4 Mile Creek

I'm Outta Here

I've been cleared for takeoff! I should be out of here and in infidel airspace by very early Thursday morning. A layover in Amsterdam, then on to Detroit, then into BWI, then on the Metroliner to Union Station in DC, then onto the Red Line Metro to my family. I should be home by late Thursday night.
I'm going home!
If I had known this, I'd have pushed Bremer to hand Iraq over months ago!
I'll be back to writing, but for now, just wish me luck.

Mars Rover Opportunity Spots New Leftist Iraqi Goalposts

Leftists have said for months now that the US needed to turn over administration of Iraq to Iraqis in order to salvage anything meaningful from the war in Iraq. The fact that Saddam's mass slaughter of his fellow Iraqis has stopped, and the fact that the country with the world's second largest known oil reserves might be able to start using those natural riches for the betterment of a majority of Iraqis is irrelevant to the Left. Leftists never cared for the Iraqis, they only cared to harp on the US. If the US was killing Iraqis, then Iraqis became the focal point for outrage. If it was only Saddam killing Iraqis, or if it's only Zarqawi killing Iraqis, then to hell with them. Let 'em die. Pull our troops out now. Give Iraq back. "Screw 'em" as Kos said, meaning not just the contractors, but also anyone who dare to spread freedom without his approval.
So that's what happened. In a very quiet, but well received ceremony, the Iraqi Interim Government took symbolic control of their country. They will need a US military presence for quite some time, though probably not the 50+ years that Germany needed a US military presence. And because the previous Iraqi leadership did nothing to develop Iraqi industry, preferring instead to spend his country's oil wealth like a drunken sailor, importing everything from light bulbs to centrifuges; it will be a long time before the Iraqi economy is on any sort of solid footing.
But it is a start. And a good start, and it is happening incredibly fast, less than 15 months after a 30 year reign of terror was ended.
So what does Washington Post columnist David Ignatius choose to complain about. Well, everything, actually.
He complains that it wasn't grand enough

But it certainly wasn't a stately and ceremonious retreat of empire like the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997 either.

He complains that the terrorists might have been thrown off with the schedule change

Yesterday's shift of authority to Iraq was, like so much else in the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, a surprise -- apparently driven by the deteriorating security situation.

He complains that the "world", by which he must mean those countries that contributed nothing to the Coalition, since the Coalition partners knew about the new schedule, that French-led world, got shortchanged in their desire for a grand send-off

With the world awaiting some sort of grand farewell tomorrow, U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer agreed instead to a low-key transfer of legal documents yesterday morning in the fortified Green Zone and departed Baghdad a few hours later.

He complains that somehow Bush is responsible for a fractured and toothless NATO, even though the NATO nations have spent years gutting their own armies

The Iraq war leaves a splintered Atlantic Alliance whose continuing frictions have been obvious beneath the photo-opportunity smiles at the NATO summit here. NATO has agreed to train Iraqi forces, but whether that's a real commitment or a token one remains to be seen.

He complains that the Iraq War led to the attack on the US on 9-11, even though it was 2 1/2 years before the war

The invasion also helped spawn a wave of anti-Americanism in the Islamic Middle East and around the world.

He complains that the US in no longer god-like

In Europe and Asia, as much as in the Arab world, the United States is seen as the god that failed.

He complains that the American public may not see this as the disaster David Ignatius does when November rolls around

The Bush administration may hope that Iraq will be less on voters' minds by November, but with more than 130,000 U.S. troops remaining there, it should remain a big campaign issue.

He complains that President Bush himself might not see this as the disaster David Ignatius does

How President Bush handles the reality of an Iraq policy gone wrong will be a test of the man. If he repeats the "Mission Accomplished" rhetoric of a year ago, it will reinforce the impression that Iraq has been a tissue of lies, from the original justification of the war as a hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to the final accounting.

He complains that the President has learned lessons from the Iraqi War and is applying them

So Bush will have to make clear that his conduct of foreign policy over the next four years would be better and wiser. That shouldn't be impossible: Over the past three months, Bush has quietly revamped his Iraq policy from the old "Field of Dreams" hope of transformation to a pragmatic and sometimes cold-blooded art of the possible.

He complains that something all his leftist brethren have wanted, a defeat (in his eyes) in Iraq, will empower our enemies

What's dangerous about yesterday's hasty handover is that, to the extent it appears a defeat for U.S. power, it will boost Osama bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists.

