From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Weasel
Watch
France and Germany are engaging in increasingly aggressive diplomacy on Saddam
Hussein's behalf. Over the weekend they leaked word of a new proposal to prevent
the Iraqi dictator's overthrow. London's Guardian describes it:
According to one unconfirmed report in the German magazine Der Spiegel, UN blue-helmet soldiers would be deployed in Iraq and the number of weapons inspectors tripled. Some 150,000 US soldiers based close to Iraq's borders would remain in place to ensure the "peaceful invasion" of the blue helmets and secure their mission.
The weasels' policy seems to be Saddam at any price--including a rupture in the Atlantic alliance. This morning, as CNN notes, France and Germany (along with Europe's toy poodle, Belgium) blocked NATO from making plans to defend Turkey in the event that Iraq attacks it.
The Franco-German U.N. initiative "could have a devastating impact," observes Tim Hames in the Times of London. "It has the capacity to shatter the unity of the UN Security Council, hole Nato below the waterline, put transatlantic relations into permafrost and leave Tony Blair utterly exposed on this issue." Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder would no doubt love to shaft their rival Blair, whose steadfastness on Iraq has been nothing short of heroic. But that seems a small benefit compared to the costs of destroying NATO, discrediting the U.N. and alienating America.
It's worth dwelling for a moment on the absurdity of the proposal itself. When the U.N. passed Resolution 1441, it promised "serious consequences" if Baghdad failed to comply with its earlier mandates. Everyone understood that to mean military intervention, not tripling the inspectors. No one is calling on France and Germany to participate in Iraq's liberation; Germany (along with Cuba and Libya) has already said it will not, and France is more than welcome to sit on the sidelines too. But surely both countries would contribute troops to the proposed U.N. force, since it's their initiative. Chirac and Schroeder, in other words, are willing to put their boys in harm's way to keep Saddam in power.
Why are France and Germany willing to take such immense risks for Saddam's sake? The usual explanations--commercial interests, anti-American pique, intra-European politicking--don't seem entirely satisfying. We're drawn back to Steven Den Beste's speculation, which we noted last month:
Suppose we (the UK and US) do ignore all the pressure and last-minute finagling and do actually attack Iraq, which I think now is virtually certain.
Suppose we win, which is absolutely certain.
And suppose, once we've done so, and have occupied Iraq and have full (really full, not UN full) access to Iraq's records and can truly find what they have, that we find that everything we've been saying about their WMDs is really true; that they have chem and bio weapons and banned delivery systems, and are near to developing nukes, which I also think is extremely likely.
One more and the most important: suppose that the records also show that during the 1990's companies in France or Germany (or both) actively and deliberately broke the sanctions and sold equipment and supplies to Iraq which helped it to create these things, and that the governments of Germany and France knew and approved of this and actively helped.
Den Beste is no wild-eyed conspiracy theorist, and he's careful to acknowledge the speculative nature of his scenario. But he's right to say that if such information is found and if it is publicly revealed, the consequences for NATO, the U.N. and America's relationship with these two ostensible allies could be catastrophic. Den Beste concludes:
If they (Chirac and Schröder) know that they face the scenario I described above after we invade, that would definitely explain their behavior, because preventing Anglo-American occupation of Iraq is the only conceivable way they could prevent it. If this is the case, then since no other way exists to avoid this fate and since the consequences of it are dreadful, it would make sense to continue the lost cause of trying to prevent our attack.
So the more they persist even as it becomes ever more hopeless, the more I find myself worrying that they are trying to cover up something really, really big.
I do hope I'm wrong, though.
Auf
Wiedersehen, Deutschland
Marine Gen. James Jones, commander of America's forces in Europe, has briefed
members of Congress at a NATO conference on "a plan under study to scale
back American forces in Germany," the New York Times reports. The Washington
Post says U.S. officials "emphasized that the contemplated changes
in force structure are not related to current U.S.-German strains":
But those tensions could provoke efforts to reduce the U.S. military's reliance on its facilities in Germany, one conference participant predicted. "I think there will be a movement by some in the United States to say that the next time [there is a U.S.-German disagreement], they might not let us use the bases, so let's get a training base in Romania or somewhere," said James Steinberg, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.
The Times also reports that "Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United States." Sounds like an excellent idea--as soon as the threat from which the American troops are protecting their Saudi hosts is gone.
