From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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Maybe
He Was Just Lost
"U.S.-led forces captured a senior al-Qaida leader who was responsible
for hundreds of civilian deaths and housed foreign fighters who carried out
suicide bombings, the U.S. military said Wednesday," the Associated Press
reports from Baghdad:
The leader, who was not identified, was arrested in a raid in Mosul on Dec. 14, the military said in a statement.
"The terrorist leader was attempting to flee from the location when Coalition Forces chased him across a street and detained him," the statement said.
It said the suspect served as al-Qaida's military chief in Mosul in 2005, and then took up the same job in western Baghdad.
"During that time, he coordinated car vehicle-borne improvised explosives device attacks and kidnap for ransom operations in Baghdad," the military said. It cited reports that said he organized an attempt to shoot down a U.S. military helicopter in May this year.
"After a few months he fled Baghdad due to Coalition Forces closing in on him," the statement said.
This is most odd. Haven't we been hearing for years that al Qaeda has nothing to do with Iraq? We may have to rethink our whole view of the conflict. And another AP dispatch complicates things further:
The deputy leader of al-Qaida said the United States was negotiating with the wrong people in Iraq, implying in a video broadcast Wednesday on Al-Jazeera that Washington should be talking to his group.
"I want to tell the Republicans and the Democrats together ... you are trying to negotiate with some parties to secure your withdrawal, but these parties won't find you an exit (from Iraq) and your attempts will yield nothing but failure," Ayman al-Zawahri said on the video.
"It seems that you will go through a painful journey of failed negotiations until you will be forced to return to negotiate with the real powers," he said, without elaborating.
Should America negotiate with al Qaeda? Well, heck, why not? After all, you don't negotiate with your friends, you negotiate with your enemies! And Reagan negotiated with the "evil empire"! Reuters, meanwhile, buries the lead in a story about the Zawahiri tape:
Al Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, has repeatedly vowed more strikes on the United States. Zawahri last threatened attacks in a videotape in June to avenge the killing of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
So far as we know, this is the first time Reuters has reported as fact that al Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks. In the past, the "news" service always used formulations like "which America blames for the attacks." It seems that finally, after more than five years, Reuters has abandoned the theory that Saddam Hussein dunnit.
Look
for the Union Label--I
"With a decision expected any day on where the Democratic Party will hold
its 2008 national convention, a union leader in Denver has refused to sign a
no-strike pledge, a move one organizer called a possible deal-breaker,"
reports Denver's KMGH-TV:
Jim Taylor, head of the Local No. 7 International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, is refusing to sign the agreement pledging not to strike if the convention comes to Denver, labor officials told The Denver Post. . . .
Debbie Willhite, executive director of Denver's host committee, told the Post that a lack of full union support for the city's bid is "probably a deal-breaker" for the Democratic National Committee.
Apparently the Democrats are for organized labor, except when it inconveniences them.
Look
for the Union Label--II
"Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who blocked the confirmation of a woman
to the federal bench because she attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for
the daughter of her long-time neighbors, says he will now allow a vote on the
nomination," the New York Times reports. The judge, Janet Neff, now serves
on a Michigan state court and has been nominated for a U.S. District Court seat:
Mr. Brownback, who has been criticized for blocking the nomination, said he would also no longer press a proposed solution he offered on Dec. 8 that garnered even more criticism: that he would remove his block if Judge Neff agreed to recuse herself from all cases involving same-sex unions. . . .
In her letter [responding to Brownback's questions], Judge Neff said she had attended the ceremony in Massachusetts as a guest, not as a presiding jurist. As the ceremony occurred before Massachusetts's highest court approved same-sex unions, it did not have any legal validity.
One of the women in the ceremony, Judge Neff wrote, was the daughter of a family who had lived next door for 26 years. She said the families were so close that the woman was, in effect, a part of her family and was like a big sister to her own daughters. She said that she had delivered a homily at the ceremony and that "it was no different than being asked by my own daughters to be part of an important event in their lives."
Blogger Edward Morrissey is right when he says Brownback was wrong to make an issue of this:
Neff's attendance at a private function on her own time has no bearing on her fitness to the bench. A union ceremony breaks no laws and infringes on no one's rights. It involves two people celebrating their relationship without demanding any recognition from the government or special rights as a result. The two women invited family and friends to attend, and Neff decided to support her friend and help her celebrate a ceremony that would have taken place regardless. . . .