And finally, after begging for nearly three years now that we must humble ourselves before terrorists, Europeans, muslims, and the UN, he complains that it's not in anyone's best interest for the US to be humbled

If a humbled America looks like a paper tiger after yesterday's end of occupation, the world will only get more dangerous.

What should be hailed as a complete vindication of liberal thinking, that this war showed free people from many nations standing shoulder to shoulder and fighting for the liberation of millions of oppressed, has become something over which Leftists, no longer liberals, are gnashing their teeth and trying to figure out a way to snatch defeat from the very jaws of victory. From sniping about petty details such as which reporters are present when a country signs its declaration of independence, to outright lies and distortions, this columnists has every angle covered. He's willing to claim his own country's defeat rather than see one President and 23 million Iraqis claim victory.
There is not now, and never was, any measure of victory that the Leftists would have conceeded the President. And the successful handover of power to the Iraqis clearly horrifies this columnist more than the terrorists do.
Like all leftists, he agrees with Kos; Screw 'em, and how dare this Nazi President spread freedom throughout the world! It should have been Gore! It would have been Gore! It now needs to be Kerry! Reagan was just there when the wall came down! He had nothing to do with freeing 60 million people! And Bush is worse!
Heaven help us if this is an indication of a permanent psychosis of a majority on the left.

The Two Iraqs

If you read these two stories

Iraqis Rejoice on Talk Radio Airwaves

and

Many Iraqis see little change in power handover

you could get the idea that they are talking about two different countries.
And check out the quotes these reporters, both with Baghdad as a byline, use to support their headlines.

"It is all meaningless, the whole thing is an utter charade," scoffed Mohammed Hassan, a retiree resting under the shade of an umbrella on the neighbourhood's main shopping street.
...
On the other side of the street, bus driver Amar Tarek said the handover was "just another spin on the occupation. The Americans have carved out roles for everyone in this government and will control its members like puppets." he said.

versus

"People have been calling in all day, sending their greetings to the new government," said Ahmed al-Rikabi, who founded Radio Dijla about two months after working for years with broadcasters in Europe. "There is a feeling of joy among the listeners. But they are also expressing hope that the day will pass with no problems and no explosions."
...
"I send my congratulations to all Iraqis and every Iraqi home," a woman who identified herself as Um Yassin gushed, her voice choked with emotion. "I want to tell Dr. Allawi to be bold, to be strong."

It's like they have a pre-conceived idea of what they want to report, then go out and find the "facts" and quotes to support that idea.

We're Number Two, We're Number Two!

If you ever had any doubt that Senator Kerry's presidential hopes depended upon Bush's failures, rather than upon Senator Kerry's leadership successes, than you need only read of statements made by Kerry and his fellow Democrats after the successful transfer of sovereignty in Iraq. For months now, they have been calling for the accelerated transfer of power to the Iraqi government, and today they got their wish. You'd think they would be delighted, especially since it went smoothly. The rest of the world, including the Arab world, which has the most to lose if democracy ever takes hold in Iraq, gave their congratulations, if some of them were a bit muted. But to expect that from Democrats is a bit too much.

"While we transferred sovereignty today, we need to be honest with the American people that this struggle is far from over," Rockefeller (D- WV) said. "Security in Iraq is worse now than it was right after the fall of Baghdad and may deteriorate further. The Iraqi security forces cannot handle the challenge alone, reconstruction has barely started, and massive unemployment has left many frustrated and even desperate."

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence Jay. Nice to know that the work already done by a couple hundred-thousand soldiers busting their humps daily, thousands of miles from home, under fire and in hundred degree+ heat, just isn't good enough for ya'.
And Representative Pelosi took her swing at us too.

"As we wish the members of the interim government well in the undertaking that will require so much of our attention and assistance in the coming months, it is also appropriate to reflect on the costs of the war thus far in lives lost and wounds suffered, and in the billions of dollars spent," Pelosi said. "The sacrifices of the dead, the wounded, and their families, must always be in our thoughts as we take stock of what may be achieved and at what cost."

Not exactly a vote of confidence there, but then again, praising the troops' efforts over here will only help the President, so we can't do that now, can we!
Even Senator Kerry couldn't help getting in a slam on the tremendous work done by Coalition soldiers over here.

For his part, Kerry called on Bush to do a better job of getting "real support" from other nations for the rebuilding of Iraq. "Ninety percent of the coalition on the ground is American, 90 percent," Kerry told reporters in Maryland, where he was campaigning. "And 90 percent of the cost is being borne by the American people."

