Bob's Place

The Democratic Left hates President Bush’s guts. They also hate his face, his footsteps, and his shadow. Since hurting him involves looking away as terrorists slaughter pacifists, diplomats, journalists, teachers, and children, they do so with zeal.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:50 PM |

But I wonder: Are we going to look to the European practice of trying war criminals? Should Saddam be transferred to Milosevic's now empty cell? Is the model coalition in Afghanistan all that much more loved or effective than the one in Iraq? Should we shut down Guantanamo and outsource its inmates to The Hague? Have the European police done so much better in hunting down a Mladic or Karadzic than our soldiers have in their more muscular hunt for Osama? And will the United Nations, the EU3, the Russians, and the Chinese, in multilateral fashion, really stop the Iranian nuclear program — or simply stall meaningful action until they can collectively shrug, and sigh, "Oh, well, just another Pakistan, after all"?

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:48 AM |

When it comes to fighting government censorship, Google, the giant Internet search engine, is on the front lines. Or is it? It all depends on which government is seeking to restrict access to material on the World Wide Web. Google has been fiercely battling the U.S. Justice Department from obtaining Google records in the government's effort to keep pornography beyond the reach of children. The company has been much more accommodating, however, when it comes to its dealings with the government of the People's Republic of China

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:18 AM |

Meanwhile, they tell us we aren't doing enough to capture Osama, "the tallest man in Afghanistan." Forgetting their childishly myopic view of the War on Terror, this mantra is wearing thin. Do they really believe President Bush isn't doing everything he can to find Osama and al-Zarqawi? If so, perhaps they can tell us where they are, or explain why the military they so love has not yet produced them.

The sad truth is that the Democrats have articulated no plan for the WOT or Iraq because they don't have one. Their worldview tells them -- facts and reality be damned -- that this war is largely a matter of our failure of diplomacy, international relations, and shortcomings in winning the hearts and minds of the murderers who want to kill us.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:33 AM |

The Democrats may try to use the spending issue to peel off Republicans. Good luck. "Vote for us! We'll spend less!" But they'll also legalize fourth-trimester abortions and gay polygamy, empty Gitmo and leave Iraq to al-Qaida, and block the entitlement reform the bloated budget demands. And somehow, we suspect, spend more. No thanks, most GOPers would say; we'll wait for a real conservative

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:18 PM |

My worry is that on the home front the war is falling prey to lack-of-mission creep -- that, in the absence of any real urgency and direction, the "long war" (to use the administration's new and unsatisfactory term) is degenerating into nothing but bureaucratic tedium, media doom-mongering and erratic ad hoc oppositionism. To be sure, all these have been present since Day One: The press have been insisting Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war for three years and yet, despite the urgings of CNN and the BBC, those layabout Iraqis stubbornly refuse to get on with it. They're happy to teeter for another three years, no matter how many "experts" stamp their foot and pout their lips and say "I want my civil war now." The New York Times ran a headline after the big bombing: "More Clashes Shake Iraq; Political Talks Are In Ruins." The "political talks" resumed the day after publication. The "ruins" were rebuilt after 48 hours.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:56 AM |