Cheese Eatin' Surrender Monkeys?
Not So Fast!
And Other News

Base10 is back from the great state of Florida. But alas, he has little good news to report about Dame Base10. Base10 simply asks that readers keep her in their prayers.

The GOP Convention opens today, and Base10 has some comments about it and the protests but will blog about them in a separate entry.

In other news, it appears that France will not back down on its newly minted national law prohibiting the wearing of headscarves in public schools. Militants in Iraq kidnapped two French journalists and pledged to kill them by Monday unless France repealed the law. Base10 assumed the obvious: France would comply. But even the French can see common sense here, non? In a move obviously designed to fight terrorists by shocking them into falling out of their chairs, the French government grew a spine and declared that it would not lift the ban. There is a great quote from Iraqi PM Allawi about l'affair du headscarves here:

The French, like all democratic countries, cannot let themselves be satisfied with adopting a passive position. Governments that decide to stay on the defensive will be the next terrorist targets. [T]he French, despite all the noise they are making, [such as] 'We don't want war', will soon have to fight against terrorists.

The French are apparently angry that someone might question their patriotism. Well, we didn't need Mr. Allawi for that, we just had to look at the history of France for the last fifty years. For some backround on the headscarves affair, click here. France's actions have been condemned by many, but Base10 actually thinks there are many justifications for the ban. In the latest development, the militants have extended the deadline for another day. Who's the surrender monkey now?

While Base10 has been following the story of Muqtada al-Sadr and Najaf, he hasn't written much about it. It appears that the Najaf insurgency is over. The Imam Ali mosque has been turned over to the supporters of moderate cleric Ali al-Sistani and the al-Sadr militia has been disarmed and disbursed. The price: allowing al-Sadr to join the mainstream political process. While Base10 thinks that al-Sadr's determination to save his own skin may have been at the heart of the recent violence, the Iraqi govenment obviously gets some credit for its determination to end the insurgency. Although it's probably easier to crush militants if you meet with them first.

As the GOP convention opens, criticism of John Kerry's war record is continuing. Swiftboat Veterans for Truth has published a new ad placing comments by group members intersposed with footage of Kerry making his atrocity and war crimes comments in front of various TV cameras. Pretty compelling stuff. The Kerry camp on the other hand has been forced to at least address the issues. Kerry claims "lies are being spread" by the group that Bush has "doing his dirty work." Please, let me hear Kerry publically condemn George Soros and MoveOn.org. This AP article is interesting, not for what it says but for how it has spun the controvery:

John Kerry's Vietnam War service records run to multiple medal commendations and a notation of "conspicuous gallantry" in combat. President Bush's file tracks the stateside career of a National Guard test pilot. Yet the combat veteran is the one under attack as a wartime pretender in the race for the White House.

How dare anyone question Kerry's service record when Bush was only in the National Guard! How about this:

It's a controversy — Democrats call it a smear — stirred by the president's allies and aimed at undermining Kerry's truthfulness, personal character and fitness for office as much as his claim to the medals he came home with. Smear or not, the charges are spreading at the speed of talk radio, cable television and the Internet, and affecting the campaign in unpredictable ways.

So Bush's minions are responsible after all! And then it's being spread by--my God--blogs, talk radio and cable television. The horrors! Base10 doesn't think this is a reference to Air America, but rather to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

In the other Swiftboat controversy, Kerry's "seared" memory is coming back to haunt him. John Kerry has sworn up and down that he spent Christmas in 1968 in Cambodia. He has done this on the Congressional Record and numerous media interviews. (But apparently Kerry is easily seared--see this). Yet it is not possible that this took place. Could Kerry's memory be that bad. Given the recent re-release of the Manchurean Candidate, Base10 is not the only one to wonder about this.

See this extremely thoughtful article by Victor Davis Hanson at NRO about the l'affair du Swifboat. (Once you get into that French mode, it's hard to stop!) Hanson argues that it's easy to dismiss the irregularities in Kerry's combat record given the "fog of war" but it is harder to ignore Senator Kerry's Cambodia statements since they are so obviously false. It is more difficult still to ignore Kerry's record post-war as both a protester and his record as a lawmaker. The Kerry camp can whine all they want about attacks on his patriotism. These last items are legitimate issues. No amount of name calling is going to make them go away. There are also several great pieces in the Weekly Standard on this.

In mysterious news, Rep. Edward Schrock abbruptly withdrew from his reelection bid in Virginia. Citing unspecified allegations, Schrock announced his retirement. Could this be another McGreevey moment?

Ridiculous headline? The AP ran the headline "Bush Suggests Terror War Cannot Be Won." Here is the actual quote in a Matt Lauer interview:

Question: Can we win?
Bush: I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that the — those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world.

Base10 thinks this is an example of an honest assement of the situation. Perhaps even nuanced. John Edwards and the Democrats spun it this way: "After months of listening to the Republicans base their campaign on their singular ability to win the war on terror, the president now says we can't win the war on terrorism." Please Senator, tell us the Kerry plan for winning the war on terror. Sticking your head in the sand with the French doesn't count.
- posted by Base10 @ 7:51 PM