Unfortunately, even while allowing the vote to proceed, Brownback still demonstrates that he doesn't get it. He claims that Neff's attendance at this event merits an investigation as he would "like to know more factually about what took place." Since nothing illegal took place and Neff did not do anything in her capacity as a judge at the ceremony, it's none of Brownback's business what "took place" there.
Democrats, of course, have a long history of interrogating Republican judicial nominees about nongermane personal matters, from Robert Bork's belief in God to Samuel Alito's membership in a college alumni group. We had thought this was one reason to prefer the GOP, but it seems Brownback would like to prove us wrong.
Matt Damon
Wants You
Actors Robert DeNiro and Matt Damon showed up on "Hardball" with Chris
Matthews the other day, and the topic of military conscription came up:
Damon: What bothers me the most about the state we're in right now is I don't feel that there's a shared consciousness and a shared sense of sacrifice, and we have these young men and women who are fighting a war in name and our president tells us to go shopping. And I think that more can be asked of us and we need to be participating more for--I think that makes for a more robust democracy. . . .
Question: Hi, my name is Meghan Wright, I'm from Richmond, Va., and I was just--this question is both for Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Damon. I was just wondering, would either of you go to war right now? Not right now, I guess, but--would you go to war if you were asked?
DeNiro: Well that's such a complex question. . . .
Matthews: If you were drafted?
DeNiro: Well, I don't know, that's another thing about the draft and so on, if it ever would come up again. I mean, I was for going to Iraq originally and then I saw, I realized that when you--we went in and we didn't know how to like deal with it once we were there.
We just thought they'd all cheer us and we'd be out and then they'd want democracy. We're dealing with--we were just talking about before--the thousands of years old cultures that have all their in-fighting, whatever. I mean, we can't come in unless we have a real plan or strategy and I never thought that.
Damon: There is this great book that just came out about that called "Imperial Life in the Emerald City." That's definitely a book worth reading, just about that.
We kind of blundered in there with the best intentions, but nevertheless without a plan. So, but in terms of your question, I agree with Bob that it's a complex question. It would depend on certain situations. I mean, I don't think that it's fair, as I said before that it seems that we have a fighting class in our country that's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons or you know, I don't think that that is fair. And if you're going to send people to war, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war, then that needs to be shared by everybody, you know. And if the president has daughters who are of age, then maybe they should go to.
Shared sacrifice? That's for other people! Meanwhile, the Web site of the Boston Globe has an online poll that is not only unscientific but ridiculously biased. "Are you worried that the Bush administration may bring back the draft?" it asks. The only possible answers are, "Yes. They're talking about needing more troops in Iraq and recruitment levels are down," and, "No. They're smart enough to realize that a majority of Americans want the US to pull out of Iraq and won't tolerate a draft."
Baby
on Board
"A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put
her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid
it into an X-ray machine," the Los Angeles Times reports:
The early Saturday accident--bizarre but not unprecedented--caught airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time, officials said.
A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt.
The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined that he had not received a dangerous dose of radiation.
Officials, who declined to release the 56-year-old woman's name, said she spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English. . . .
The rare incident drew attention to whether officials are staffing often-busy security checkpoints enough to prevent such an accident. And it raised questions about the danger of X-rays used to pick out suspicious metal shapes in passenger bags, given the medical community's warnings that even low amounts of radiation can build up over a lifetime.
How's that for a non sequitur? The line wasn't busy, but somehow the incident "drew attention to whether officials are staffing often-busy security checkpoints enough to prevent such an accident." Oh, and it "raised questions about the danger of X-rays." It seems to us the answer to these questions is pretty simple: Don't put babies through X-ray machines!
They
Want a Shetland Pony Too
"As expected, North Korea's chief negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan, said his country
had joined the exclusive nuclear club and expected to receive the world's respect.