Senator, in case you forgot, al Queda death threats are made against Americans about 99% of the time, so maybe we have a bit more incentive than the Dominican Republic to work towards a middle east that isn't a terrorist breeding ground. And as far as "real support" goes, when I see the servicemen and service women of (in alphabetical order) Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine and the United Kingdom I'll let them know that you considered their support fake.
Maybe they were just vacationing here, you suppose? We wouldn't all be welcome on Nantucket Island now, would we? So we gotta go somewhere to take a break.
Plenty of beach here, just no ocean.

For the Love of God

The Guardian is all over a story about one single Christian Charity group who claims that there is up to $1.2 bn missing in oil revenues from the sale of Iraqi oil since the end of the war. In addition,

Christian Aid says billions of dollars are now being hastily allocated to projects which have not been properly planned and fears the authority will be wound up this week without ever having to account for the expenditure.

So now the group thinks that the transfer and rebuilding projects are being done too hastily? That isn't what they said in this report from earlier this year

A survey conducted by Christian Aid partner, the Iraqi Kurdish NGO Network, presents a stark picture of miserable living conditions among Iraqis
...
The overarching error of the Iraqi invasion, one that has defined the entire Bush administration, is the gross underestimation of the time it would take to turn Iraq into a stable democracy and the likely cost in money and blood.
...
Poor water supply affects most families, many of which now have no access to a functioning sewage system. Years of neglect have left much of the city's water supply contaminated by sewage. No one has come to fix it, which means Iraqis must drink water mixed with sewage from broken pipes on the street.
...
According to an unofficial survey, Iraq's unemployment rate since the invasion is up to 90 per cent.
...
The United States should speed up the transfer of power to the Iraqi people and end the violence-plagued occupation as soon as possible.

The Uk group, Christian Aid has been in Iraq since 1992. They have been "helping" Iraqis all that time, and had group members in the country for twelve years now. I can't find a single report from Christian Aid about the billions of dollars spent illegally by Saddam from the UN bungled Oil-for-food program. Money suppsedly to be used to buy food and medicine was instead spent on things like palaces and speedboats and Mercedes Benz cars and gold-plated AK-47s. And during their twelve year stay, they didn't issue a single report on the way that Saddam was withholding billions of dollars from the Oil-for-food program in order to keep political control of the various tribes within Iraq. Nor did they report on the billions of dollars that UN officials have siphoned off the Oil-for-food program.
But they wanted to get in a hastily researched report on a "missing" $1.2 billion even though "we still do not know exactly how Iraq's money has been earned, which companies have won the contracts that it has been spent on, or whether this spending was in the interests of the Iraqi people" and they depend upon crooked UN diplomats for guesses as to what is actually happening.

The charity quoted an unnamed UN diplomat as saying: "We only have the total amounts and movements in and out of the development fund. We have absolutely no knowledge of what purposes they are for and if these are consistent with the security council resolution."

No anti-American bias here.
Just a good-old Anglican Christian organization, out to save the world.
From democracy.

Stick To Trading Oil

I hear the price of oil is going down, and that the price of gasoline is also dropping. That's pretty good news around the world.
This article attributes some of the drop in prices today to the good news of Iraqi sovereignty, as well as a few other international happenings in the world oil market.
But these two quotes in the article from two different oil market analysts has me wondering if perhaps they don't quite understand what is happening over here, and I'm thinking that they are not alone.

"Will the handover lead to a cessation of bombings on pipelines? You'd like to think so, but it's just too early in the game to think that everything's going to be okay," said Robert Ebel, director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
....
"I think the traders are really taking the news (of the power transfer in Iraq) as 'Boy, this may have some of the opposition in Iraq think twice before they start attacking oil pipelines,'" Flynn (an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago) said. "Now instead of attacking the U.S. coalition, they're attacking the Iraq government."

Both of these analysts think that the attacks on the oil infrastructure here were intended to drive the US out of Iraq (okay, that part is true) but they think that the attacks will now lessen because Iraqis have taken back their government! The attacks were designed to drive our the US, but only because the attackers knew that without the US, a democratic government didn't stand a chance of survival. They seem to be implying that the attackers were patriots, shedding a colonialist power from their soil. They must have spent the weekend at the theater watching Fahrenheit 9-11. There may be fewer attacks on the pipelines, but it won't be because the terrorists are happy that there is a semi-stable semi-democratic government of Iraqis in power. That is the last thing they want. And they are sure to continue to fight against it. The attacks may lessen because the Iraqi security forces are not going to be restrained the way our forces are. If an attack occurs on the pipeline within a few miles of a village, it's likely the new government will be much harsher on the villagers trying to find out who placed the bomb than we would have ever been.
Anyway, I'm glad for the western world that the oil prices are dropping, and I'm glad that these analysts think is such simple terms. If the terrorist acts against the US troops was all they were worried about (and they are somehow willing to ignore the fact that hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in the last few weeks to terrorist bombs and assassinations), then fine. The attacks are sure to continue to decline as terrorists are caught and killed. And if that proves to them that the terrorists only wanted self-goverment, so be it.
Still, it makes me wonder just how much information a well-paid analyst is required to analyze.

