Darby Report 293 Thursday 8 April 2004 [email protected]. Mail: PO Box 401 Manly NSW 1655 Australia NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBER: Phone +61 2 9972 9316. Mobile 0402 558 947
= May you and your loved ones receive all the blessings of Easter. We pray for the safety of all the brave individuals around the world who are defending liberty and peace against all forms of international terrorism. Click here to visit the Darby Report Blogspot, kindly established and maintained by Dr J.J. Ray Please add the following line to every email you send in the next week: The news & views waiting for you: www.darbyreport.da.ru CONTENTS OF DARBY REPORT 293 To return to this menu: Ctrl/Home (DOUBLE) CLICK ON THE ITEM YOU WISH TO READ Container for Ghana NSW Planning Nightmare Keating Revisited NZ Opposition Leader Brash Focuses on Tax Reduction ABC Bias UN's Internet The Threat We're Ignoring Now How 9-11 happened Linking Al-Qaida and Iraq More Rubbish from Senator Kennedy (endorsed by Mark Latham) Zim: Paul Laughed Windbag meets windmills Why do they hate us? Richard Butler and the Ukqwitt Register An Utterly Stupid Labor Idea and the Dickman-Darby Alternative Letters to the Editor Work in Progress: 200 Poets of the People (6 files totalling 974pp) (web update is six months behind the current state of development) ÅPLEASE PATRONISE DARBY REPORT ADVERTISERSÆ 9Action_Business_Brokers 9Alain_Woolf’s_Hypno_Comedy 9At_Call_Limousines 9Attention_all_poets 9Beyond The Razor Wire 9Colleen_Mathews_Art_ 9Dine_with_Darby_@_Harry’s_ 9Donate_used_computers 9Engine_Room_Internet_Coy 9The Flying Doctors (RFDS) 9Wonderful Yacht Available 9Giltinan’s_Tennis_&_Squash 9Good_Links 9Independent_Funeral_Services 9Islam_Unveiled 9Kerry_Collison_the_author_ http://www.geocities.com/proudofthetruth/DarbyReport292/index.html - Summer 9Neutral_Bay_Village_Shoe_Repairs 9Pay_Darby_with_Bartercard 9Planning_a_Big_Event 9Redback_Surf_&_Snow_ 9Seeking to build your business? 9Soviet_Brutality 9Work_of_the_Salesians
This issue’s quotation, helpfully selected by John Woods: "Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."
-- Potter Stewart
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The Darby Report may be distributed widely by any medium. Michael Darby is willing to address any gathering in the cause of individual liberty, is available to perform poetry in an honorary capacity at schools and nursing homes, and may be called upon as an expert compère and popular entertainer for charity fundraisers of all kinds. He also likes to make a quid, and gives great value as a performance poet and comic, so employ Darby as a featured performer and superb motivator at conferences and conventions. The tireless North American correspondent for the Darby Report is Erich Kern. Opera singer Andrew Heggie is our man in Manchester, Eric Bruckner provides the French connection, Jamie Whitelaw writes from South Africa, Dr JJ Ray is our erudite Queensland source and Dr. Hal G.P. Colebatch in Perth is the wise man of the West. The Darby Report frequently carries material from Zimbabwe´s courageous Eddie Cross, Cathy Buckle, Paul Themba Nyathi and Jenni Williams. Kerry Collison is our authority on Indonesia and South East Asia. Unsigned articles in the Darby Report are the work of Michael Darby. Views expressed by contributors to the Darby Report are not necessarily shared by the editor. Michael Darby writes and publishes as an individual, not as a representative of any organisation. In particular, Michael Darby is not a spokesman for the Liberal Party.
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NSW Planning Nightmare Carr Hits Applicants for $4 Million Rather Than Reform Peter Seaton MP Media Release 6 April 04
The Carr Government should get stuck into effective planning reform, rather than slap another $4 million of new costs and charges on applicants trying to find their way through the complex duplicative and out of date planning system.
Shadow Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Peta Seaton said today’s admission in the mini-budget that the Government would collect $4 million a year from development applicants to cover the costs of assessment is an admission of the crippling cost of the planning system to business and jobs.
Ms Seaton said this extra $4 million in charges comes on top of the more that $15 million already reaped by the Carr Government through the Plan First levy which hits every homeowner and renovator who lodges a development application with a council.
“The PlanFirst levy was meant to pay for the implementation of planning reforms. So far all we’ve seen is the tax - and nothing of the reforms’, she said.
“No wonder it’s increasingly attractive to do business in Queensland and Victoria”, she said.
“The Carr Government is making NSW less competitive with more property charges.
“Applicants and communities in NSW routinely face complex planning rules, shifting goal posts, and government departments with duplicative or complicated requirements when development applications are considered. It’s become a nightmare’.
Ms Seaton said examples like the Luna Park tower proposal application reveal sloppy and ambiguous Government planning frameworks including imprecise Local Environmental Plans and State Environmental Planning Policies, which generate hours of work for lawyers and planning experts - and thousands of dollars of costs.
‘In the case of Luna Park, the Government has announced it will to amend planning rules to get the result it wants.
‘There is no certainty in this system for applicants or communities, and uncertainty is a recipe for higher costs and community anxiety.
Ms Seaton said the Government had ripped homebuilders and renovators off to the tune of more than $15M with the PlanFirst levy – but promised reforms have never happened.
The Government has dragged the chain on planning reform, with a year of taskforce work and several reports issued, and the Government still to act on the recommendations. ENQUIRIES: 0427 203 402
Peta Seaton MP Member for Southern Highlands Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Shadow Minister for Illawarra Shadow Minister for Reform of Government Phone: 0248 613 623 Bowral Office Fax: 0248 613 546 Phone: 029 230 2261 Parliament House Fax: 029 230 3355
Keating Revisited (By the late John Pearce) John Pearce was a popular and talented Sydney broadcaster who during his career produced many “Pearce’s Poems”. Here is one such poem, written on 3 February 1996.
My name’s Paul Keating, and I’m as keen as mustard, To run Australia one more time. You know I can be trusted. But imagine Johnny Howard! I throw scorn upon The little guy from Bennelong. No, don’t trust John.
He wants to sell off Telstra. And that would do much harm Against every Labor principle, selling off the farm; I sold the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas, to its last aileron Well that’s okay for me, but never trust John.
John says he won’t wreck Medicare, something he once hated. Of this we must remember as I quote his speeches, dated: His promises are nothing, so let them all be gone. Every word I say is true. Can you say that of John?
I go to Parliament when I can. Italian suits look sleeker Than the Aussie ones that Howard wears; and then I tell the Speaker Everything I say is quite okay, but he must frown upon The Opposition’s antics, particularly those of John.
Those L-A-W tax cuts. Don’t worry, they’re still coming Don’t believe a word that Howard says, or you’ll soon be succumbing To what the surveys say; they’re all untrue, a con. You don’t have to love or like me, but, please don’t trust John.
NZ Opposition Leader Focuses on Tax Reduction Dr. Don Brash writes. . .
No. 27, 7 April 2004
In mid March, I gave a speech clarifying where the National Party stands on tax policy.
I have been upfront about my view that if New Zealand is to be a country that delivers strongly rising incomes, we need to reduce tax rates substantially. In particular, I am on record as indicating that we should aim to substantially reduce personal income tax rates in New Zealand.
This is not to say that in the current situation this can or should be achieved overnight, or in one large round of tax cutting. Longer term goals are one thing; short-term priorities quite another.
National’s top priorities for tax reductions are tax relief for low-to-middle income families, and a cut in corporate tax rates to boost business investment.
The Labour-led Government has, over the past four years, increased 15 different taxes, many of them a consequence of the decision to lift the top personal income tax rate to 39%. That move has pushed 20% of full-time workers into the top 39% tax bracket. Over the past four years, the Government has raised $3.6 billion in extra tax – an average of $2,600 per household.
The Government has accumulated large budget surpluses while families are struggling to make ends meet. Tax cuts are long overdue.
Tax cuts would allow parents that crucial extra margin for clothes or sports equipment for their children, or for music or sports tuition, or would contribute to childcare costs. Significant tax cuts would over time provide the crucial extra dollars to provide for new furniture or appliances, or for a down-payment on a car or home.
Instead, this Government has allowed the budget surplus to grow for four years, while families have had to cut back.
Now that the Government is in some political trouble, it is more likely that we will see some tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget. It will represent a long-delayed and cynically-timed public relations effort designed to shore up their political support.
A National Government will make gradual but sustained progress in cutting personal tax rates, but there are other immediate priorities – in education, in retraining for the longer-term unemployed, and in better policing of our communities – which will mean that the top tax rate can be reduced only gradually.
National is committed to lower tax rates as part of a coordinated set of policies to build a more prosperous nation.
While the details of our tax policy will be released only closer to the next election, I made three announcements in my mid-March speech.