Levin:
Let France Run Our Foreign Policy
Host Tony Snow and Michigan's Sen. Carl Levin, the Armed Service Committee's
ranking Democrat, had this revealing exchange on "Fox News Sunday":
Snow: At this point, the charge of unilateralism seems interesting, because we now have 18 European nations on the record saying they support the United States, three on record saying they have qualms. It appears that we've got the majority of Europe on our side. A number of our allies now in the region, including Jordan and Turkey, seem to be on our side as well. So it certainly no longer is fair to say the administration is acting unilaterally, is it?
Levin: The way the word "unilateral" is used means without the authority specifically of the U.N. to use military force. That's the way the term "unilateral" is used, because that U.N. authority makes a big difference.
Snow: Does that not give France and Germany a veto over our foreign policy?
Levin: No, I don't think anyone can have a veto over our foreign policy.
Snow is right--or at least half-right. France has a veto on the Security Council, so a policy of not acting without council approval would in fact give Paris a veto over American foreign policy. Levin's definition of unilateral, though, is truly Orwellian. Uni-, after all, means "one." By Levin's logic, if America acted with the support of every country in the world except France, we would be the ones acting unilaterally.
You
Don't Say--I
"An Iraq War Could Help or Hurt the Economy"--headline, Omaha World-Herald,
Feb. 8
Pot
and Kettle
"A majority of Germans believe the United States is a nation of warmongers,"
Reuters reports. Coming next: Poll finds a majority of Frenchmen think America
is a nation of cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
The Reuters dispatch also jaw-droppingly describes support for leaving Saddam in power as "a position that has widespread backing in Germany where six million people were killed during World War II." Is one man's Nazi another's freedom-fighter?
Charity
Ends in the Big House
Enaam Arnaout, the Syrian-American head of the Benevolence International Foundation,
a Chicago-based Muslim charity prosecutors allege has links to Osama bin Laden,
pleaded guilty today on racketeering charges. He continues to deny any al Qaeda
ties. Findlaw.com has background documents, all in PDF form: the indictment,
the government's
evidentiary proffer and transcripts
of relevant testimony from the trials of the U.S. embassy bombers.
You
Don't Say--II
"Colin: Al Qaeda Will Fight Dirty"--headline, (New York) Daily News,
Feb. 10
Al
Qaeda Fights Dirty
"The Islamic group Ansar al-Islam . . . assassinated a minister
of the Kurdish parliament and two other government officials on Saturday night,"
the New York Times reports. The assassins, posing as "peace negotiators,"
"also killed three civilians and wounded 12 other people in the northern
village of Qamesh Tapa. Among the injured was an 8-year-old girl shot in the
forehead. Doctors said she was likely to die." Ansar al-Islam, a terror
group based in northern Iraq, reportedly has ties to both al Qaeda and Saddam
Hussein.
Yankee
Ingenuity
"The Department of Defense is preparing new weapons that can loiter over
a battlefield or sneak into enemy territory and 'sleep' until an appropriate
military target blunders into their sights," the Associated Press reports.
One such weapon, Lockheed Martin's Loitering Attack Missile, is already being
tested. It "sprouts wings and fins and flies to a map coordinate, then
can wander above the area for 45 minutes, directing a laser-radar seeker to
search the ground for a target to destroy."
The
Great Palestinian Crack-Up
"Tensions are mounting between the Palestinian Authority and Fatah's armed
wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which has threatened to kill Palestinian Interior
Minister Hani al-Hasan because of his opposition to the continuation of terrorist
attacks against civilians in Israel," the Jerusalem Post reports. Al Aqsa
issued a threat to blow up Hasan in a suicide bombing if he went ahead with
plans to visit Nablus over the weekend. Hasan went anyway and no bomb went off.
Radio
Daze
Here's an astonishing correction from National Public Radio's Web site (about
two-thirds of the way down the page):
In a story broadcast on Morning Edition on Jan. 22, 2002, National Public Radio said it had called the Traditional Values Coalition to ask if that group had been contacted by the FBI, investigating the mailing of anthrax to Senate offices. This report violated NPR editorial principles. No one had told our reporter that the Traditional Values Coalition was a suspect in the anthrax mailing. No facts were available then or since then to suggest that the group had any role in the anthrax mailing. NPR deeply regrets this mistake and apologizes for any false impression that the coalition was involved in this investigation.
