Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

January 30, 2005

Iraq the Model

Filed under: International,Military — Bunker @ 9:53 am

I seldom comment on the things being covered by Mohammed and Omar because everyone else either points to a story there or quotes them. Blogospheric celebrities. But I couldn’t pass up this observation:

The first thing we saw this morning on our way to the voting center was a convoy of the Iraqi army vehicles patrolling the street, the soldiers were cheering the people marching towards their voting centers then one of the soldiers chanted “vote for Allawi” less than a hundred meters, the convoy stopped and the captain in charge yelled at the soldier who did that and said:

“You’re a member of the military institution and you have absolutely no right to support any political entity or interfere with the people’s choice. This is Iraq’s army, not Allawi’s”.

That is a very significant thing. Most Americans don’t grasp how different the US military is from so many others around the world. And this mentality has apparently been transferred in the training of Iraq’s new army. That is extremely important, especially in a region of the world where the military has always served more as a personal bodyguard to a despot.

Keep in mind that our military swears an oath to defend the Constitution, not to an individual or group. We don’t march in the streets with photographs of politicians (well, socialists in the US still do). We carry flags. The flag is our icon, not some politician.

There are some who feel displaying a flag is somehow jingoistic.

Consider the alternative.

****UPDATE****
Scott Ott has the proper MSM coverage:

News reports of terrorist bombings in Iraq were marred Sunday by shocking graphic images of Iraqi “insurgents” voting by the millions in their first free democratic election.

Today is the day?

Filed under: General — Bunker @ 8:23 am

I got the phone call at about 0430 today. Grannie hit the road to Austin within 30 minutes. I’ll wait to hear more info, then follow for the event.

January 29, 2005

Another Russ Vaughn Poem

Filed under: General — Bunker @ 7:23 pm

The Gang That Won’t Shoot Straight
It began when ol’ Dubya gave Al Gore the boot,
Those gun-hating Dems really started to shoot.
Their weapons of choice though leave much to desire
For they’re usually off-target and so often misfire.

In his blustering barrages, as everyone knows,
Al Gore is most likely to blow off his own nose.
And in hitting his targets, Teddy’s chances are slimmer
He’s no better at bombast than he was as a swimmer.

John Kerry took aim at Bush’s war in Iraq
But salvoes from Swiftees left him smoking black.
Daschle went to Dakota with all barrels loaded;
When the smoke finally cleared, he had clearly imploded.

They were gunning for George, but without enough practice
And ended up full of holes, their butts full of cactus.
That dimwitted cowboy turned out muy mal
Blew the Libs clean away at their O.K. Corral

Howard Dean, more than most, embodies the phrase,
“Shoot yourself in the foot,” yet may see better days.
If DNC chiefs decide the Party needs Deaning,
Shooting yourself in the foot will have Party-wide meaning.

Senator Boxer shot holes in her own reputation,
Taking potshots at Condi before the whole nation.
We can’t wait for the chance to see Nancy Pelosi,
Take aim at ol’ George: “BAM!” there goes her toesy.

We’ll not tolerate lying, fumes Senator Dayton,
A lightweight compared to the lady he’s baitin.’
But he shoots from the lip and quite clearly he misses,
While eighty-five colleagues hand out Condi kisses.

This “Gang that won’t shoot straight,” is really no puzzle,
Did you ever see a Lib knew his butt from his muzzle?
Have you fathomed the lesson that runs through this poem?
All guns should have locks if there are Libs in the home.

Russ Vaughn

Instapundit

Filed under: Politics — Bunker @ 7:17 pm

Glenn has a long compilation on his site regarding what the Democratic Party can do to become relevant once again, and posted an email from one of his readers:

A moderate centrist party that pulls in the majority of independents and also saps the harder edges of the spectrum simply would not be beat. What we need is a party that: avowedly embraces the many benefits of capitalism and industry while also protecting investors and labor; that understands how foreign policy depends on negotiating from a position of strength instead of a position of weakness; that personal libertarianism has to be balanced with the need for communities to be able to define their own laws and norms according to their social systems and beliefs, and most of all, that America is already a force for good in the world and not a font of evil.

Sounds like a party I’d support. After all, it proposes following the Constitution. States decide almost all issues, and the Federal Government would gets out of our lives in almost everything, just as Madison and others envisioned.

January 28, 2005

Center for Religious Freedom

Filed under: General — Bunker @ 5:46 pm

If there is one thing most of us can agree upon, both left and right, is our need to break the hold Saudi Arabia has on our politicians and diplomats.

Center for Religious Freedom has posted some information that it spread through mosques in the US by Wahhabi evangelicals.

Various Saudi government publications gathered for this study, most of which are in Arabic, assert that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against imitating, befriending, or helping them in any way, or taking part in their festivities and celebrations;

One of the reasons, unspoken, for invading Iraq is the need to remove our forces from Saudi Arabia. To realize the fruits of this relocation, Iraq must become stable. Only then will we have the luxury of snubbing our noses at the House of Saud.

Of course, that is precisely what some in State and Congress fear–the loss of future employment at huge salaries to act as lobbyists for the princes.

Iraqis win by voting

Filed under: International — Bunker @ 5:38 pm

Joe Galloway is absolutely right, and very clear about the issue this weekend:

That this same small act is a serious threat to those who seek a return to a bloody, brutal dictatorship of the minority can be easily read in the bellicose statements of foreign terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the willing tool of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

How odd that someone who is not an Iraqi, who in fact is Jordanian, should presume to threaten to murder any Iraqi seeking political office and to declare all Iraqis who dare to cast a vote are “infidels.”

Sorry, Joe. Those to the left of you just won’t listen.

I read an excellent analogy somewhere at one of the sites in my link list (sorry, I can’t remember where). When South Africa held its first open election not that long ago, would the left have condemned the election as invalid if whites in South Africa didn’t vote?

Campaign Posters

Filed under: International — Bunker @ 6:39 am

Some people seem to think democracy is impossible in the Arab world. I think the Iraqi political parties are far more creative and have a higher estimation of their contituents’ intelligence level than do ours.

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