As indicated, our first objective is to provide tax relief for low-to-middle income families. It is likely that the Government, having done nothing for four years but harvest the fruits of other people’s work, will finally and reluctantly provide some tax cuts in this area. It is likely to be too little, and it will certainly be too late. National will assess what more needs to be done after the Budget this year.
Secondly, under a National Government, there would be an immediate cut in the company tax rate to 30%, to match the Australian rate, and if the Australian company tax rate goes lower, so will ours. Ultimately ours should go lower in any case – we are competing with more than just Australia.
National is focused on making New Zealand a higher income country, and higher incomes come from productivity growth, which in turn comes substantially from business investment. Taxing away business cash-flow is inconsistent with New Zealand’s generating the business investment necessary to build a prosperous nation. National is totally focused on lifting the incomes of hard-working New Zealanders. Around a quarter of the workforce are employed in businesses employing five or fewer employees, and there are over 250,000 businesses of this size, many of them small family businesses, of which most farms are a good example. We are determined to encourage firms to invest, boosting productivity and employment, and ultimately the income-generating capacity of the country.
Thirdly, for those on higher incomes I indicated that there will be no large one-off tax cut. What there will be is a gradual and sustained reduction in tax rates over a number of years. We will spell that out in more detail before the next election.
National is committed to reducing personal income tax rates, and committed to a flattening of the tax structure. The current high rates at relatively low levels of income are a nonsense and must be reduced. Talented Kiwis will not put up with mediocre aspirations, and are not indifferent to the levels of taxation they face. They want to live in a dynamic market economy, not one strangled by an interfering government.
For example, when young doctors are finally fully trained, many with large student debt burdens, this Labour Government punishes them with a 39% marginal tax rate, plus GST of 12.5% on what is left to spend. It is no wonder they are heading overseas. The same applies to skilled trades-people or anybody who has spent years building up a small business from scratch.
Our attitudes to taxing those who through hard work and talent have managed to earn a high income are nothing more than the politics of envy and resentment. And that attitude is also based on a perception that high incomes are permanent – it is the sort of attitude that could only be fostered by a Cabinet most of whose members have spent their entire life in the public sector on a steady income. They are totally out of touch with the day-to-day experience of ordinary New Zealanders working in a competitive marketplace.
Inland Revenue data suggest that, of those on the top tax rate today, only half will be on that rate in five years time. That would, for example, be a common experience for a professional rugby player. But it also applies throughout the workforce. National does not believe in hammering with punitive taxation those who, after many years upskilling or building up their business, are finally earning the high income they deserve.
Reducing tax rates over time does not require a government to slash spending – what is required is that the growth rate of government spending is kept a little below the growth rate of the economy. That requires discipline.
National will provide that discipline, and deliver a sustained reduction of tax rates over the longer term, as an essential part of a strategy to boost the incomes of all New Zealanders, and make New Zealand a place where we, our children and grandchildren, will choose to live and work.
Don Brash www.donbrash.com
ABC Bias It is not a proper function of the national broadcaster to act as an agent provocateur in prompting gratuitous interference in Australian politics by persons abroad.
The 7.45am ABC radio news bulletin on Monday 5 April incorporated words to the effect: “Ama al Hessiani, who runs the Sadr mosque and is Moqtada’s Chief Lieutenant in Sadr City has this message for the Australian Government: “We thank very much Australia for helping us and we (inaudible) want tell the Prime Minister, Australian Prime Minister thank you for your help, but please withdraw from Iraq.” I cannot recall any mention on the news bulletin that we were hearing the voice of an interpreter, nor did the news bulletin make clear that the statement was deliberately prompted by the ABC journalist. One might hope in vain that an ABC journalist might ask a genuinely searching question like: “Why are you and your friends complaining when you know there will be a handover of power on 30 June?” Or “When you lot get your hands on power are you going to reverse the progress towards female liberation made under the Coalition?”
Here is the transcript of the “AM” program which directly followed the news. The offending comment is shown in red. Note the convenient lead-in to the Labor Opposition.
AM PROGRAMME
MONDAY, 5 APRIL 2004
Violence in Iraq
Presenter: But first, overseas and the dramatic escalation of fighting in Iraq which according to wire reports have seen the killing of seven US soldiers and the wounding of 24 others was a battle for police stations and Government buildings in Baghdad. The gunman are supporter of a local firebrand Shiite Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. It appears to open up a new and worrying front for Coalition forces in Iraq. Traditionally most of the insurgent activities come from minority Sunnis who enjoyed power under the former dictator. But the tens of thousands of demonstrators who have turned out on Baghdad streets and in other centres, particularly Najaf to the South, are Shiites. In the southern holy city of Najaf, up to 14 demonstrators have been shot dead and around 100 wounded as followers of the cleric exchange gunfire with Spanish Coalition troops. A US and a El Salvadoran soldier were killed in an attack on a Spanish military base there. Another protestor were shot dead by British troops in Amara. Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Cave reports from Bagdad.
Peter Cave: Until the closure last week of his newspaper for allegedly urging violent resistance against the US lead occupation Moqtada al-Sadr and his black shirted private army were a minor irritation to the US civilian administrator Paul Bremer. Now, the young cleric has become a focus of national attention and day after day he’s turned out tens of thousands of supporters in Baghdad, Basira and around the holy city Najaf where he has his base and where the protests turned to bloodshed.
Paul Bremer: This morning a group of people in Najaf have crossed the line and they have moved to violence. This will not be tolerated. This will not be tolerated by the coalition. This will not be tolerated by the Iraqi people and this will not be tolerated by the Iraqi security forces.
Peter Cave: In Baghdad thousands of al Sadr supporters grid locked the city centre as they laid (inaudible) to Paul Bremer’s headquarters throughout the day. Shiites were repressed under Saddam Hussein. But I asked Imam Husilaragi* who was leading the protests if he now saw the American administration as the enemy.
Imam Husilargi*: (inaudible) they killed two of American army yesterday…
Peter Cave: Much of Moqtada al-Sadr’s support base comes from the sprawling slum on the outskirts of Baghdad, which was once known as Saddam city. But which is now known Sadr city after Moqtada’s father a revered Shiite leader assassinated by Saddam’s henchmen
I spoke to Ama al Hessiani* who runs the Sadr mosque and is Moqtada’s Chief Lieutenant in Sadr City. Are they opposed to the Americans being here in general or just the actions they’ve taken against the newspaper?
Ama al Hessaini*: In general because the Saddam regime had been strong and the Iraqis should have the country controlled and we know how to control our country. To be here as occupiers, they are not welcome here.
Journalist: (Apparently addressed to the interpreter, in itself very bad journalistic practice – Ed) One final question, could you explain that there is a debate in Australia about removing Australia’s 850 troops. Have you got a message for the Australian Government about Australia’s troops who are here?
Ama al Hessaini*: Well, we hope that Australia will follow Spain in their decision to withdraw from Iraq and perhaps we should also say that we thank very much Australia for helping us and we (inaudible) want tell the Prime Minister, Australian Prime Minister thank you for your help, but please withdraw from Iraq.
**US reaction to violence in Iraq
**Troops in Iraq (Summary)
Presenter: The row over Australian troops in Iraq rolls on with the Opposition now demanding the Government focus more on fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. Labor’s Kevin Rudd says Afghanistan asked for continued military assistance in November 2002. But it took seven months before Australia reclined. But the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Afghan Government didn’t ask him for continued military aid at a conference in Berlin just last week. Louise Yaxley spoke to Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Australia.
townhall.com
UN's Internet Neal Boortz
April 2, 2004
Check out your latest neighborhood banana republic coup-d’état. After the rebels finished ransacking whatever presidential palace they had their eyes on, where did they head next? Hint: it wasn’t the local Starbucks for a celebratory latte, it most likely was either the government-operated radio or television station. Any despot or revolutionary worth his RPG knows that the control of sources of information is critical to the survival of any totalitarian regime. A tyrant’s life expectancy decreases in inverse proportion to the freedom of the local press. The more control you have over the dissemination of information, the longer you live to rape, pillage and plunder.
You can be assured, then, that when a new method of spreading information starts to gain steam, predatory tyrants will start licking their chops.
And so it is with the United Nations.
There was a little-noticed meeting in New York City last week; a meeting on the rarefied upper floors of the UN building. Kofi Annan was having a little sit-down with the head of ICANN. You don’t know what ICANN is? No problem; it’s the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This quasi-public corporation, operating under the auspices of the Commerce Department, assigns Internet domain names both here in the US and around the world.
So why was Kofi Annan, the erstwhile president of the whole wide world, interested in ICANN? Because while he was meeting upstairs, downstairs at the UN we had representatives from about 200 nations and other organizations who were interested in seeing the United Nations gain control over the Internet, that’s why.
There is no greater source of world-wide information today than the Internet. This massive information database covering everything from politics to economics to sports to cures for warts simply cannot be ignored by governments who love to control such things.
The initial idea here is for the United Nations to merely exercise control over the assignment of domain names. That sounds innocuous enough. The stated fear is that the United States might allow political considerations to determine who does and does not get an Internet domain, and that ICANN could shut down domains from countries that don’t toe the American line. The Palestinian Authority, for instance, has been assigned the .ps Internet domain. What if the US orders a shutdown of the domain assigned to the Palestinian Authority shut down to show disfavour for Yasser Arafat’s latest campaign of violence?
Here’s a better question. What if the United Nations, after taking control of ICANN, decides that the Israeli domain (.il) needs to be shut down? This is not hard to imagine, given decades of UN hostility toward Israel.
The greater fear here is that the control of Internet domain assignment would merely be Kofi’s nose under the tent. Control of Internet content is as sure to follow as your next reminder of John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. First to go, of course, would be Internet porn. While this event might be celebrated by Paris Hilton (and just what is she so famous for anyway?) it would be seen by others as a sign of things to come.
Any educated American who does not believe that, over time, the United Nations would move to control political, social and economic Internet content probably believes Hillary Clinton is content to be a New York Senator for the rest of her days. Trust me … the United Nations is no friend to freedom of the press or freedom of speech.
Those who would tout the UN’ s dedication to basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, would use the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights as Exhibit A. Bill Clinton once told us that this document was the greatest document in the history of human freedom. I’ll use the same Exhibit A to prove them wrong.
To be sure, the UN Human Rights Declaration offers lip-service to basic freedoms. Article 19 reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
So, Boortz, how in the world can you say that the UN would initiate a campaign to control Internet content when its own Human Rights Declaration guarantees the freedom to “impart information and ideas through any media and regardless to frontiers.”
Grab your handy copy of the Declaration and read on … read on to Article 29. Section 3. No … wait. I’ll just print it here for you to read: “These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”
Well, so much for Article 19. It seems your right to freedom of opinion and expression is wholly dependent on just whatever the purposes and principles of the United Nations might be at that particular time. And this is Bill Clinton’s idea of the best document ever written promoting the idea of human freedom? Has he never read something called the Declaration of Independence?
The United Nations is no friend of freedom .. and its eyes are on your Internet. If operational control of this fantastic source of information is ever transferred to the United Nations you can rest assured that Article 29, Section 3 will be used to destroy what we enjoy so much today.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. is a lawyer and nationally syndicated radio talk show host.
©2004 Neal Boortz
The Threat We're Ignoring Now Frank J Gaffney Jr. The Washington Times March 31, 2004
The televised hearings convened last week by the September 11 Commission proved to be one of the most interesting and valuable civics lessons of all time. In particular, they made a point Americans cannot hear too often: The world is generally a dangerous place for the United States, its people and its interests — whether we think so or not, and most especially when we don't. After all, at such times, we frequently squander opportunities to bring to bear the leadership and popular attention, military might and other national resources that could nip in the bud problems that will prove very costly to address later.
In particular, the hearings illuminated that the international situation bequeathed by Bill Clinton to George Bush was considerably more threatening than was widely perceived at the time. Understandably, given the mandate of the commission, its members and their witnesses focused on one of those threats — the Islamist al Qaeda organization — and how it flourished largely unchecked during the eight years of the Clinton presidency and the eight months Mr. Bush was in office prior to September 11, despite this network's repeated, murderous acts of terror.
Unfortunately, there is another danger that grew inexorably over the pre-September 11 years: a Communist China bent on becoming not just the dominant nation in Asia, but a superpower and "peer competitor" to the United States.
If the Bush 43 team was, as Richard Clarke contends, giving too little attention to Osama bin Laden and his followers, one reason might have been it was reckoning — both before and after Beijing's April 1, 2001, take-down of an unarmed American EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft — with the near- and longer-term strategic implications of an increasingly formidable and aggressive China. All that changed after September 11, when China was supposedly transformed into an ally on terror and North Korea.
Yet, such critical thinking is, if anything, even more warranted today in light of the following:
• China is crushing freedom in Hong Kong. Ever since Britain surrendered the Crown Colony to the PRC in 1997, Beijing has, like a boa constrictor, inexorably tightened its grip on the people of Hong Kong. After briefly backing away from antidemocratic legislation in the face of massive public protests, the communists are now shredding what remains of the assurances it gave the United Kingdom about respecting liberty. Party organs are brazenly trying to intimidate courageous, freely elected legislators like Martin Lee and their followers by branding them "traitors."
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal quoted Liu Kin-ming, who runs the editorial page of Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily: "[At the time of the Chinese takeover], some said the city would be a 'freedom virus' that would infect the rest of China. Nearly seven years later, that thesis is tough to support, Mr. Liu says. Also increasingly tough to support is speculation that Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, who took power more than a year ago, would promote substantive political change in China. 'If Hong Kong isn't going to have democracy, then forget about the rest of China,' Mr. Liu says."
• Communist China is no less actively threatening and otherwise trying to stifle the other Chinese experiment in democracy: Taiwan. In the wake of still-contested Taiwanese presidential polling that Beijing sought to influence — through intimidation (some 500 PRC ballistic missiles are now aimed at the Taiwanese people), pressure on the island's businessmen who are investing in or trading with the mainland and perhaps other, more covert means — the communists have declared: "We will not sit back and look on unconcerned should the post-election situation in Taiwan get out of control, leading to social turmoil, endangering the lives and property of Taiwan compatriots and affecting stability across the Taiwan Strait."
• The missiles pointed at Taiwan are not the only manifestation of China's interest in being able to project power decisively in its region and emerge as the arbiter of Asian affairs. Center for Security Policy Asia Fellow Richard Fisher has noted that, with considerable help from the former Soviet military-industrial complex and cash supplied by Western consumers, the People's Liberation Army could have by the end of this decade as many as three new nuclear submarines, 27 new Kilo-class conventional subs plus about 18 older, but still potentially lethal, diesel submarines. Such an underwater force could, particularly when taken together with comparable improvements in its missile-equipped surface fleet and aviation arms, present a serious challenge to American efforts to defend Taiwan or other U.S. interests in the Western Pacific.
• Communist China is taking other steps with worrisome strategic implications. Testimony Dr. Peter Leitner and I presented before Sen. James Inhofe's Environment and Public Works Committee last week noted Beijing's use of the controversial Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST):
( a) To install fortified bastions on reefs, allowing it to lay claim to ever greater swathes of the South China Sea.
(b) And to try to thwart President Bush's new Proliferation Security Initiative. The latter is essential to U.S. efforts to prevent the transfer of weapons of mass destruction-related materials on the high seas. Were the United States unwisely to become party to this misbegotten treaty, it is a safe bet the Chinese will also try to employ LOST as a precedent for no-less-cynical efforts in the future to advance its determination to make military use of space, while constraining this country's ability to do so.
The good news is that the Communist Chinese threat is being subjected to intense, if less publicized, scrutiny by another congressionally mandated, bipartisan panel: the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, ably chaired by my colleague, Roger Robinson.
Given the stakes — and the current, virtually complete lack of official and public attention to the menace posed by the PRC today and in the future — the critical policy review provided by the China Commission may prove, if anything, even more needed than the findings of its more celebrated September 11 counterpart.
Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for The Washington Times.
townhall.com
How 9-11 happened Ann Coulter, April 1, 2004
We don't need a "commission" to find out how 9-11 happened. The truth is in the timeline:
PRESIDENT CARTER, DEMOCRAT
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah of Iran to be deposed by a mob of Islamic fanatics. A few months later, Muslims stormed the U.S. Embassy in Iran and took American Embassy staff hostage.
Carter retaliated by cancelling Iranian visas. He eventually ordered a disastrous and humiliating rescue attempt, crashing helicopters in the desert.
PRESIDENT REAGAN, REPUBLICAN
The day of Reagan's inauguration, the hostages were released.
In 1982, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed by Muslim extremists.
President Reagan sent U.S. Marines to Beirut.
In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut were blown up by Muslim extremists.
Reagan said the U.S. would not surrender, but Democrats threw a hissy fit, introducing a resolution demanding that our troops be withdrawn. Reagan caved in to Democrat caterwauling in an election year and withdrew our troops – bombing Syrian-controlled areas on the way out. Democrats complained about that, too.
In 1985, an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, was seized and a 69-year-old American was shot and thrown overboard by Muslim extremists.
Reagan ordered a heart-stopping mission to capture the hijackers after "the allies" promised them safe passage. In a daring operation, American fighter pilots captured the hijackers and turned them over to the Italians – who then released them to safe harbour in Iraq.
On April 5, 1986, a West Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen was bombed by Muslim extremists from the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin, killing an American.
Ten days later, Reagan bombed Libya, despite our dear ally France refusing the use of their airspace. Americans bombed Khaddafi’s residence, killing his daughter, and dropped a bomb on the French Embassy "by mistake."
