Antiwar.com Blog

In Backtalk:

Emile Meylan describes visiting his daughter Mariela at the Walter Reed Medical Center.

R.T. Carpenter points out that the last Civil War widow/ pensioner died just last year. The hundreds of billions budgeted for today’s wars are just the down payment.

Gordon Prather explains why the N. Korean nuke mess is still Bush’s fault.

Eric Garris explains how you can e-mail any Web page.

We get an update from the Kevin Benderman Defense Committee.

And more….

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Also…

Speaking of “peak oil,” Brian S. Wesbury (“Greenspan’s Quiver“) says:

Oil valued in dollars is up 20% versus its peak in 2000, but when valued in euros, the price of oil has fallen by 20%. In other words, it is not a shortage of oil that is driving prices up; it is the falling value of the dollar. If there were a true shortage of oil, its price would be up in all currencies.”

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Oh yeah, and:

The Department of Homeland Security has given hundreds of millions of dollars to protect ports since Sept. 11, 2001, without sufficiently directing the money to those that are most vulnerable, a policy that has compromised the nation’s ability to better defend the most critical ports against terrorist attacks, the department’s inspector general has concluded.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in redundant lighting systems and unnecessary technical equipment, the audit found, but “the program has not yet achieved its intended results in the form of actual improvement in port security.”

As a follow-up to Justin’s great myth-busting post on new neocon pinup Walid “Oil & Jews” Jumblatt, here’s a partial list of the great sages (besides Michael Young, who was Jumblatt when Jumblatt wasn’t cool) who now consider him an authority:

Instapundit (of course)

Jim Geraghty (National Review)

Arthur “Great News From Iraq!” Chrenkoff

Vodkapundit (where Glenn Reynolds gets half his content)

PowerLineBlog (where Reynolds gets the other half)

Charles Paul Freund (Reason)

And so on. Yep, it’s one big neocon circle jerk. As if that’s news.

Jim Henley delivers the moral of the Great Jumblatt Conversion:

Simply start saying things useful to the Bush White House and you too can take on gravitas with Gannonite speed. Only spoilsports would pause to wonder if your insights into the murder of Rafiq Hariri or your enthusiasm for democracy were more credible than your shrewd deductions regarding the massacres of September 2001. And the only people who would suggest that, as a politician, anything that comes out of your mouth is calculated to maintain and increase your own power would be people who are just on the other side.

2/24: An update for all of you visiting from Arthur Chrenkoff’s blog.

Another update.

2/25: And another.

Ali, the “Free Iraqi” has written an interesting post about how the New Iraqi Democracy is working out. Apparently his comment was inspired by 4,000 Sadrist militiamen marching in the streets of Basra in a show of power today.

I say no to any reconciliation with terrorists aids, their supporters and with the fanatics who justify their acts and with anyone linked to them closely. No reward should be given to them, as this is what they’re asking, a reward and not our forgiveness. They have to apologize not us and then we should sue them for any crimes they may have committed, and after that they can run for offices like all honest and good Iraqis have and if they win, then it’s just fine for us!

Otherwise, he says, “We should fight these terrorists and fanatics that want to infiltrate the new system we want to build and ruin it from inside with their corrupt minds and with hands that are still stained with the blood of their victims.”

I think Ali put a little too much faith in the power of elections. For one thing, he didn’t win – Al Sadr did. Look whose army is marching in the streets.

and guilty of shaming UK.”

According to the Scotsman, two low level British soldiers have been convicted of “abuse,” in their treatment of prisoners in Iraq at what they call “Britian’s Abu Ghraib.” Quoth The Scotsman: “THE ARMY was facing major questions over its handling of the Iraqi abuse scandal last night after five men in command at the camp where the abuse took place not only escaped charges but were promoted.”

It is reported that a US marine, who was captured on film killing a wounded Iraqi at point blank range during November’s assault on Fallujah, will not be formally charged due to lack of evidence.

Here’s a video of the shooting.

Here’s an eyewitness account by the person who filmed the video.

Something I left out of today’s column: in trying to back up his assertion that Syria is to blame for the assassination of Lebanese politician-businessman Rafik Hariri, Michael Young cites one Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party. But who is this guy, Jumblatt, and why should we take him seriously? Well, we shouldn’t take him seriously, as evidenced by his past statements (reported by the New York Sun, via National Review):

“The Lebanese MP is also known for espousing conspiracy theories against America. On April 28, 2004, he gave an interview to Al Arabiyya TV, in which he detailed how America was really behind September 11: ‘Who invented Osama bin Laden?! The Americans, the CIA invented him so they could fight the Soviets in Afghanistan together with some of the Arab regimes. Osama bin Laden is like a ghost, popping up when needed. This is my opinion.'”

So, this Jumblatt character is to be believed — why? Young never says. Jumblatt’s loony ravings continue:

“Mr. Jumblatt was asked ‘Even 9/11?’ and answered: ‘Even 9/11…Why didn’t the sirens go off when the four hijacked planes took off?'”

He’s not only loony-tunes, he’s a rabid anti-Semite and racist:

“In addition to hating America, Mr. Jumblatt has also spoke against the countries that support America. Lebanon’s Daily Star published a February 3, 2003, article quoting him as saying that the true axis of evil is one of ‘oil and Jews’ … The oil axis is present in most of the U.S. administration, beginning with its president, vice-president, and top advisers, including [Condoleezza] Rice, who is oil-colored, while the axis of Jews is present with Paul Wolfowitz.'”

Jumblatt’s rantings are about as credible as this entire blame-Syria scenario, which is to say the whole thing is bull. What’s striking is that the War Party would stoop this low: citing a loon like Jumblatt whose views are positively Hitlerian. And it’s not as if Young didn’t know about Jumblatt’s crackpot views: after all, this account originally appeared in the Beirut Daily Star, where Young edits the opinion page.