THE GENIUS OF SHARON
Back in early February, I told you that Ariel Sharon’s purpose in building a Security Fence walling off the “West Bank” was to precipitate a civil war among Palestinian terrorist groups (The Coming Palestinian Civil War, TTP Weekly Report, February 6, 2004). Four months later, we can see Sharon’s strategy is clearly working.In those intervening months, terrorist attacks are way down while the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has relentlessly hunted terrorists down and either killed or stymied them. Hamas has been decapitated. Arafat, sick and dying, finds his grip on power slipping away. Even senior members of the Palestinian Authority run by Arafat are admitting that it would disintegrate except that it pays salaries to 140,000 workers - which are now in serious arrears.The February essay predicted a dark period of murderous chaos with Palestinian militants killing each other off in a warfare of competing mafias. Thus there are now news reports that militants in the West Bank and Gaza have “created a lawless society in which citizens complain more about the armed gangs than about Israeli soldiers.” Yet there are indications that this could be short-lived.
KERRY HONORED BY VIETNAM COMMUNISTS
There is a photograph prominently displayed in the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon (called Ho Chi Minh City by the Communists). The photograph, in a room dedicated to foreign activists who contributed to the Communist victory over America in the Vietnam War, shows Senator John Kerry being greeted by Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
FORGET THE TRIAL
The most disastrous news to come out of Iraq this week was the demand by the new Iraqi Interim Government for custody of Saddam Hussein. We are reaping the moldy harvest of the American liberal obsession for legalism. All one had to do is see the farce of Slobodan Milosevic’s trial to know what judicial lunacy awaits a similar tribunal travesty for Saddam.Yet this is suddenly the least of our worries. Turning Saddam over to the Iraqis means he will escape from custody. Through bribery or blackmail or force, the Iraqis will either let him escape or be unable to prevent it - which means all the treasure and blood America has spilled to liberate Iraq will have been in vain.
WEB SURFING ANONYMIZERS
In the last two weeks I received several emails regarding web surfing anonymizers. These critters are portals through which you surf. They are reputed to prevent the sites you visit from identifying your personal computer. In the words of one of the more prominent anonymizers, here’s what they claim:
REAGAN’S MANDATE
Today, what would Reagan do? He would appeal for the liberation of women in the Muslim world, he would call for the freedom of Sudanese Christians from slavery and genocide, he would demand that the brainwashing of Palestinian and Iraqi youth to become suicide bombers be stopped.
LOVING GORBY
This past week has seen a good many Reaganaut Reunions here in Washington DC. At several of them, we raised our glasses to toast Gorby - Mikhail Gorbachev. All of the Reagan Doctrine guys loved Gorbachev - but not quite in the same way as did the State Department squishes.Mikhail Gorbachev seemed to burst from nowhere when he became General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) and leader of the USSR in March of 1985. The liberal media swooned over the smiling suave telegenic Russian - so smart, so sophisticated, so capable of making a shining success of Soviet Communism! We did everything we could to encourage the swooning press’ delusion - for we knew the truth about Gorby.
TOUCHED TO THE POINT
In 1989 on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I had a meeting in Prague, Czechoslovakia with a group of Anti-Communists dedicated to ridding their country from Soviet rule. Their leader was Martin Palous, a founder of the Charter 77 democracy movement. He explained that when he and other Czech intellectuals such as Vaclav Havel formed Charter 77 in 1977, they did so against all hope. “To dream of real freedom for our country was unthinkable,” he said. “The best we could ask is some little bit of light, some small increase of breathing space for us to think and talk more freely.” Then the world changed: Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States.
BOBAX WORM AND SIMILAR NEW THREATS
The Bobax worm is the latest threat spreading across the internet. It won’t get as far, because millions more users have downloaded the latest Windows security update. I detailed how to do that in a previous column. On the other hand its more dangerous and will cause more severe damage to your software.
THE GREAT-SOULED MAN
In October of 1965, Ronald Reagan came to speak at UCLA. I was a senior, and it was a depressing time to be a College Republican. Barry Goldwater had been thrashed the previous year, and my professors were so left-wing that I took one to court because of her biased grading. The UCLA Student Union was packed, SRO. There was a buzz that Reagan was considering running for governor against the entrenched Democrat, Pat Brown. My buddy and fellow CR Bill Anthony and I sat expectantly in the audience. As Reagan began to speak, he filled the room with an energy that was both exciting and soothing, and the thousand-plus students were entranced. Then he caught us by surprise.
A WONDERFUL REGISTRY CLEANER
Those of you who regularly read my column know I’ve been looking for the very best registry cleaner that doesn’t delete important or crucial entries. I’ve discussed this matter in various forums and found one I’m now certain to buy, after testing the trial version. It can be found at Macecraft Software - http://www.jv16.org/ - and the name of the product is jv16 Power Tools. An odd name but a fine registry cleaner.