Reagan also stoked a long, bloody war between heinous regimes in Iran and Iraq. All this was while winning a final victory over Soviet totalitarianism.
PRESIDENT BUSH I, MODERATE REPUBLICAN
In December 1988, a passenger jet, Pan Am Flight 103, was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland, by Muslim extremists.
President-elect George Bush claimed he would continue Reagan's policy of retaliating against terrorism, but did not. Without Reagan to gin her up, even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went wobbly, saying there would be no revenge for the bombing.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
In early 1991, Bush went to war with Iraq. A majority of Democrats opposed the war, and later complained that Bush didn't "finish off the job" with Saddam.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, DEMOCRAT
In February 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed by Muslim fanatics, killing five people and injuring hundreds.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
In October 1993, 18 American troops were killed in a savage firefight in Somalia. The body of one American was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu as the Somalian hordes cheered.
Clinton responded by calling off the hunt for Mohammed Farrah Aidid and ordering our troops home. Osama bin Laden later told ABC News: "The youth ... realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat."
In November 1995, five Americans were killed and 30 wounded by a car bomb in Saudi Arabia set by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
In June 1996, a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia was bombed by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
Months later, Saddam attacked the Kurdish-controlled city of Erbil.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, lobbed some bombs into Iraq hundreds of miles from Saddam's forces.
In November 1997, Iraq refused to allow U.N. weapons inspections to do their jobs and threatened to shoot down a U.S. U-2 spy plane.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
In February 1998, Clinton threatened to bomb Iraq, but called it off when the United Nations said no.
On Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
On Aug. 20, Monica Lewinsky appeared for the second time to testify before the grand jury.
Clinton responded by bombing Afghanistan and Sudan, severely damaging a camel and an aspirin factory.
On Dec. 16, the House of Representatives prepared to impeach Clinton the next day.
Clinton retaliated by ordering major air strikes against Iraq, described by the New York Times as "by far the largest military action in Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991."
The only time Clinton decided to go to war with anyone in the vicinity of Muslim fanatics was in 1999 – when Clinton attacked Serbians who were fighting Islamic fanatics.
In October 2000, our warship, the USS Cole, was attacked by Muslim extremists.
Clinton, advised by Dick Clarke, did nothing.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, REPUBLICAN
Bush came into office telling his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, he was "tired of swatting flies" – he wanted to eliminate al-Qaida.
On Sept. 11, 2001, when Bush had been in office for barely seven months, 3,000 Americans were murdered in a savage terrorist attack on U.S. soil by Muslim extremists.
Since then, Bush has won two wars against countries that harboured Muslim fanatics, captured Saddam Hussein, immobilized Osama bin Laden, destroyed al-Qaida's base, and begun to create the only functioning democracy in the Middle East other than Israel. Democrats opposed it all – except their phoney support for war with Afghanistan, which they immediately complained about and said would be a Vietnam quagmire. And now they claim to be outraged that in the months before 9-11, Bush did not do everything Democrats opposed doing after 9-11.
What a surprise.
Ann Coulter is host of AnnCoulter.org, a Townhall.com member group.
©2004 Universal Press Syndicate
Contact Ann Coulter | Read Coulter's biography
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Linking Al-Qaida and Iraq Jonah Goldberg March 17, 2004
As it becomes increasingly clear that al-Qaida was responsible for the horrific attacks in Madrid, one question keeps popping up: If there's no link between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, why did al-Qaida blow up those trains?
Critics of the Iraq war have been saying for more than two years that there was never any al- Qaida-Saddam link. After all, they'd say, Saddam is secular and bin Laden is a religious fanatic. When Howard Dean was trotted out for last Sunday's "Meet the Press" to square off against Condoleezza Rice, the former Vermont governor rehashed the familiar complaint. http://www.townhall.com/editor/pledgedrive.html"It turned out that there was no relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida .even though the administration tried to lead us in an opposite direction," Dean asserted. "The administration simply did not tell the truth about Iraq. The debate is not about whether we should fight terrorism. I supported the war in Afghanistan. . But fighting Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism."
Now, I should help Dean here. He surely means Iraq had "nothing to do with terrorism" aimed at us by al-Qaida in recent years. After all, nobody disputes that Iraq has been a huge sponsor of terrorism.
A new study from the Hudson Institute details how Saddam provided money, support and shelter to a league of extraordinary terrorists. Abdul Rahman Yasin, the chemist for the first World Trade Center bombing, was given sanctuary in Baghdad after his U.S. indictment. Abu Nidal, the terrorist mastermind who killed hundreds including 10 Americans, lived in Baghdad from 1999 until he was murdered in 2002. Abu Abbas, the architect of the Achille Lauro hijacking that resulted in the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, was captured in Baghdad by U.S. forces.
The list goes on and on. Never mind the fact that Saddam funded suicide bombings in Israel, the gassing of Kurds, the attempted murder of George H.W. Bush and other acts that at least some of us consider "terrorism."
Regardless, let's interpret Dean as charitably as possible. If Iraq had nothing to do with al- Qaida, why did al-Qaida feel the need to attack Spain, one of America's coalition partners? I mean why not blow up 200 people in Minsk? Or Bogata?
Supporters of the war say the reason al-Qaida is trying - and, alas, succeeding - to tear apart the coalition is that they cannot afford to see democracy win in Iraq. A stable and prospering Iraq will transform the Middle East, over time, into a region where the bloody fanaticism of bin Laden has no appeal.
The anti-war critics have an answer, too. They say al-Qaida is merely taking advantage of the moment. It's opportunistically using Iraq as a recruiting ground and the backlash against the war as a recruiting tool. Dean summed it up by saying, "We know al-Qaida is in Iraq now, even though they were not in Iraq before we went in."
Fine. I fail to see why both of these explanations cannot both be true. But in wars, at some point, speculation about motives needs to take a back seat to sober appraisal of fact. For example, there were plenty of plausible, interconnected reasons for Hitler's alliance with Japan. Hitler wanted to see the U.S. bogged down in the Pacific; he wanted to cut off the British from their colonies; he liked the way the Japanese cooked vegetables, whatever. Ultimately, who cares?
Right now - not last year or 10 years ago - the connection between al-Qaida and Iraq is obvious for anybody willing to see it. Al-Qaida benefits if Iraq descends into chaos; it benefits if the Western world bickers with itself and dickers with terrorists; it benefits if America is isolated. Conversely, al-Qaida suffers if Iraq prospers, if the West stands together, if America leads.
The tragedy is that many people and nations refuse to see it that way. They want to pretend that Iraq is America's problem and that it has nothing to do with the war on terrorism. The incoming Spanish prime minister - a man with a thoroughly anti-American record - has declared the war in Iraq a "disaster" and will pull all of Spain's troops out of Iraq.
Meanwhile, in a statement that is surely the Chamberlainesque "peace in our time" of our generation, European Commission President Romano Prodi declared: "It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists." Prodi's evidence is the increased terrorism since the Iraq war. By this logic, shooting bears is not the best way to kill them, since a wounded animal is the most dangerous kind.
The champions of "nuance" would have us believe the Spanish vote and Prodi's preference for taking a prone position toward terrorism are more sophisticated and complicated than they seem. Fine. Bully for them.
But again, who cares? Certainly not al-Qaida. They're too busy basking in their victory and planning their next attack on complicated Europe.
Jonah Goldberg is editor of National Review Online, a Townhall.com member group.
©2004 Tribune Media Services
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More Rubbish from Senator Kennedy (Rubbish Parroted by Australian’s Opposition Leader Mark Latham – Ed) Jay Bryant April 7, 2004
Where does Ted Kennedy get off saying that "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam"?
The Iraq War is about as similar to the Vietnam War as desert is to jungle, but there was Senator Teddy over at the Brookings Institution Tuesday making that statement in a speech at the prestigious think-tank which, if I may quote "is consistently at the forefront of debate on the great issues in both foreign and domestic policy."
That quote comes from the first paragraph of Error! Hyperlink reference not valid., but if you (or his audience) supposed it would be followed by a serious contribution to the debate on any great issues of either foreign or domestic policy, you were wrong.
Kennedy chose instead to deliver a raw meat campaign speech suitable perhaps for a Democrat Party precinct captains' rally, but hardly for a classy place like Brookings. Heck, if you want partisan political caterwauling, you don't have to get all dressed up and catch a cab downtown, you can just read this space in the privacy of your own web hookup.
But anyway, let's take a look at this "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam" thing. In the first place, one notes in perusing Kennedy's text that the comment is entirely gratuitous. There is no discussion of similarities between the two conflicts. The words are preceded by an assertion that there is today a crisis in foreign policy, along with the assertion that President Bush is "the problem, not the solution."
