shi'ite militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad on Thursday...Iraqi security officials said IRANIAN FIGHTERS HAD BEEN CAPTURED IN THE FIGHTING (emphasis added)...The U.S. military had no immediate comment.In recent days there have been several stories further documenting the Iranian role in the terror war in Iraq, especially in the south, where Tehran has been working assiduously for several years to create a regional Islamic republic. So the al-Reuters report should not be a surprise. But it gives us the opportunity to reflect on three serious questions, none of which has been sufficiently integrated into our national debate on the war:
