When Le Monde wants a nativist opinion on the situation in Iraq (and the election), it chooses a sympathizer of Saddam

When Le Monde decides to give a full-page article to a common citizen of Iraq, somebody whose opinion is supposed to reflect the general view in the street, whom does the independent newspaper choose?

An Iraqi citizen who complains of the "atrocities" and the "atrocious war", of course, who justifies the "resistance", of course, who refuses to vote "out of principle", of course (!), and who naturally wails that fear, "'anxiety', 'trembling', [and] 'disgust' … are my daily lot since that accursed night of March 20, 2003, and the beginning of the Americans' war against my country."

I, a [49-year-old, French-speaking middle-class] Iraqi woman, the mother of two children … I can say that today, fear accompanies me everywhere, even in bed, which has become collective, shared with my sons, out of fear of dying separately, each one alone in bed, should a rocket or a missile fall on us at night by mistake.

(As you will read later on, the sons in question are even more traumatized than she is.)

Besides the explosions, Nadia Ahmed (not her real name [!]) goes on to complain of the content of television programs, of "the noise of low-flying planes which tears apart the silence and steals our intimicy", of the continuing buzz of the electric generators (when the grid isn't cut), of having consequently to get up at 6 a.m. to do the laundry and vacuum the house, and, if the electricity does happen to fail half-way through her cleaning chores, of having to finish washing the dishes by hand.

She also fears taking a drive in her car, and that one day she will be crushed by a Humvee, or see

Americans break down the door to search our house, as they do so often elsewhere.

As you can see, poor Nadia Ahmed has a lot to complain of, and we can only agree with her that life would be much better were Saddam and his Mukhabarat thugs still in power. (The secret police never broke down doors; its fear-inspiring members didn't have to.)

But let's not be too harsh or too sarcastic. The poor mother is understandably concerned about the effect the war will have on her 16- and 10-year-old sons. Notably, she imagines her children being terrified of the news of a bomb in their school. I hate to sound callous, but personally at that age I would have found any kind of alert exciting to the hilt.

As it turns out, the boys do not seem to be frightened of the GIs at all. Au contraire.

From the very first day of the conflict, in March 2003, Ahmed [10] and his friends started playing war, asking for soldier toys, machine guns, tanks, and planes. Ahmed often imitates the Americans. A weapon in his hands, he kicks doors open with his feet, shouting "Go! Go! Go!" He always takes the side of the GIs, their technology fascinates him. He is happy when Iraqis are killed.

Uh-oh. Incoming whopper (When you hear the word "logic", you know you're going to hear an example of moral relativism).

His cousins hold the same language, the same logic: that of the strongest. I try to explain that they are occupiers and that one must defend one's country against occupiers, and to tell them the damage that this war has caused, there is nothing to do.

Well, see, of course, if Iraqis (kids or other) are not afraid of the Americans, then that, too, is something that… the Americans must be reproached for! And in impeccable (il)logic, if the kids are not traumatized, this in itself is cause for… traumatism!

The traumatism is such that it seems impossible to heal in so short a time. Violence turns them into agitated, perturbed, anxious kids, undermined by the apprehension of being killed or kidnapped, which is very frequent.

Of course, life was much better when schoolkids sat in classrooms, simply chanting the name of Saddam Hussein as the leader and protector of all Iraqis, and Iraqis the country over were taken away to jail and to the death fields.

When a woman is killed by a bomb, Nadia Ahmed calls her

yet another victim in this war that has made so many orphans, so many widowers and widows, so many poor and mutilated people, so many innocent prisoners, so many hoodlums in liberty, and also so many women cloistered at home, condemned to question themselves about the country's future.

Regarding "the country's future", did she vote, at least (hyperlink: thanks to Chris)?

I might as well tell you right away: I didn't participate [in the elections]. For reasons of security, first of all, and for reasons of principle. Numerous political parties and cities were not allowed to join in. Something that made the vote hobbled and predetermined!

"Numerous political parties were not allowed to run"? The evidence was visible all through the article, here, as far as I am concerned, is the ultimate proof:

When Le Monde wants a nativist opinion on the situation in Iraq, France's newspaper of reference chooses a member, or a sympathizer, of the Ba'athist party!

What a waste, my God, what a waste! …

May God curse the Americans and those that support them!

Among the Losers in Iraq's Elections: The European Media

Be sure to check out NetWar's "sixty-four-thousand-dollar questions Europeans should put to their media"

Adlai Stevenson on the Meaning of a Free Society

Regarding the apprehensiveness that individuals have in parts of Europe of opening their mouths in support of Uncle Sam and to show their suspicion for the supposed humanism of members of the "peace camp" (and no wonder, with the snickering, the castigation, and the slander that they know will be forthcoming), let us remember that today is the birthday of Adlai Stevenson, the American Statesman (1900-1965) who said:

A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

He added that

A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.

After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquillity of a political convention.

Dislike of George Bush's foreign policy has led to an automatic support of those perceived to be his enemies

The great silence by left-leaning Western feminists, and other large parts of the left, to human rights abuses carried out in the name of Islam is, to see it as its kindest, caused by an overdeveloped sense of tolerance or cultural relativism

writes the Australian's Pamela Bone in The Silence of the Feminists, as she asks, "Why don't left-leaning Western women speak up about abuses in the Islamic world?"

But it is also part of the new anti-Americanism. Look at American Christian fundamentalism, they say.

Dislike of George Bush's foreign policy has led to an automatic support of those perceived to be his enemies. Paradoxically, this leaves the left defending people who hold beliefs that condone what the left has long fought against: misogyny, homophobia, capital punishment, suppression of freedom of speech. The recent reaffirmation by Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie has been met by virtual silence; as has the torture and murder in Iraq of a man who would be presumed to be one of the left's own — Hadi Salih, the international officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions. The hard left these days is soft on fascism, or at least Islamofascism.

The religious right in America would, if it could, wind back access to abortion and some other women's rights. But as far as I am aware, no Christian fundamentalist in the US has suggested banning women from driving cars, or travelling without their husbands' permission, or forcing them to cover their faces. Contrary to popular opinion, one is not the same as the other.

It does not take a lot of courage for people living in Western democracies to criticise aspects of their culture that need criticising (indeed, it sometimes takes more courage to defend the culture). It takes a great deal of courage for people living in totalitarian states to speak out against the injustices done in the name of their religion or culture. The problem with politely ignoring abuses of human rights because "it's their culture" is that it lets down the brave liberals and democrats and human rights defenders who are trying to change things that so badly need to change for the welfare of women and men in their own communities and in the world.

(Cheers to Mister Hoffmann)

"The momentum for change in the Middle East is now unstoppable"

PRESIDENT BUSH’S State of the Union speech on Wednesday night got the usual thumbs down in the perfumed salons of the self-appointed intellectual liberal elites

writes Gerard Baker in his Times article Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, Iraq's elections will change world history, noting that "The momentum for change in the Middle East is now unstoppable".

… The visual field of the smart-thinking classes is now so seeped in red whenever the American President speaks that there is not the least possibility any longer that they will faithfully report what he has said. They simply use it as another opportunity to promote their own caricature of him.…

What Mr Bush [said Wednesday] might be incidental to those who seek to convey only a distorted, paranoid image of America, but to the rest of us, or indeed anyone willing to listen, it repays some attention.

… Whatever else you can say about this latest agglomeration of proposals … it defies easy caricature.

But the meat of the President’s speech was the same, animating foreign policy goals that he laid out in his inaugural address two weeks ago. Mr Bush restated the ultimate aim of US strategy as ending tyranny on Earth. This time, perhaps anticipating a little better the carping criticism that this is crazy/dishonest/hypocritical, the President added some specifics that are likely to shape US policy for years ahead. In doing so he demonstrated that rhetoric has its own consequences. George W. Bush is slowly, steadily ratcheting up the rhetoric, not to threaten all-out war, as his screaming critics claim, but to create an international climate in which the price of supporting repression is intolerably high.