Further charging that in the Bush administration, "truth is the casualty of policy," Kennedy then blames the whole thing on Newt Gingrich, who, following 1994 "frightened the electorate" with "raw extremism."
Kennedy does not explain why it would be that the frightened electorate has kept the House in the hands of the raw neo-Gingrich extremists ever since. Nor does he close the loop between Gingrich and Bush. So what you wind up with is a series of unassociated pejorative words, phrases and images, strung up like miscellaneous laundry on a clothesline: a black dress sock, a child's onesie, a ladies' blouse. Nothing relates to anything else, save that they are all laundry. This is bad speechwriting, made worse because it is written for presentation to a sophisticated audience whose standards are, and of right ought to be, much higher.
Let me then attempt to fill in some of the empty space in Kennedy's speech. As an old Senatorial speechwriter myself, I know how this works. You have a line, which, for whatever reason, you want to be the focal point of your remarks: Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam. Okay, what will we do with that? Well, here's a reasonable question to start with: whose Vietnam was Vietnam? The President whose policies first led to American combat action there was one John F. Kennedy. By 1963, there were tens of thousands of U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam, and they had begun dispensing blood along with the advice. The first combat deaths took place in 1961, the year Kennedy took office, proclaiming that America would "bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend and oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty."
Republicans have taken to quoting John Kennedy in recent years, which drives Ted and the rest of the family bonkers; they seem to want a copyright on Jack's entire corpus of comments, but so far it's all been to no avail. President Kennedy's defense of tax cuts for the rich, made in a Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. is eloquent and perceptive; that speech is the sort of intellectually solid statement the Brookings audience had a right to expect from the Senator this week, but didn't get. The famous "bear any burden" remark, too, sounds ever so much more like George W. Bush than any modern Democrat who bears the Kennedy name or initials.
But please don't take all this as an encomium from me to John Kennedy. If he were alive today (he'd be 87), he might have moved as far to the left as the rest of the family. I didn't know John Kennedy and he wasn't a friend of mine, but I am old enough to well remember his time in office, and I didn't think much of the job he was doing.
Let's take just one teensy, weensy little thing, which bears directly on Teddy's claim that Iraq is Bush's Vietnam. Under Bush, American forces overthrew and captured the leader of Iraq – the bad guy, Saddam Hussein.
Under Kennedy, American advisors provoked their advisees to overthrow and murder the leader of South Vietnam – but that was the guy on OUR side, Ngo Dinh Diem. As Max Boot puts it, "…the Saigon government was left rudderless. One president succeeded another with dizzying rapidity, each worried more about holding onto power than about stopping the Communists. It took three long years before Nguyen Van Thieu finally emerged…."
Ted Kennedy didn't choose to discuss any such interesting contrast between the two wars, or in any other way justify his charge. He just ranted about Bush, one ad hominem attack after another, each one an affront to the intellectual respectability of the distinguished, albeit liberal, organization known as the Brookings Institution.
Veteran GOP media consultant Jay Bryant's regular columns are available at www.theoptimate.com, and his commentaries may be heard on NPR's 'All Things Considered.'
©2004 Jay Bryant
Contact Jay Bryant | Read Bryant's biography
Zim: Paul Laughed Eddie Cross Bulawayo, April 5th 2004.
Paul Temba Nyathi is a tall, impressive man, he was in the Rhodesian war working with Zipra and Zapu in the 70's and is now in the MDC National Executive. He sits as an MP in the standing committee on local government and was telling me at a recent MDC Executive meeting, that he had been in a meeting of the committee in Parliament when the Civil Servants declared that they were going to open up housing stands for 2 million families in the next 12 months. Paul thought this was so ridiculous, he laughed.
As this government has developed less than 30 000 housing units in the urban areas in the past 5 years, his immediate reaction was perfectly understandable. But underneath this bald statement by the civil servants is a sinister and stunning intent.
When we examine the actions of post transition governments in Africa we should never underestimate the lengths to which they will go to hold onto power. In their eyes, they fought for that right and they would only relinquish this if they absolutely have to. Look at Angola and Mozambique. There, the political minority that effectively controlled the new governments are still in power 30 years on and are now wealthy beyond the imagination of the ordinary people of those countries. It has worked for them - if no one else and that is what matters.
In Zimbabwe we first saw this when the Mugabe regime decided in 1983 that it could not tolerate the political opposition represented by Zapu. Zapu was predominately Ndebele and in a no holds barred campaign against them up to 30 000 people were murdered and hundreds of thousands injured. Thousands fled the country to South Africa where they are now settled. (This is thought to be double the casualties that occurred in the 8-year military struggle against Ian Smith.) Eventually Mugabe got his way - Nkomo gave in and accepted a minority roll in a unity government. Zapu disappeared and Mugabe got his "one Party State" for a short while.
Then came the MDC and for a while the Mugabe regime thought that this was just another upstart attempt to threaten the status quo and could be dealt with just as they had in the case of several other earlier attempts to mount an effective opposition. But the MDC is made of sterner stuff and when Zanu was defeated in the February 2000 referendum it suddenly appreciated that it had a real fight on its hands.
Ever since this event, Zanu has thrown everything it has in its armoury at the MDC. It has killed 400 activists - not one of these murders has been investigated and brought to trial, even when the perpetrators are known and have been publicly identified. They have closed down all access to the mass media leaving only a token element of the independent press for the sake of claiming that they allow press freedom.
Democratic space has been progressively restricted until today it is virtually impossible to win an election run against a Zanu candidate. Electoral violence is endemic and conducted by State agents with impunity. The electoral process itself is controlled by the military and is totally manipulated to produce a desired result. Not a single principle in the SADC Convention on electoral process is being adhered to.
When they discovered that commercial farmers held the middle ground between the MDC (urban) vote and the Zanu PF (peasant sector) vote, they simply wiped out the commercial farming industry. This represented half of all exports, 60 per cent of food supplies and over 65 per cent of all industry and a third of all employment. It made no difference - the farmers were driven off their land, their assets confiscated and their staff dispersed so that they could not vote or influence elections.
Now they are preparing for yet another electoral challenge - the March 2005 parliamentary elections. In addition to intensifying all the measures already in place they are now also planning massive social engineering which will change the face of our urban areas dramatically.
It first came to my attention when a small team of us from the MDC visited every MDC controlled town in the country. That is no small task as we now control (technically at least) 85 per cent of all urban areas. We found that Zanu was carefully planning an exercise which would involve taking the commercial farms (now abandoned by and large) on the outskirts of the main urban areas. On each of these properties they are establishing a control point and manning this with Youth Militia and War veterans (many are not real war veterans - this is just a cover for Zanu thugs).
Now back to the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government. Clearly what is intended is to open up these abandoned farms for illegal, informal squatter camps which will be made up of stands allocated to homeless urban families. Some 40 per cent of all urban dwellers are homeless - they live in crowded tenements as lodgers. In many cases living in one room crowded with up to 6 people. This accommodation is not cheap - people are paying high rentals to landlords and others. Many of these people are also now unemployed - 500 000 workers have lost their jobs in the past 5 years.
So to this target population - some 3 million people, the offer of free vacant land on which to build a shack and live rent-free is very attractive. But to do so they will have to join Zanu PF and attend Zanu meetings and vote for Zanu in carefully controlled elections next year. This will drain out of the urban areas millions of people who would otherwise vote MDC. Zanu will register all these new urban settlers on the voter's roll at the same time as they take their details for the purpose of Zanu PF membership. This will then also give justification for the massive reduction in genuine urban seats that is being planned - the Governor of Harare has already intimated his goal is a 50 per cent reduction in the number of seats in the Harare metropolitan area.
Far fetched? Not at all - it may be ambitious but we have learned never to underestimate the people who run Zanu PF. They may not be able to run a country, but they sure know how to run an election and how to destroy all vestiges of political opposition in the process - ask any former member of Zapu.
So how do we deal with this situation? This week Mugabe again stated that he would not talk to the MDC. Ignore his public rationale - he knows full well that talks will be about creating conditions for free and fair elections and that would be suicide for Zanu PF.
There are two ways of achieving change in this situation - someone launches an armed struggle against Zanu PF - and in the process does even more damage to the country and its battered economy, or the international and local community combine forces to engineer a free and fair election.
That would not be difficult - we all know what is needed, an independent electoral commission, a free and independent media. A halt to state sponsored violence and a voting system that will be secret, allow all adult Zimbabweans to vote wherever they live and a counting system that is transparent and reliable.
An outlandish demand? An unachievable goal? Not at all! Why is Zanu so afraid of such an event? I think it is obvious, they would be buried alive by the people of this country. The impossible would happen - they would lose power, privilege and protection. For Zanu, that is no laughing matter, for the rest of us, it would mark the start of a new beginning and for the majority, a better life. Then we could all learn to laugh a little again.
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Windbag meets windmills Terence Jeffrey
March 17, 2004
Is John Kerry willing to increase the odds that U.S. troops will have to fight another Middle Eastern war just to preserve the pristine view from the millionaires' mansions along Nantucket Sound?
If you were to apply Kerry's alarmist campaign rhetoric about energy policy to his own actions in regard to energy production, the conclusion would be: Yes, he is. http://www.townhall.com/editor/pledgedrive.htmlBut Kerry's not a warmonger; he's just a windbag. And never was this more apparent than when his environmentally correct energy policy ran aground on Horseshoe Shoal -- where a company specializing in clean energy production would like to build a windmill farm in the very body of water that sits between Kerry's home on Nantucket and the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport.
Here lies a dilemma that tries Kerry's soul.
In stump speeches, Kerry argues that unless America weans itself from foreign petroleum and develops renewable energy sources, American troops may have to die in the Middle East to protect our oil supply. Last March, he said: "(I)n decades to come, we should not have to send young people into battle to defend and die for America's gluttony for fossil fuel."
In October, he vowed: "I bring to this fight the clear and absolute concept that our party needs to stand up and make it clear, on behalf of future generations, on behalf of common sense, that no young American in uniform, man or woman, ought to ever, ever be held hostage to America's dependency on fossil fuel oil from the Middle East."
Kerry, accordingly, has proposed "a new Manhattan Project to make America independent of Middle East oil."
In January, he explained part of the plan in Vinton, Iowa. "I'm setting a goal for America," he said. "By the year 2020, 20 percent of our electricity is going to be produced by alternative and renewable fuels. And a lot of that is going to come out of Iowa."
Listing ways to improve the "quality of life of the rural community," Kerry said: "Wind farms, obviously, is one other thing."
But, it turns out, not for Nantucket.
Energy Management Inc., a Massachusetts company, has been working since 2001 on its plan for an offshore wind farm in New England, a plan being reviewed by 17 government agencies. "We weren't interested in some token, feel-good project that didn't make a difference," said Mark Rodgers, communications director for EMI's Cape Wind project. "We wanted to try to bring on utility-scale renewable power."
The company needed a site that had strong winds, shallow water and low waves. One place had all three: Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. As a bonus, said Rodgers, the site also was "outside the ferry routes, outside the shipping lanes, and outside the flight paths."
Rodgers refused to comment about Kerry's position on the project.
But for the politically minded, Cape Wind also seems a perfect match for Kerry's energy plan. If completed, it will provide, on average, three quarters of the power consumed on Cape Cod and the nearby islands.
Today, the closest energy source to Kerry's Nantucket home and the Kennedys' Hyannisport compound is an oil burning plant at Sandwich, Mass. Last April, a barge bringing fuel to that plant ruptured, spilling from 35,000 to 55,000 gallons of oil into a bay off the Cape. Birds were killed, shellfish beds closed.
With Cape Wind, the Kennedys and Kerrys could light up their lives with clean renewable wind-power instead of dirty fossil-fuel power. The risk to U.S. troops -- as envisioned by Kerry's stump speeches -- would be diminished.
But Cape Wind has a one big drawback for Massachusetts liberals: It's not in Iowa. You would actually see it from some mansions along Nantucket Sound.
Sen. Ted Kennedy won't have it. He's flatly opposed. But he's not running for president on a wind-farm platform.
In December, in New Hampshire, when asked his position on wind power, Kerry brought up Cape Wind. "I am in favour of wind power, and I think we ought to find a place that is appropriate off the coast of New England to build some wind power," the Manchester Union- Leader reported him saying. "The question is, what is the site process going to be? You can't just allow anybody to go build one anywhere they want without some kind of process."
Despite his plan to make 20 percent of our electricity come from renewable sources by 2020, Kerry apparently intends to make it harder, not easier, to build wind farms.
And just as he might have been for some war to oust Saddam, but not the one America fought, so he is for a New England wind farm, but not necessarily the one they would build in his backyard.
©2004 Creators Syndicate
Contact Terence Jeffrey | Read Jeffrey's biography townhall.com
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Why do they hate us? Thomas Sowell
March 17, 2004
The idea that what goes around comes around applies not only to individuals but to nations and whole civilizations. It was just a few centuries ago -- not long, as history is measured -- that China had the highest standard of living in the world and the Dutch were the world's largest exporters, while North Africans were enslaving a million Europeans.
Nowhere have whole peoples seen their situation reversed more visibly or more painfully than the peoples of the Islamic world. In medieval times, Europe lagged far behind the Islamic world in science, mathematics, scholarship, and military power. http://www.townhall.com/editor/pledgedrive.htmlEven such ancient European thinkers as Plato and Aristotle became known to Europeans of the Middle Ages only after their writings, which had been translated into Arabic, were translated back into European languages.
Today that is all reversed. The number of books per person in Europe is more than ten times that in Africa and the Middle East. The number of books translated into Arabic over the past thousand years is about the same as the number translated into Spanish in one year.
There are only 18 computers per thousand persons in the Arab world, compared to 78 per thousand persons worldwide. Fewer than 400 industrial patents were issued to people in the Arab countries during the last two decades of the 20th century, while 15,000 industrial patents were issued to South Koreans alone.
Human beings do not always take reversals of fortune gracefully. Still less can those who were once on top quietly accept seeing others leaving them far behind economically, intellectually, and militarily.
Those in the Islamic world have for centuries been taught to regard themselves as far superior to the "infidels" of the West, while everything they see with their own eyes now tells them otherwise. Worse yet, what the whole world sees with their own eyes tells them that the Middle East has made few contributions to human advancement in our times.
Even Middle Eastern oil was largely discovered and processed by people from the West. After oil, the Middle East's most prominent export has been terrorism.
Those who look at the world in rationalistic terms may say that the Middle East can use some of its vast oil wealth to expand its own educated classes and move back to the forefront of human achievement. They did it once, why not do it again?
All sorts of things can be done in the long run, but you have to live through the short run to get there. Moreover, even the short run, as history is measured, can be pretty long in terms of the human lifespan.
Even if the Islamic world set such goals and committed the material resources and individual efforts required, they could not expect to pull abreast of the West for generations, even if the West stood still. More realistically, it would take centuries, as it took the West centuries to catch up to them.
What will happen in the meantime? Are millions of proud human beings supposed to quietly accept inferiority for themselves and their children, and perhaps their children's children?
Or are they more likely to listen to demagogues, whether political or religious, who tell them that their lowly place in the world is due to the evils of others -- the West, the Americans, the Jews?
If the peoples of the Islamic world disregarded such demagogues, they would be the exceptions, rather than the rule, among people who lag painfully far behind others. Even in the West, there have been powerful political movements based on the notion that the rich have gotten rich by keeping others poor -- and that things need to be set right "by all means necessary."
These means seldom include concentration on self-improvement, with 19th-century Japan being one of the rare exceptions. Lashing out at others is far more immediately satisfying -- and modern communications, transportation, and weaponry make it far easier to lash out destructively across great distances.
Against this background, we may want to consider the question asked by hand-wringers in the West: Why do they hate us? Maybe it is because the alternative to hating us is to hate themselves.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Contact Thomas Sowell | Read Sowell's biography townhall.com
Archive of terrorist websites with links:
http://www.siteinstitute.org/terror_links.html
"BEYOND THE RAZOR WIRE" the true story of a detention officer's experiences at Woomera and Curtin illegal immigrants' camps, and in a maximum security prison. Bizarre, shocking, horrifying, and hilarious incidents from the diary of someone who has seen life from within the razor wire. Did rioters really throw babies at the shields of guards marching in to disperse them? Did parents really sew their children's lips up?
"A must for every Australian who is interested in the future of our country..... or just curious about what our detention centres are really like: "Beyond The Razor Wire", by Sandy Thorne. (see: sandythorne.com.au).
($19.80 plus $5 postage from PO Box 1011, Lightning Ridge 2834.)
