FRONTBENCHER

May 2003
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 Saturday, May 10, 2003

 

New evidence is emerging from scientists in London that fish are capable of feeling pain. No evidence has yet surfaced in Washington that Bush is capable of feeling embarrassment.

 

The elusive candidate and President likes to run and rule sans questions in safe environments. The Commander-in-Chief can keep his distance. A known bibliophobe, he prefers verbal briefings rendering him incongruously dependent on his underlings. Shameless photo-ops, carrier sleepovers and scripted press conferences are only the tip of the derrick, but are necessary when you don’t want to explain your ideas and actions.

 

And now the crippling Congressional tradition of Payback Time is being flagrantly exported. All oiled by the play-along media.

 

Paul Wolfowitz decided this week to lash out at the Turks for exercising their democratic right not to participate in war. Democracies do make mistakes and the Turks will undoubtedly survive Defense Department petulance. But Wolfowitz didn’t stop there. He went on to criticize the Turkish Army for “lacking leadership at a critical foreign policy moment”.

 

Inotherwords, the Turkish army did not put pressure on the Turkish Parliament to do the Pentagon thing. There are a number of possibilities here. Wolfowitz either inadvertently overreached, the pressure is getting to him or he deliberately set out to threaten and destabilize a tenuous democracy, possibly with an eye to future military operations in the region.

 

Ironically, the Administration supported the Turkish application to join the EU but the Europeans demurred and one of their chief concerns was the dictatorial potential of the Turkish military.

 

Incomplete victories are all the rage. The Taliban are still active in Afghanistan and Al-Qaida are reported to be reorganizing in Chechnya and Pakistan. Saddam et al are tongue-deep in dirt and dollars, Qusay kicking himself for not grabbing more euros.

Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress and Rum’s friend, claims that some of his supporters have seized 60 tons of documents from the Baath Party, Iraqi Secret Police and Intelligence Services. Ayatollah Hakim returns from exile in Iran.

Sporadic looting and firefights, intermittent electrical supply, parents afraid to send children to school, Shia inspired anti-Americanism, choleraic water and the US taxpayer footing the bill!

Where is the former Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf, when you need him? 


3:49:27 PM