Christina versus the Diamond

The caption for this photo says

Harrods Department Store owner Mohammed al-Fayed looks down at a Piaget 18 carat white gold and diamond necklace priced down to $32,760, from $68,432, worn by singer Christina Aguilera

Yeah, I'm sure that's what he's looking at.

Howlin' Daughter

Our 21 month-old daughter heard Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower the other day, and my wife said she started “howling” along with Hendrix. So now she wants to get the CD. We already have it on CD, but it’s at our house in Atlanta, and not in DC. She wants to take a video of her howling along with the song to send to me.
Damn, I’m missing out on some good stuff. Thank God for digital video cameras and DVD burners.
And thank you, John D, for helping my wife get rid of that stupid Sasser virus so she could make videos again. That was really nice of you, and I can never repay you what I truly owe.

Safer By A Long Shot

This morning, in the mess hall, the tv was on Tim Russert. I don’t know if it was his show, or Meet the Press. He had Madeline Albright and Newt Gingrich on. Madeline Albright, a former Secretary of State, stated twice that she didn’t think we were safer now that Saddam’s regime had been crushed.
Three years ago, al Queda’s area of operations included the entire western world, they had sophisticated plans for attacking the west (one which they were able to carry out) and they had formed up “sleeper cells” throughout North America and Europe. Their area of influence included most of the middle east, all of the Royal Saud family and their billions of petrodollars, North Africa, and Asia. Now the area of operations for al Queda has shrunk from worldwide to some caves along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, and three or four towns in Iraq. Al Queda’s area of influence no longer includes the Royal Saud family, it has been sharply curtailed in Europe, and one-by-one the sleeper cells in the US are being exposed and sent to jail. The war in Iraq has exposed the Iraqi cells to withering fire from both the US forces, and the Iraqis themselves, something that would have never happened under Saddam. Their ability to obtain any WMDs from Saddam, or Libya’s Muhammar Kaddafhy is now non-existent. Though one may argue what the chance of al Queda getting their hands on WMDs was before the war, there is no arguing that they won’t obtain anything now, all because of the war. Other radical islamic groups like Hamas, al Fatah, and islamic Jihad, that were toying with the idea of exporting terror to the US using Saddam’s financial support, to punish us for supporting Israel, have not only backed down from that stance, they have publicly stated that they don’t even want to be associated with the idea anymore.
Yes, numerically there may be more fighters in the ranks of al Queda, though that has not been proved to any degree. But who cares? If those fighters no longer have the financial and organizational support that they once had to carry out operations, they are no longer a real threat. No longer the same threat they were. In other words, we are safer now.
There is no way that Madeline Albright can say that she doesn’t understand this. She was a horrible Secretary of State, but I don’t think she is stupid.
The only other conclusion is that she is lying, and lying because she wants to put loyalty to her party ahead of loyalty to both the truth and the US. And playing politics with soldier’s lives. Her statements make it harder for us to finish our work in Iraq. If we don’t finish the work here, it will be much harder anywhere else, where we will have to start again from the beginning.
And countries like Libya and Pakistan, which have stopped supporting the terrorists because they believe we can, and will, do them harm to get to the terrorist (unlike the Taliban and Saddam, who lost their countries because they believed UBL and thought we were all bluster), will turn away from us and back to supporting terrorists.
Shameful. And I can see no other conclusion.
And it’s Bush they call a liar.

Clarke and UBL, Together Again

No wonder this guy was fired. He actually repeats an al Queda theme to a US audience; as if somehow, because both he and UBL believe it, it becomes the truth.
His only criticism of Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11? Just so happens he disagrees with Moore's objection to letting Saudis go home after 9-11.
Letting them go was Clarke's decision, he authorized the plane flights.
The rest of the lies in the movie he doesn't have a problem with.
He really shows his inability to see beyond his anger at being fired when he states

"We won the Cold War by, yes, having good strong military forces but also by competing in the battle of ideas against the Communists," Clarke later told the librarians. "We have to do that with the jihadists."

Apparently to Clarke, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are nothing compared to UBL's fatwas.