Read the review in Darby Report 287: “Beyond the Razor Wire” - the truth about asylum-seekers
Butler makes Ukqwitt Register
To be listed in the Ukqwitt Register, being very wrong – for example by advocating the convoluted policies of the Australian Labor Party – is not enough. One must in addition be demonstrably stupid and obsessively self-focused. For those – including new subscribers – who missed Darby Reports 282-292, the Ukqwitt Register was instigated by a Sydney northside businessman who is a keen student of public affairs, in recognition of Ferdinand Ukqwitt (1780-1828). Ferdinand Ukqwitt (sometimes rendered “Ukqvitt”) died as he lived, stupidly. He met his end, duelling pistol in his hand, shortly after dawn on 10 November 1828 in Berlin, not far from the site of the present zoo. Ukqwitt had repeatedly challenged a Prussian army officer to a duel over some misunderstanding regarding the affections of a lady. The officer reluctantly accepted the challenge from an obviously incompetent civilian, and arrived at the rendezvous in time to witness Ukqwitt accidentally shoot the right ear off his own second. The second, unsurprisingly, was not impressed and hurled a paving stone at Ukqwitt. Attempting to dodge the missile, Ukqwitt slipped and fell, impaling himself painfully – and fatally – on an iron fence. In the course of his useless life Ukqwitt had incurred the contempt of the well-informed public of several nations through his obsessive pamphleteering and speechmaking in support of his ill-conceived plan for the incorporation of Switzerland into the Kingdom of Sardinia. Prussian senior delegate to the Vienna Conferences Prince Karl August von Hardenberg described Ukqwitt as “the fool of the century”. The then British representative in Vienna, Lord Castlereagh, wrote in a private letter to Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson (the Second Earl of Liverpool): “The whole logic of European relations is threatened by Ukqwittism”. The rules of the Ukqwitt Register are simple: • Any subscriber to the Darby Report many nominate a name to be inscribed in the Ukqwitt Register, with the right of veto being held by the individual who conceived the idea.. • Persons with their names inscribed in the register instantly receive the cognomen “Ukqwitt” to be used immediately before the surname. • Most issues of the Darby Report will list a new addition to the Ukqwitt Register.
There was no contest for the entry at the top of the Ukqwitt Register, Senator Bob Ukqwitt Brown, who almost daily consolidates his position with a renewed burst of Ukqwittism. Number two in the Ukqwitt Register, Phillip Ukqwitt Adams, received his place for his moronic, bigoted and demonstrably false assertion (The Weekend Australian Magazine, 15-16 November 2003) “. . . . the conservatives have absolutely no sense of humour or irony. . . . satire is lost on them.”
Number three in the Ukqwitt Register is animal liberationist Ralph Ukqwitt Hahnheuser, the saboteur and enemy of Australian rural industry, who in mid-November 2003 conducted a raid against the Kobo Feedlot in Portland, Victoria, where he contaminated sheep feed by the addition of shredded ham.
Number four in the Ukqwitt Register is Andrew Ukqwitt Bartlett, leader of a Party which holds itself out as upholding the rights of women. Bartlett’s supreme unconcern – indeed contempt – for the rights of women has been evidenced by his 5 December 2003 assault upon fellow Senator Jeannie Ferris, in the Senate Chamber.
Number five is now Mark Ukqwitt Latham MP. As evidenced by his photo on page 2 of The Weekend Australian of 13-14 December 2003, the Leader of the Federal Opposition organized a photo opportunity for himself, purportedly engaging in the popular sport of lawn bowls. At New Farm Bowls Club in Brisbane, Mark Latham sent down a bowl for the photographer, Nathan Richter. Latham was not wearing a hat, an omission which most bowlers in Queensland would classify as stupid. Latham was wearing his suit jacket and tie, unthinkable on a bowling green, especially in Queensland. Latham was wearing his street shoes with raised leather heels, illegal on every bowling green in the civilized world. Since then, Mark Ukqwitt (“Supermouth”) Latham has consolidated his position on the Register by various means including inventing stories about the content of briefings he received from senior public servants, in a failed and futile attempt to justify his ill-considered forays into foreign policy. His crashing fall from public favour is a tribute to the wisdom of the public.
Greg Ukqwitt Barnes earned his position at number six by challenging a journalist who was trying to interview Prince Frederik of Denmark, then visiting Hobart, the home of his fiancee, Mary Donaldson. He gave the journalist the benefit of his opinion, an opinion so bizarre it would astound many if not most of his fellow republicans: “All monarchies are evil!”
Holding number seven position is former Lord Mayor of Sydney Frank Ukqwitt Sartor who for years masqueraded as an independent before becoming a Labor Party Minister. On Thursday 5 February 2004 in a telephone conversation with (then) Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull and two senior public servants, Sartor repeatedly made reference to the Labor Government “destroying” Ms Turnbull and the Council, then uttered the phrase for which he will always be remembered: “You are local government pissants”.
Number eight on the Ukqwitt Register is a Vice-Regal appointment, H.E. Richard Ukqwitt Butler. Former Governor-General Bill Hayden in the course of his honourable vice-regal service did a great deal to disprove the axiom “Once a political hack, always a political hack”. All that good work has been undone by Richard Butler, who in addition to descending to tawdry levels of political nastiness, set the seal on his inclusion in the Register by asking (according to press reports) Mark Latham to make him Governor-General. Further nominations for the Ukqwitt Register are welcome. Let’s also have subscriber input on whether places on the Register should be maintained in chronological order of appointment, or whether the order should vary according to perceived degrees of Ukqwittism.
Still an Utterly Stupid Labor Idea All persons of goodwill should oppose the stupid, wasteful and dangerous proposal to widen the Spit Bridge and increase traffic flow through Mosman, an ignorant proposal cooked up with the sole (and, sadly, successful) aim of conning the people of Manly into re-electing the Labor Party’s surrogate, David Barr MLA. It is now a fact of life that the people of Manly have also been conned into electing as Mayor the predecessor of David Barr in the State seat, and unsuccessful challenger against Hon Tony Abbott in Warringah, another Labor Party surrogate, Dr. Peter Macdonald. Establish an alliance with wise locals Bill McPhee, Cr Pat Daley, Geoff Kendall, Peter Papas, Cr Jim Reid, David Dickman and many others in rejecting the stupid idea which has already been rejected by the engineers.
Join the Sensible Traffic Action Group by declaring your support in an email to [email protected].
Read the David Dickman – Michael Darby plan to improve the traffic situation for Manly Warringah.
If you see merit in the Dickman-Darby plan, please send it to your favourite parliamentarians and journalists.
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Soviet brutality: Books on the Deportations
“Seeds on the Wind – a family’s journey to freedom during WWII” by Inara Kalnins, and “Sentence: Siberia – a Story of Survival” by (the late) Ann Lehmets and her son-in-law Dr Douglas Hoile, ISBN 1-877059-18-8, Sid Harta Publishers, PO Box 1102 Hartwell Victoria 3124.
The Flying Doctors are always there You’re travelling through the Outback, you’ve been bitten by a snake and the closest town with a doctor is miles away. Who do you call? For thousands of people living, working or travelling in the Outback, the only reliable medical help they can depend on is the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). The Service is a not-for-profit, charitable organisation. RFDS receives operational funding from governments but relies on community generosity to buy replacement aircraft and vital medical equipment. To help the Flying Doctors continue saving lives please call 1800 444 788 or visit www.flyingdoctors.org
Truly beautiful yacht available
Formosa Yacht "GALATEA" Designer & Builder Formosa Boat Building Company Place of Construction Taipei Launched 1985 Australian Ship Registered in 1994 No.854811 Call Sign VHW 3660 Length on Deck 70ft 21.3m Length overall 80ft 24.3m Bowsprit Length 10ft 3m Beam 17’6” Draft 8’6” Build Carvel Rigging Ketch No. of Bulkheads 8 Material of Construction GPR (fibreglass) Teak Decks Fuel Capacity 2,500 L Water Capacity 1,800 L Displacement Approx. 45 tonnes Engine Six Cylinder Freshwater Cooled Ford Lehman Diesel Model No. SP225 220 Brake horsepower. Single Screw. Estimated Speed 9.5 knots Clean Hull Generator 12 KVA ONAN four cylinder diesel freshwater cooled Electrical 12 volt & 240V & Shore Power Asking Price $920,000 Contact: Sean Bennett Phone +61 (0)419 900 118. Local and International inquiries welcome
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GOOD LINKS TO WISE THINKERS Dr. J.J. Ray Tim Blair CapitalR.org Dr Aaron Oakley Bernard Slattery John Hawkins Charles & Michael Johnson Clifford D. May Douglas Whitehead Bruce W. Edwards Nick Ashworth Michael Winner Alex Knapp & Paul Muller Dr Michael R Bowen Australian Flag Society Jeff Jacoby Denis Boyles Michael Darby’s Blogspot Artists for Capitalism Prodos – Celebrate Capitalism Merde_in_France American Council on Science and Health Joseph Farah’s G2 Report
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Phone 9909 8884 Independent Funeral Services 4 Cobblestone Grove Woodcroft NSW 2767 Contact Stewart Packham 9676 2808 or 0416 229 378
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BOB GILTINAN Tennis and Squash Centre Cnr Kentwell & Pittwater Roads North Manly NSW 2100 First-rate facilities for 9Beginners 9Experts 9Champions Giltinan’s for all your tennis and squash needs Tennis: 9938 6319 Squash: 9938 2070
Fax (02) 9905 6169 Canny international and Australian Art investors are invited to visit Colleen Mathews Art
Phone Colleen Mathews in person on +61 2 9969 9924, or if you are calling from within Australia, (02) 9969 9924
Don Bosco 1815-1888, Canonized 1934 Caring for the young who are poor, disadvantaged or endangered HELP THE WORK OF THE SALESIANS IN EAST TIMOR PLEASE SEND YOUR GENEROUS DONATION TO Salesians of Don Bosco (att Bro Michael Lynch) PO Box 80, Oakleigh Vic 3166, Australia Ph: 03-9569 0707 Fax: 03-9563 2746 [email protected] PLANNING A BIG EVENT? FOR YOUR NEXT CONFERENCE – ENGAGE AN EXPERT COMPERE, HILARIOUS HUMORIST AND VERSATILE ENTERTAINER. CHOICE OF TWO. PAY BY BARTERCARD OR MONEY. Phone: 0402 558 947 or 8962 2030 Email: PROUSTY & DARBY THE BUSHPOETS Dave Proust and Michael Darby
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Captivating, fascinating and totally entrancing
9984 0299 or 0414 016 868 [email protected] PAY DARBY WITH BARTERCARD Michael Darby has joined Bartercard. This will GUARANTEE him new business, offset some of his current cash expenses and put more profit into his business as a professional performance poet and comic entertainer.