The only way the North will consider stepping back from its nuclear program
will be if the following happens: the United Nations lifts all sanctions, the
United States ends its freeze of North Korean financial assets at its principal
bank in Macau and the Americans end their threats and hostility against the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)."--ABCNews.com, Dec. 19
This Ought to Appease Him
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has caused international outrage with a series of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish remarks, in the course of which he has said Israel--described as a tumor--should be wiped off the map, or moved to Europe."--Deutsche Welle, Dec. 17
"Just in time for Hanukka, Israelis have something to cheer about: Ben-Gurion Airport has been judged the best in Europe."--Jerusalem Post, Dec. 19
Free
Speech or Hat Crime?
"A Commack School District bus driver says he nearly lost his job because
he refused to take off his Santa Claus cap while driving his route," reports
Newsday of Long Island, N.Y.:
After Mott completed his morning route on Thursday, shuttling kids to Rolling Hills Primary School and Commack Middle School, he said his supervisors at Baumann and Sons called and demanded that he take off his Santa hat.
Mott said he was told that a parent of a child complained to the district about Mott's headgear, saying that the child doesn't believe in Santa Claus and was bothered by the hat. . . .
But Mott said that after he told parents that Friday might be his last day on the job because of the hat, supervisors suddenly had a change of heart and told him he could wear the hat after all.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports on the New Orleans Saints, which, despite losing to the Washington Redskins, clinched the NFC South division title Sunday:
Quarterback Drew Brees entered as an MVP candidate with eight 300-yard passing games, two short of tying an NFL record. On Sunday, he threw for 207 yards on 21-for-38 passing, an average outing for a suddenly average offense.
"I won't be celebrating at all tonight if that's what you're wondering," Brees said. "I have the shirt. I have the hat. They're in my bag. I'll go home and I'll put them in my closet."
He has the hat to this day. He has the hat.
What
Does He Shine His Shoes With?
A chart on Sunday comparing biographical and personal points about Governor-elect
Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, two like-minded New York leaders
with a warm relationship who could find themselves at odds once Mr. Spitzer
is sworn in, misidentified one of Mr. Bloomberg's favorite foods. It is saltines,
not sardines."--correction (third item), New York Times, Dec. 20
Too
Bad She Didn't Have a Hose
"Merrill Woman Faces Fire With Learned Strength"--headline, Wausau
(Wis.) Daily Herald, Dec. 20
Was
She Loaded?
"Teen OK After Getting Locked in a Gun Safe"--headline, Free Lance-Star
(Fredericksburg, Va.), Dec. 20
News
You Can Use
"Wait Until Marriage? 'Extremely Challenging' "--headline, Washington
Post, Dec. 20
Bottom
Stories of the Day
"China Not Manipulating Its Currency, Report Finds"--headline, Chicago
Tribune, Dec. 20
'Except
Hockey'
The University of Minnesota is taking a strong moral stand, reports the Pioneer
Press of St. Paul:
University of North Dakota athletics director Tom Buning said he was surprised Tuesday that the University of Minnesota has decided not to compete against UND in any sport except men's and women's hockey because of the school's Fighting Sioux nickname.
The University Minnesota's Advisory Committee on Athletics asked the Gophers athletic department to "make every effort to avoid scheduling home events with schools that use American Indian mascots" in an approved policy in 2003. . . .
But North Dakota hadn't been excluded from competing against the Gophers until recently, Buning said. He said Minnesota athletics director Joel Maturi understood the equal benefit from having the schools meet, especially with North Dakota's proposed move to NCAA Division I in the fall of 2008.
Maturi, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, asked the advisory committee to loosen the policy at a Nov. 2 meeting, but the board strongly agreed to strictly enforce it in all sports except hockey, because the schools are in the same conference, according a published report.
It reminds us of Lincoln's inspiring words:
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Except hockey.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Michael Segal, Philip Purrington, Richard Brum, Dave Wheeler, Joe Fluet, Thomas Dillon, Jena Olsen, Dennis Cariello, Dan O'Shea, Stephen Wyse, Daniel Foty, Larry Hau, Mark Schulze, Luis Leon, Royal Dellinger, John Klaczynski, Ryan Serote, Steve Edwards and Curt Schmidt. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Abraham Sofaer: The right way to negotiate with Syria and Iran.
- Pete du Pont: Think the Republicans were bad? Here's a preview of the Democrats' economic policies.
- Joe Rago: The blog mob: "Written by fools to be read by imbeciles."