Bad
Taste Watch
"It's About Time the U.S. Got Over 9/11"--headline, (London) Independent,
Feb. 9
You
Don't Say--III
"Intelligence Officer Accused of Spying"--headline, Washington Times,
Feb. 9
You
Don't Say--IV
"Despite a Decades-Long Quest, a Safe Shuttle Remains Elusive"--headline,
New York Times, Feb. 8
You
Don't Say--V
"Snow Makes Highways Dangerous"--headline, WSFB-TV Web site (Hartford,
Conn.), Feb. 7
You
Don't Say--VI
"Rocket Launchers in Car Raise Questions"--headline, Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Feb. 8
Sticks
and Stones
Martha Lamb, a professor at the University of North Carolina has quit after
making racial comments that "caused" more than half her graduate students
to drop her course, the Durham Herald-Sun reports:
Lamb, who is white, was relaying experiences she had while a student at Carolina in the 1960s. She told students that, in the 1960s, some people had made the comment that acronym NAACP stood for "Niggers Ain't Acting Like Colored People."
She followed by telling her students that comments like that are not commonplace today.
Students who heard the comments immediately felt uncomfortable and complained to school administrators, Dean Jack Richman said Friday.
Richman says Lamb "used some insensitive, hurtful, disparaging words," and the paper adds that "the school intends to use the incident as a springboard to take a deeper look at its social culture. Richman plans to develop a schoolwide committee to conduct what he is calling a 'diversity audit,' to see if the incident is isolated or an indication of a deeper problem."
Lamb's comments were ill advised, and she should have known better. But isn't the "deeper problem" here that UNC's graduate students are so thin-skinned? "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Somehow that bit of school-yard wisdom is lost on the denizens of today's PC campuses.
Wolf
Gang
"Mikhail Gorbachev is teaming up with former US president Bill Clinton
and actress Sophia Loren to record a new version of the classic children's musical
'Peter and the Wolf,' " Agence France-Presse reports. "Retitled
'The Wolf and Peter," the remake of Sergei Prokoviev's tale will tell the
story from the point of view of the wolf, faced with the encroachments of urbanisation
on his dwindling forest habitat."
At
Least There's a Silver Lining
"Deadly Accidents Helped Make Fishing Safe"--headline, Associated
Press, Feb. 8
Orange
Alert
The Web site of the National Press Club has a photo of the club's new president,
Tammy Lytle, being sworn in by Housing Secretary Mel Martinez (at right, scroll
down a screen or two). Instead of a Bible, she takes the oath over "a bowl
of Florida oranges."
What
Would We Do Without Experts?
"Fighting Fat Is an Uphill Battle, Experts Say"--headline, Reuters,
Feb. 6
You
Don't Say--VII
"Men Prefer Women With Curves, Says Survey"--headline, Ananova.com,
Feb. 10
Taxing the Intellect
Did you know that Albert Einstein was killed by the Mafia? Seems he knew too
much. Like most jokes, this one has a kernel of truth: Einstein did know
a lot. We doubt he'd understand the federal tax code, though. The 2003 edition
of "Taxes
for Dummies" is out, and at 656 pages it's so thick a weightlifter
could use it in lieu of a dumbbell. By contrast, "The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Einstein" is a mere 400 pages.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Robert LeChevalier, Rob Schaaf, Rosanne Klass, Natalie Cohen, Dan Friedman, Glen Smith, Michael Justice, Marie Bourgeois, Ralph Zinsky, Dennis Culkin, C.E. Dobkin, David Schlosser, Raghu Desikan, Jerome Marcus, Mara Gold, Michael Segal, Paul Savitz, Daniel Foty, Aryeh Bak, Barak Moore, Mark Schulze, Don Mishell, Shelley Taylor, Linda Cooke, Howard Weiser, David Stern, Ray Sherbill, Douglas Welsh, Aaron Spetner, Pat Haveron, Brian Otey, Joel Zand, John Hartness, Todd Warnick, Jose Guardia, David Zicherman, Ari Charney, Miriam Himmelfarb, Jennifer Flynn, Joe Hancock, Ian Ivey, Kevin Daniel, Cindi Swensen, Gordon Crovitz, Jeremiah Calvino, Bob Vestal and Lyle Yarnell. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Will France and Germany wreck NATO as well as the U.N.?
- Robert Bartley: Quotas are unconstitutional, but "affirmative action" isn't all bad.
- Peggy Noonan: Colin Powell has persuaded me.