By calling explicitly on Saudi Arabia and Egypt to liberalise, he made it harder than ever for the US to return to an approach that connives at those regimes’ corruption and autocracy. By challenging Iran and Syria to stop their support for terrorism, and in Iran’s case, its pursuit of nuclear weapons, he emphasised again that the post-September 11 world is not a safe one for dictators and fanatics who thrive through mass murder.

But the entire speech, indeed the entire opening act of this President’s second term, was ventilated by the extraordinary air that has blown around the world from Iraq since Sunday’s elections.

Contrived it may have been, but there was no escaping the emotional symbolism of the moment when Janet Norwood, the mother of a Marine killed in the assault on Fallujah last year, embraced Safia Taleb al-Suhali, the daughter of an Iraqi murdered by Saddam Hussein who had just triumphantly voted in Iraq’s elections. It was an iconic moment. The symbolism was captured by two poignant visual effects — Mrs Norwood clasped her son’s dog tags; Ms al-Suhali waved the purple finger of magnificent defiance.

If the world could only strip away some of its blind resentment it might start to see without prejudice what Mr Bush and Tony Blair are seeking to achieve in their grand and noble venture in the Middle East. But in the end, it will matter not how the world reports a president’s or a prime minister’s words. It will be the inescapable logic and reality of events that will eventually persuade even the most cynical critic.

Sometimes moments of truly historic significance are almost instantly recognisable for what they are. The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 proclaimed its universal importance right from the start. No one needed to be told that the fall of the Berlin Wall was going to change history. With others the consequences creep up on us slowly, even surreptitiously. Some wise heads see the significance; others resist it or are blind to it. It was not immediately necessarily evident that Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933 would lead to the unrelenting tragedy that unfolded for Europe and the world over the next decade. We all know better now.

Last Sunday I think will quickly fall into the first category. There is an unstoppable momentum for change in the Middle East now. In just two years tyrannies have been felled in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Palestine, the inexorable clock of human mortality has ended another. But the crucial element was always going to be the voluntary and courageous act of self-assertion that democratic and free elections represent — a message heard around the region and the world.

The way is open now, as it has never been, for an end to the servitude and alienation that have been the lot of the people of the Middle East for centuries. Long after the rhetoric has been ridiculed and scorned, the reality will stand as a magnificent monument to the possibilities of liberty.

(Danke zu Herr Hoffmann)

Is this someone's idea of "A great game"?

Punish Côte D'Ivoire, ignore Armenia, forgive Cuba

1 Shot, 1 Kill, No remorse, I Decide	1 Balle, 1 Tué, Aucun remords, Je prends la décision
American snipers.	Tireurs embusqués américains.

When Rosa Parks Made Up Her Mind, She Learned That She Was Not Alone and That Many Others Felt the Same Way

Regarding the individuals in "old Europe" who are wary or afraid to voice their support for Uncle Sam and their skepticism with regards to the so-called "peace camp" because of the attendant castigation, mockery, and marginalization they know is forthcoming, it is not a bad thing to remember that today is the birthday of Rosa Lee Parks, the American civil-rights activist who said

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

Each person must live their life as a model for others.

Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.

Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.

My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work.

Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way.

Still banging their spoons on their high-chairs

Excerpts from an article in
The Australian:

French worked up over hours
Emma-Kate Symons,
ParisFebruary 04, 2005

Socialist Party figures accusing the Right of wreaking "ideological revenge", unions and white-collar workers will march in most large French cities in defence of "les trente-cinq heures", or each worker's right to clock on for no longer than 35 hours a week.

Despite earlier suggestions the law would be abolished, both Mr Raffarin and President Jacques Chirac have made clear they will not completely junk the piece of social engineering that was designed to entrench a better national quality of life and lower unemployment. The reason? The 35-hour week is now deemed an "acquired right".

However, this was followed by a return to record high unemployment, a slump in economic growth, and a political backlash at the 2002 election when the Socialists' working-class base deserted the party.

Former IMF head Michel Camdessus late last year handed a report to the French Government that found "decline is a real threat", and growth prospects would be limited without a sharp change in policy direction.

Unemployment in France rivals Germany, which this week recorded 5 million jobless, or 12 per cent, a post-reunification high.

The fab EU: 24 plus the 'special people'

France balks at EU single job market plan
UPI - Thursday, February 03, 2005

Date: Thursday, February 03, 2005 11:05:15 AM EST

BRUSSELS, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- France has vowed to fight a European Union plan to create a single job market for professionals such as doctors throughout the 25 member countries.

In Paris, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called the draft law that would erase borders for such professions as medicine, law and architecture "unacceptable," the International Herald Tribune said Thursday.

"We will take every measure to oppose this directive," Raffarin told the French National Assembly.

Unilateralism in West Africa

The French Exception: The US is the only unilateralist expoliter of resources, especially the very "outree" pollution emitting sort, but France is not. The intention is clearly not to support the cause of free people living in peace and security:

Thalif Deen reports in the Inter Press News Service:

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 3 (IPS) - France, the former colonial ruler of Cote d'Ivoire, is being lambasted for manipulating the U.N. Security Council to politically and militarily isolate the West African nation, which has been ravaged by an ongoing civil war.

In an unusual arrangement, French troops have the right to act alone and do not come under the military authority of UNOCI.

The French are ”too tainted” by their historic neo-colonial relationship to Cote d'Ivoire. ”The French clearly have an interest in retaining their role as the hegemonic power over their former colonies,” he added.

Addressing a U.N. press conference last month, Ambassador Philippe Djangone-Bi of Cote d'Ivoire told reporters that the Security Council should integrate the French orce into UNOCI.

”The sooner unified command and action was achieved, the sooner UNOCI would succeed in its actions,” he added.

If unified command is applied to most U.N. peacekeeping missions, ”why is Cote d'Ivoire an exception?” he asked.

A Washington-based group that calls itself Friends of Democratic Governments says that colonial rule in Cote d'Ivoire ended more than 40 years ago, ”but France and its embedded corporate interests refuse to let go.”

”The same French government that opposed 'regime change' in Iraq is using its influence in the United Nations to undermine a democratically-elected president in West Africa,” the group says in its website.

In respsonse to the advertisement placed by the Friends of Democratic Governments, a spokesperson for the French Embassy in Washington said:

"[It] is not France who decided to have an embargo on Ivory Coast. This is the entire international community embodied by the [U.N.] Security Council. And, of course, the arms embargo applies to every possible Ivorian party -- not just the Ivorian army, but every militia, every group."

Down syndrome youth used as suicide bomber

The Press Association reports -
"Amar was 19, but he had the mind of a four-year-old. This handicap didn't stop the insurgency's hard men as they strapped explosives to his chest and guided him to a voting centre in suburban Al-Askan.

""I have heard of them using dead people and donkeys and dogs to hide their bombs, but how could they do this to a boy like Amar?"

"Apparently, Amar triggered the bomb before he got to the intended target. It exploded while he was crossing open ground.

Be Careful of What You Wish For

Discussing a pedanticly typical exchange of undigested ideas on a BBC Radio 4 program, Frank, a commenter on The Daily Ablution raises a salient point: could left-thinkers truly tolerate the relativism that they seek in their great future Nirvanna-topia?
In reference to terrorism, if one first asks "why do they hate us?", and that's concidered humanistic, "lucide," and virtuous, would they manage to think of a rapist the same way as a terrorist? Should one be caring and warm, and ask ourselved "why does he hate her? She shouldn't call the police - he might be offended and do it again!"

Daring Protest Video from Dr. No's Deathcamp Nation

Made available here in Windows Media Player format
by The Daily NK [EN] [KN].

Many, many thanks to Avery.

Big Ideas vs. Weedling

In Afghanistan, we helped liberate an oppressed people. And we will continue helping them secure their country, rebuild their society, and educate all their children -- boys and girls. In the Middle East, we will continue to seek peace between a secure Israel and a democratic Palestine. (Applause.) Across the Earth, America is feeding the hungry -- more than 60 percent of international food aid comes as a gift from the people of the United States.

- President George Bush in the State of the Union address, 02-February-2005

Meanwhile, unaware that they're revealing their narcissism and lack of ideas, his opposition wastes time talking about themselves.

I was born and raised in the high desert of Nevada in a tiny town called Searchlight. My dad was a hard-rock miner. My mom took in wash. I grew up around people of strong values - even if they rarely talked about them. ...

-Senator Harry Reid -

Opposition rebuttal to the address. 02-February-2005

Note: The New York Times truncated his use of the word "God" for some reason.

I'm sure and still believes in a place called hope. I wish him happiness in getting there someday. But the Democratic position reminds me of people who imagine that all of those little stickers over the years have actually lead to a "Free Tibet".

Bringing in a new rulebook	Casser le jeu
A true subversive.	Un vrai subversif.

U.S. denying democracy to arabs and muslims

[Many pundits, East and West, have suggested that anti-Americanism results primarily from the role that the United States has played in denying Muslims and Arabs in the Muslim world democracy]

Henh? Ex-queeze me? Baking powder? Oh, I get it. The U.S. is always wrong.

Craig "I was raised in the Jim Crowe south" Merrihue in the same fine opus asks the question "Who Needs a Jewish State?" Never mind the fact that he was in college in the 80's after the great transomation of the south away from racism was substancially complete. If he really wants to promote liberalism and the rights of individuals, shouldn't he be one of the evil, blood sucking neo-cons that Mama warned him about?

Hard to believe from a group of people who are trying to convince readers that all is honky-dorey in southern Sudan, when their "like totally world, man" fellow travellers entirely disagree.

French Denounce "Crude Rumors" When They Are Not Self-Serving

French peacekeepers in Ivory Coast denounced Monday as a "crude rumour without any base in truth" information in the pro-government media that their troops had attempted to kill President Laurent Gbagbo

writes the AFP. Of course, when crude rumors concern Uncle Sam and (crude) oil, the French are much less likely to be as vocal in their denouncements.

The Notre Voie (Our Path) daily linked to Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front party charged that French troops tried to assassinate Gbagbo on Saturday at Abidjan's airport by shooting down his plane when he was leaving for the African Union summit in Nigeria.

The French peacekeeping contingent said the paper had turned a small misunderstanding into a "fantasy".

But how the French love to turn misunderstandings involving America into fantasy, and castigations, and …crude rumors.

The Reporters Without Borders media rights group has repeatedly criticised the Ivorian government-controlled media for encouraging a climate of hate and encouraging the riots against foreigners last year.

How often has RWB criticized the French government-controlled media (yearly tax rebates of 30%, among other carrots) for encouraging a climate of hate against America (sorry, against Bush)?

Gbagbo, has repeatedly accused the French, who helped broker a peace deal to end a rebellion two years ago, of working against his regime.

Dubya, seems like ya got a soul-mate here…

The "irrational level of anti-Americanism" in Europe "is a sign of parochialism and it is disturbingly intense"

An accusation by Australian Prime Minister John Howard that France was guilty of lingering "anti-Americanism" drew sharp words from Paris on Tuesday during a visit by the Australian foreign minister

writes the AFP. To no one's surprize, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier refused to draw any lessons from the comments or admit to any failures ("mistakes" is only what happens in Washington), and did nothing except the usually relativizing of the problem, equating temporary American anger about France's betrayal at the UN in 2003 (when it was planning to put its troops in harm's way) with the perennial anti-Americanism that is never far from the surface in France.

The Australian leader — a strong US ally — on Sunday accused "old Europe" of unleashing "unfair and irrational" criticism on the United States during a panel debate at the forum.

"America has made mistakes," Howard told the panel, but later added in comments to The Australian newspaper that he believed there was an "irrational level of anti-Americanism" in Europe.

"It is a sign of parochialism and it is disturbingly intense," he said, singling out France and Germany as the worst offenders.

"I found the French and German attitude has lingered longer than I thought it might, and longer than it is in anyone's interests," Howard said.

More about Barnier's (typical) reaction

Crise de cheveux / Hair crimes

I thought it was only in Lower Manhattan where they talked about "hair crimes".

Une crise de cheveux, mais pas à Paris.


Street photos from North Korea. If anyone finds a link to the recently revealed videotape of North Korean opponents of the DPRK, please let us know and ¡No Pasarán! will carry the link.