In Politics, Rubbish Rises to the Top

Bush, Democracy, Iraq, Israel, Middle East, Politics

When Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, piously pontificates that the actions of the Israeli government are for the benefit of the Lebanese people (of which, in his atomistic mind, Hezbollah is not a part), and aimed at “freeing them of the cancer of Hezbollah,” I feel bilious.

It’s the same sickness rising one gets when Genghis Bush promotes his actions in Iraq as of benefit to the Iraqi people, a million of whom are now impoverished, displaced, aid-dependent refugees in their own country.

If these pols are such populists and democrats, why did they not let the beneficiaries of their humanitarian humbugs vote to accept or reject their ‘good deeds’? Why not ask the people you are supposedly helping if they want your liberating bombs? Or is this ‘charity’ compulsory?

I’d disrespect Gillerman less if he cut the treacle, and said, “We hate what we’ve become, but we have no option but to kill more innocents than guilty?

Israel in Lebanon is coming across in a worse light than is America in Iraq, even though the reverse is true. The first incursion, as bad as it is, was a response to provocation; the last, nothing of the sort. Iraqis had nothing to do with 9/11 and Saddam and Osama never sat in a tree kissing.

But so stupid are the Israelis that they keep commandeering the American rhetoric with respect to Iraq to justify their actions. I guess their thinking goes something along the lines of, “Iraq: hmm, that went well, so let’s take that ‘experience’ and its language and put it to work for us Lebanon.”

Updated: Glorious GTI

Ilana Mercer, Political Correctness, Sport, Technology

He’s black, he’s beautiful, and he’s mine. He’s a 2006 Volkswagen GTI, with a high-tech 200-horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged engine.

My favorite features are the spectacularly smooth six-speed manual transmission (I won’t drive an automatic, never have; never will.), the 18-inch alloy wheels, and the six CD changer. But it also sports leather seats with heating, along with electronic lumbar control, power sunroof that can tilt up or slide open horizontally, satellite radio, heavy-duty mats for floor and trunk, and dual zone climate control.

Carey Russ and Wayne Cunningham of CNET write that, “The Volkswagen GTI has been a performance icon since its debut on American shores in 1983, when it offered a high degree of fun and performance nearly matching those of much more expensive German sports sedans for a very reasonable price. ‘A pocket rocket,’ they call this thing. Consumer Reports name the fifth-generation Volkswagen GTI the top sporty car in its price range.”

You can say that again. A one-time race driver in South Africa, my brother-in-law is a fan of the GTI and is responsible for piquing our interest in the “pocket rocket.” Sean told him, “We had both planned to test drive it. Ilana started out driving and that was it; she liked it so much that I never got to try it! It goes like a bat out of hell.”

Oh, you’ll laugh at this one. I thought I was driving suspiciously fast. Yet Sean kept tut-tutting, “You’re not going fast enough. Well, he was looking at the Rev counter not the speedometer. So it turns out I must have been going about 40 miles per-hour in the zones designated for “our children.” A pox on them!

We immigrants from the Third World are not spoilt. This is the first new car we’ve ever owned; I’ve been driving my second-hand, 1986 two-seater, Toyota MR2 for quite a while. I loved “Mr. Two” (other than some rust, it looks just like this; still a classic beauty).

What’s more, the engine is fantastic. It goes just splendidly. I have to confess, though, that once I was speeding down the highway in the GTI, I fecklessly forgot my old chariot.

Update: I am now able to report that zero to 60 takes 7.0 seconds. The stick-shift GTI–mine–is apparently an imperceptible one tenth of a second slower than the automatic and a great deal more fun. (Related, and equally revved reading: “Make Friends With Your Fast“)

Letter of the Week By Stephen Browne

Barely A Blog, War

Stephen W. Browne’s letter is BAB’s Letter of the Week. Stephen is an academic, an English teacher, a writer, and an advocate for liberty. He writes:

This question your column raises is not abstract to me, nor can I “ revel in the joys of killing non-combatants. I visited Belgrade shortly after the bombing of that charming city, and while I was flabbergasted by the precision of the bombing, I found out that one stray had killed two little girls in a family close to me.

The question: Disturbing analyses of World War II seem to show that bombing of cities was militarily ineffective and probably did nothing to shorten the war (see Freeman Dyson’s memoirs of working in bomb damage assessment). But, does anyone want to win a war with their cities in rubble and the enemy’s intact? If one does, what prevents the enemy from being encouraged to gear up for another try later?

This is not a rhetorical question, I don’t know the answer. When I was young, I had all the answers to ethical dilemmas, now all I seem to have are disturbing questions. I miss those answers

Israel Needs Precision Pac Men

Israel

My column, Call “Israel Needs Precision Pac Men” (Or “Call Off the Israeli Air Force!”), calls for calling off the Israeli Air Force, “ they’ve done a horrific job:

“But first, let us agree that a lumbering army of reluctant conscripts (IDF) is no match for a lean mean force of volunteers (Hezbollah). In addition, a conventional military force hasn’t the capability to contain an outfit like Hezbollah …
The Golani Brigade, an outstanding elite unit, is now on the ground. But Israel has better. In future, she should consider stationing on the borders the best of her special-operations units such as the ‘Sayeret.’ It’s trained in surgical strikes, including modern urban counterterrorism operations …
Since special ops soldiers are highly select, motivated volunteers, their esprit de corps will match Hezbollah’s. Since they’re trained in precision, “ deep-penetration operations, they won’t be turning countries into parking lots and their inhabitants into homeless people, or piles of ash.

Comments are welcome, but what I said in this post about some missives not being fit for this classical liberal forum obtains. Letters reveling in the joys of killing non-combatants don’t belong here. Sorry.