Category Archives: War Commentary

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The former secretary of Northern Ireland thinks that we should negotiate with bin Laden.

In a television interview which will be broadcast on Easter Sunday, she described the current hardline approach to the war on terror as “completely counter-productive”.

Ms Mowlam told Tyne Tees TV’s Sunday Interview that Britain and America must open a dialogue with their enemies.

Interviewer Tony Cartledge asked if she could imagine “al Qaida and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table”.

She replied: “You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever.

“Some people couldn’t conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did.”

She added: “If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists.”

I was amused by this aside at the end of the column:

She also confirmed on the programme that she has completely recovered from a brain tumour.

I’d say that we have some evidence to the contrary here.

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The former secretary of Northern Ireland thinks that we should negotiate with bin Laden.

In a television interview which will be broadcast on Easter Sunday, she described the current hardline approach to the war on terror as “completely counter-productive”.

Ms Mowlam told Tyne Tees TV’s Sunday Interview that Britain and America must open a dialogue with their enemies.

Interviewer Tony Cartledge asked if she could imagine “al Qaida and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table”.

She replied: “You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever.

“Some people couldn’t conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did.”

She added: “If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists.”

I was amused by this aside at the end of the column:

She also confirmed on the programme that she has completely recovered from a brain tumour.

I’d say that we have some evidence to the contrary here.

If He’s So Rich, Why Ain’t He Smart?

George Soros has a cliche-ridden wrong-headed polemic against the Bush administration in today’s Puppy Trainer. This is hardly surprising, because he’s openly declared war on this administration, vowing to spend as many of his millions as necessary to end it this fall. But it demonstrates that, just as being smart doesn’t necessarily make one rich, the corollary is apparently true as well–Mr. Soros doesn’t seem to be very smart, at least not about anything other than making money.

The Bush administration is in the habit of waging personal vendettas against those who criticize its policies, but bit by bit the evidence is accumulating that the invasion of Iraq was among the worst blunders in U.S. history.

Hmmmm…a “habit”? Can he cite the innumerable examples of this to justify this statement? In fact, I can’t think of a single instance of “waging personal vendettas.” The only ones that I can think of that Mr. Soros and his ilk might come up with are Valerie Plame and Richard Clarke, but in neither case do these meet the “personal vendetta” threshold.

In the case of the former, while the matter remains under investigation, the simplest explanation to me is that, rather than having the intent of harming Mr. Wilson’s wife, the intent was simply to explain to Mr. Safire why the administration made the dumb decision to send the ambassador to Niger to sip sweet mint tea, instead of making a serious effort to investigate the possibility of yellowcake sales.

As for Mr. Clarke, I hardly think that pointing out inconsistencies in public statements, and conflicts of interest, when under attack, constitute a “personal vendetta.” Yes, they helped damage his credibility, but they were only helping him damage his own–in his apparent mission to attempt to rewrite history, he was much more active in that goal than anyone else.

And as to “one of the worst blunders in American history,” like “the worst economy in fifty years,” such hyperbole might be rhetorically effective with people unfamiliar with American history (which Mr. Soros, not being native born, may very well be), but to those more informed, it sounds more like shrill volume is being used to compensate for a lack of solid argument.

And that’s just the first graf.

…to protect ourselves against terrorism, we need precautionary measures, awareness and intelligence gathering

If He’s So Rich, Why Ain’t He Smart?

George Soros has a cliche-ridden wrong-headed polemic against the Bush administration in today’s Puppy Trainer. This is hardly surprising, because he’s openly declared war on this administration, vowing to spend as many of his millions as necessary to end it this fall. But it demonstrates that, just as being smart doesn’t necessarily make one rich, the corollary is apparently true as well–Mr. Soros doesn’t seem to be very smart, at least not about anything other than making money.

The Bush administration is in the habit of waging personal vendettas against those who criticize its policies, but bit by bit the evidence is accumulating that the invasion of Iraq was among the worst blunders in U.S. history.

Hmmmm…a “habit”? Can he cite the innumerable examples of this to justify this statement? In fact, I can’t think of a single instance of “waging personal vendettas.” The only ones that I can think of that Mr. Soros and his ilk might come up with are Valerie Plame and Richard Clarke, but in neither case do these meet the “personal vendetta” threshold.

In the case of the former, while the matter remains under investigation, the simplest explanation to me is that, rather than having the intent of harming Mr. Wilson’s wife, the intent was simply to explain to Mr. Safire why the administration made the dumb decision to send the ambassador to Niger to sip sweet mint tea, instead of making a serious effort to investigate the possibility of yellowcake sales.

As for Mr. Clarke, I hardly think that pointing out inconsistencies in public statements, and conflicts of interest, when under attack, constitute a “personal vendetta.” Yes, they helped damage his credibility, but they were only helping him damage his own–in his apparent mission to attempt to rewrite history, he was much more active in that goal than anyone else.

And as to “one of the worst blunders in American history,” like “the worst economy in fifty years,” such hyperbole might be rhetorically effective with people unfamiliar with American history (which Mr. Soros, not being native born, may very well be), but to those more informed, it sounds more like shrill volume is being used to compensate for a lack of solid argument.

And that’s just the first graf.

…to protect ourselves against terrorism, we need precautionary measures, awareness and intelligence gathering

If He’s So Rich, Why Ain’t He Smart?

George Soros has a cliche-ridden wrong-headed polemic against the Bush administration in today’s Puppy Trainer. This is hardly surprising, because he’s openly declared war on this administration, vowing to spend as many of his millions as necessary to end it this fall. But it demonstrates that, just as being smart doesn’t necessarily make one rich, the corollary is apparently true as well–Mr. Soros doesn’t seem to be very smart, at least not about anything other than making money.

The Bush administration is in the habit of waging personal vendettas against those who criticize its policies, but bit by bit the evidence is accumulating that the invasion of Iraq was among the worst blunders in U.S. history.

Hmmmm…a “habit”? Can he cite the innumerable examples of this to justify this statement? In fact, I can’t think of a single instance of “waging personal vendettas.” The only ones that I can think of that Mr. Soros and his ilk might come up with are Valerie Plame and Richard Clarke, but in neither case do these meet the “personal vendetta” threshold.

In the case of the former, while the matter remains under investigation, the simplest explanation to me is that, rather than having the intent of harming Mr. Wilson’s wife, the intent was simply to explain to Mr. Safire why the administration made the dumb decision to send the ambassador to Niger to sip sweet mint tea, instead of making a serious effort to investigate the possibility of yellowcake sales.

As for Mr. Clarke, I hardly think that pointing out inconsistencies in public statements, and conflicts of interest, when under attack, constitute a “personal vendetta.” Yes, they helped damage his credibility, but they were only helping him damage his own–in his apparent mission to attempt to rewrite history, he was much more active in that goal than anyone else.

And as to “one of the worst blunders in American history,” like “the worst economy in fifty years,” such hyperbole might be rhetorically effective with people unfamiliar with American history (which Mr. Soros, not being native born, may very well be), but to those more informed, it sounds more like shrill volume is being used to compensate for a lack of solid argument.

And that’s just the first graf.

…to protect ourselves against terrorism, we need precautionary measures, awareness and intelligence gathering