Bartercard is the largest and fastest growing barter network in the world. It is focused mainly on the small and medium sized business (SME) market, which is the largest sector of business and economic turnover in every economy worldwide.
Some of the reasons businesses join Bartercard are – 1. reduce cash expenses 2. increase cash flow 3. guaranteed new business 4. a competitive advantage 5. access to over 60,000 Barter Members worldwide 6. an interest-free line of credit If you could handle some extra business, benefit from increased cashflow or would welcome an interest-free line of credit call Angie Squires of Bartercard on 0418 271 302. Angie will be happy to explain how your business can maximise the benefits of Bartercard.
DINE WITH DARBY ON THURSDAY The regular dinner conducted by Michael Darby and friends at the world-famous HARRY´S FISH CAFÉ The two-storey building at the Spit Bridge MOSMAN now takes place at 7.30 each Thursday. Join us for politics and poetry. Cost: up to $50 each Phone 9972 9316 or 0402 558 947 to book.
SUPERSEDED COMPUTERS VERY WELCOME in EAST TIMOR Do not throw out your old computer! Grateful thanks to highly regarded door-to-door freight specialist Lodec Warehousing and Distribution Company of Padstow for generously arranging Sydney area collection of large quantities of donated hardware. Phone Lodec on 9793 8200 for all your commercial freight requirements. Wesley Uniting Employment is now operating a work-for-the-dole program, testing, repairing and assembling used computer systems for schools and institutions in East Timor, Ghana and elsewhere. If you have a surplus computer system available, please email [email protected]
MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY: Darby Report subscribers – please encourage all your media contacts to interview Korea Veteran Colonel Allan Limburg, telephone 03 9561 2733, on the subject of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and its dire effect upon Aussie War Veterans. And please remind your local Federal member that reform should continue in our administration of Veterans’ Affairs. ------ENGINE ROOM INTERNET COMPANY * websites designed * built * updated * reliable service * sane budgets Contact: Ralph Graham 02 9876 6667 http://engineroom.biz/ ------Attention all poets! Please visit Michael Darby’s work in progress www.twohundredpoets.da.ru If you are in it, please check the accuracy of the reproduction of your work. If you are not yet in it and you deserve to be, contact Michael Darby now.
WE´VE GOT MAIL
Hospital Lunacy The New South Wales Government has suggested that the site of the Warringah Council Civic Centre is suitable for a hospital, presumably to replace both the Manly Hospital and the Mona Vale Hospital. The latter institution, established as the result of a long campaign by the late Cr. Gordon Jones, offers the cash-strapped bureaucrats the opportunity of a wonderfully lucrative real estate development. Now that the Government’s grubby trump card in its campaign against Warringah Council has disappeared back into the sleeve it came from, perhaps the Government is trawling for an excuse, any excuse, to legitimize its sacking of a Council whose members had committed no crime and performed no wrongdoing.
Labor-appointed administrator Dick Persson lacks the moral right to negotiate the disposal of a major municipal asset, decisions about which shoujdl be made by the elected representatives of the people.
Every Labor hack can be trusted to work in the interests of the Labor Party. Is it possible that the transfer of the three hectare Civic Centre site was in contemplation long ago, and could only succeed by arbitary removal of the councillors who would oppose the plan?
George Bidder * * * *
It’s Autumn At Breenhold
Autumn has arrived in the Blue Mountains and at Breenhold Gardens at Mount Wilson in particular. The many hundreds of Northern Hemisphere deciduous trees that grace our property are turning on their annual magnificent tapestry of colours. We are lucky to have wonderful examples of a great number of different species including Japanese maples, elms, English oaks, cedars, lindens, dogwoods, cryptomeria, chestnuts, spruce, ash, as well as lots of eucalypts & tree ferns, - hundreds of trees and thousands of shrubs, and all with a heady mix of birdsong and brightly coloured king parrots!
So why not devote part of a weekend this month to enjoying our extensive gardens? Meander along Breenhold’s basalt paved pathways, stone walled gardens, sit for a while on a rare example of Coalbrookdale garden furniture, enjoy some splendid views of the Blue Mountains National Park to the west, and Mount Banks to the south, and cast a glance at a fine Italian urn or two. Bring a picnic and your friends.
Admission – for an hour or all day - $7.50 adults, $2.00 children over 12. Open 10.30 am – 5.00 pm Saturdays & Sundays, April 10th – 11th, 17th & 18th, 24th – 25th.
Location: Breenhold, The Avenue, Mount Wilson (1st property on LHS as you approach Mount Wilson)
Enjoy! Tom & Rachael Breen
* * * * Rwanda
The tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide provides another reality check for the snivelling civil libertarians and those media maggots that are currently lecturing and hectoring us about the war in Iraq and how we should deal with terrorism. 800,000 plus Rwandans were shot, hacked, stabbed and bludgeoned to death while the rest of the world and the UN shrugged their shoulders and looked on. The French, so recently aptly described as ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’, had their UN blue helmeted troops in Rwanda but they did nothing. Kofi Annan at the time was one of the senior officials of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations who now admits to his bitter regret and abiding sorrow at his lack of action – little comfort to the millions of relatives of the Rwandan horror.
We have seen Australian streets invaded by protesters burning effigies of John Howard and George Bush over Iraq but where were they and their ilk during Rwanda? It’s going to take a long time for the present crop of terrorists to kill 800,000 people unless they get their hands on nuclear weapons. The defenceless Rwandans were sold out by the UN. Kofi Annan should be sacked and tried for criminal negligence.
John Pasquarelli * * * *
DE LUCA DEPARTMENT The following letter is published for the eleventeenth time because it has so proved popular with DR subscribers, and I would hate anyone to miss it. The De Luca letter is now a permanent feature of the Letters Column, in the interests of the promotion of adult literacy. Following the speech by Hon Charlie Lynn MLC (reported in Darby Report 292), NSW Treasurer Michael Egan neglected to mention in his ‘Mini-Budget’ any saving resulting from the dismissal of Vincent De Luca from the Attorney-General’s Department. An article in the Manly Daily of 2 April 2004, under the heading “Perjury Denied” quotes Vincent De Luca: “The next thing they’ll be saying is I’m Osama bin Laden’s love child.” Extensive research by the Darby Report has produced no evidence whatever for that assertion. Moreover, Osama bin Laden is not the love child of Vincent de Luca.
You fascist get me off your email list now you fascist fat bastard. i vote independent. i always have and always will while stupid assholes like you are ruining the big parties.
Lisa De Luca
I have not knowingly met Lisa De Luca, daughter of Rosalind De Luca OAM, and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Darby Report subscribers who wish to engage her professional services may contact Lisa De Luca at Suite 4, 646 Pittwater Road Brookvale, phone 9907 3297, fax 9907 4295, email: [email protected]. Lisa De Luca was president of the Brookvale Branch of the Liberal Party. The brother of Lisa De Luca, one Vincent De Luca, also a former member of the Liberal Party, failed in his attempt to gain election to the Warringah Council and failed in his attempt to unseat the popular Liberal Member for Wakehurst, Brad Hazzard MLA. Having fallen out with his former ally, the Warringah Greens Councillor Peter Forrest, Vincent has now turned his unwelcome attention to the Manly Council, where from the gallery he makes unpleasant remarks about Liberal Councillors and waves encouragingly to his leftish idol Cr David Barr MLA who is also the Labor-surrogate “independent” member for Manly. The unmeritorious Barr is the sponsor of the dopiest possible traffic proposal, for building another drawbridge next to the existing antique bridge at The Spit. (The Spit is famous as the location of Harry’s Fish Café.) Amazingly, the State Labor Government is stupid enough to adopt Barr’s proposal. Opponents of the proposal on 3 July 2003 delivered to Parliament House 6,200 signatures on a petition against the proposal. I am reliably advised that De Luca family members were not invited to sign.
* * * *