Lost (and found) in translation
Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post has an extremely thoughtful year-end wrap-up reflecting on the strained relationship between the United States and the Axis of Weasels: "Lost in translation." Stephens's perspective in the piece has the large view of a Victor Davis Hanson column with a bit of an Israeli twist.
Stephens's column is long and hard to excerpt, but here's a chunk from the heart of the piece: "America is a revolutionary power that seeks to reshape the Middle East along more democratic lines. Even those who grant Americans the best of motives may be excused for finding this frightening. The US may be able to afford its own blunders in complicated and unpleasant places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Other countries may not so be able.
"'If you are sailing in a sea of sh-t, you don't rock the boat,' goes an old Israeli saying. There's wisdom in that. On the other hand, if the craft you happen to be sailing displaces 95,000 tons, you're likely to figure the risks differently. In 2001, the US proved it could do in six weeks, and with a few hundred soldiers, what the Soviet Union failed to do in a decade with several armored divisions: that is, securely install the government of its choice in Kabul.
"This year again, the US exceeded nearly every expectation for the war in Iraq. It was predicted Saddam Hussein would sabotage his own oil infrastructure, creating an ecological nightmare. It was predicted he would draw coalition forces into savage urban fighting. It was predicted the war would cause a humanitarian catastrophe, taking as many as two million lives according to one report prepared for the German foreign ministry. It was predicted Saddam would unleash chemical and biological weapons on the invading forces, and perhaps upon Israel.
"None of that happened, mainly because the US instantly neutralized Saddam's command and control system. In three weeks, America conquered a country of 23 million people with two divisions and a few odd brigades. More than demonstrating superior firepower – 'shock and awe' – it demonstrated tactical and strategic finesse.
"Yet looking back on the war, the triumph seems a bit small. In part, this was a function of its relative ease. In part, too, it is because the coalition has yet to find the weapons of mass destruction for which the war was ostensibly fought. This has made George Bush and Tony Blair look foolish or disingenuous or both.
"Most of all, however, the triumph seems small because possession of Iraq has awakened even those who supported the war on limited grounds to the immensity of the new task. In 2001, America set out to fight a somewhat ill-defined 'war on terror,' mainly meaning shady groups such as al-Qaida. In 2002, it broadened the list to include a few rogue states. In 2003, it discovered the real enemy was neither the odd terrorist nor the odd dictator, but the swamp of backwardness and fanaticism from which they emerged."
On this last point made by Stephens in this excerpt, Charles Johnson has selected a hair-raising greatest hits collection of PLO/PA sermonizing from PA television over the period 2000-2003: "Peaceful religion watch."
The following are Johnson's own comments inserted between the extensive quotes he includes from MEMRI's Special Report on Palestinian Authority Sermons 2000-2003: "[T]hese are the rantings of madmen...Madmen with long, long memories...Madmen enraptured with sick visions of martyrdom and a paradise that’s an adolescent sexual fantasy...Madmen disseminating a foul death culture that may be unlike anything ever seen before on this sad planet...[I]t’s all worth reading, to see the mentality of the Islamic death cult that has reached its full flower in the Palestinian Authority."
