> Without tough deeds, he says,
> democracy and human rights don't stand
> a chance.

In other words, faith without works is useless. See, I keep saying that the people running things ought to have a good Catholic education... Darn Protestants...

-BF
Backsight Forethought | 10.31.03 - 12:39 pm | #

This is what I've been saying: let the Iraq's do the dirty work. They are on the inside and they are pacticed torture, etc. We don't have to get tough, let them do it. Otherwise, we're just going to waste more American boys and girls on what is, now, an internal power struggle.
John Simmins | 10.31.03 - 12:55 pm | #

"I think they wanted to appease this [Sunni] triangle," he says. But nothing will appease the fundamentalists. It's not possible to find common ground with them. Instead they must be rooted out. "You have to crush them, and crush them really hard. You have to kill them before they kill you. You have to be prepared to kill some innocent people."

Before you get too excited, it's worth noting that he doesn't seem to criticize Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite troublemaker who nearly killed him, or any of his fellow Shiites.
James | 10.31.03 - 1:18 pm | #

He seems like a good man, but do the statements quoted above by James pass jus in bello muster? Are you prepared to withdraw your praise of him, Mark?

You blasted Col. Hogg for much less.
Larry | 10.31.03 - 1:46 pm | #

Margaret Wente is a minority voice among the Canadian chattering classes, but all the more welcome and relevant for that.

The anti-Baathist Iraquis are like the anti-Communist Vietnamese boat people here in Toronto. Like them they can say, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, that they have pledged their live, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the proposition that the Americans will stay the course and not abandon them (like we abandoned the Hungarians in 1956, the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs, the Vietnamese in Saigon, the Shhites and Kurds in 1991).

Mouwafak al-Rabii is a welcome voice. I am still struggling with the snowballing evidence of a Moslem enemy population in our midst but want very much to believe we have Iraqui allies on the ground, as the grunts are saying in their letters home.

Let's take Mr. al-Rabii up on his offer.

Where are all these ex-Trotsyite neocons we've been hearing about?
I say: Mr. Bremer - wage class war.

Put an ad in the paper.

"Calling all [whatever -anybody with a grudge against the Baathists, all those guys we have seen on the newscasts with their ears or penises sliced off, all those parents and siblings digging thru the mass graves for the remains of their gang-raped wives and daughters].

"Report for 2-week militia training next Monday. Veterans preferred. Bring your old military IDs, current coalition paybooks and current Iraqui Police clearance. Training: Nothing fancy. Small unit cordon and search para-police tactics.

"2 weeks from Monday, Coalition forces will cordon off Fallujah and other target areas in the Triangle, with 48 hours notification to hand over Saddam.

"Psyops message to Baathists: attention all Baathists - we are feeding you to the the Angels of Death, who are hereby unleashed forthwith.

"On the morning of the 3rd day, the Coalition will implement a media lockdown and blackout and look the other way for 30 days.

"On Sunrise of the 31st day, Iraqui militai and police will fall in under unit commanders and pass the thru coalition lines to the nearest designated coalition base area. There, you will be treated to a barbecue, sponsored by the American Legion and the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce of Dearborne Michigan.

"During the barbecue, you will receive further training in the music and lyrics of Auld Lang Syne (lip syncing acceptable as fall-back plan B)for untilization during the farewell march past of [US unit in area].

"At that point, in your own Arab cultural terms, and on your own terms, honor will be satisfied.

"Allah akbar. Aloha 101st Airborne et al."

The Baathist nomenklatura has not been defeated, only rendered unemployed. They are still esconced in their dachas paying hoodlums (out of all that money Usay trucked out of the Central Bank) to take pot shots at Americans.

Unleash the anti-Baathist Iraquis as a hometown Coalition of the Aggrieved.

They do not want to do the dirty work for us- they DEMAND the o
fenwik | 10.31.03 - 1:52 pm | #

woops, truncated

Unleash the anti-Baathist Iraquis as a hometown Coalition of the Aggrieved.

They do not want to do the dirty work for us- they DEMAND the opportunity to do it for themselves.

Now THERE'S an exit stategy. Mr. Al-Rabii can report it as such to the Republican Convention in 2004.
fenwik | 10.31.03 - 1:53 pm | #

Larry:

No. The statements don't pass muster. But politics is the art of the possible, not the perfect. He's not what I want, but a step away from even darker forms of Islam.
Mark Shea | Homepage | 10.31.03 - 3:17 pm | #

Well eventually the Iraqis are going to govern themselves again, so why not someone like this fellow. I strongly supported the war, but this doesn't mean I want our troops there forever. Yet I think the Coalition is mostly doing a good job. Nobody's perfect. The Iraqi Governing Council will find itself with more and more authority as the months go by.
John | Homepage | 10.31.03 - 5:03 pm | #