They're nailing this to the White House door

Conrad Black takes up the verbal cudgel and beats us all about the brain cells with his defence of George W. Bush, going multisyllabo a multisyllabo with Maclean's writer Steve Maich who dumped on the U.S. preznit last week.

According to Black, Bush can do almost no wrong.

In Iraq, suicide murders, car bombings, deaths of security forces, and coalition casualties have all come sharply down (60 per cent to 80 per cent since July). Iraq's economy has grown 40 per cent since 2002, according to the IMF. There have been serious tactical errors, and disarming or assimilating the militias will be difficult, but legitimate authorities, with ever larger numbers of trained police and soldiers, are sure to prevail over outright terrorists eventually. The worst plausible fate is the partition of Iraq between Kurds, Sunnis, and Shias. That should be avoidable, and even that would be preferable to the continuation of Saddam Hussein.

If Iraq emerges intact, with a reasonable level of power-sharing and wealth distribution and institutional civility, it will be an electrifying alternative to the masses of the other great Arab countries, who have known nothing but corrupt despotisms up to now. This President will not cut and run as America did in Beirut and Somalia.

Counters Maich:

Lord Black sees Iraq as an exercise in re-establishing America's deterrent power, by demonstrating the enormous might that can be brought to bear by the world's preeminent military. I concede in my piece that Bush's national security reforms have so-far avoided a repeat of Sept. 11, and that has to be considered a major achievement. But Lord Black is mistaken if he believes this is the result of worldwide terrorist networks being cowed by U.S. force. To believe so is to misunderstand the mindset of terrorist organizations. To them, death isn't just a tool, it's the whole point. Al-Qaeda and its murderous allies have been prevented, not deterred, and that is a critical difference.

Um, that's it. Nothing else to see. Move along now.

UPPITY DATE: One more time: Maich and Black have a history, stemming back to the former's days at the National Post when he wrote a piece about Lord Blackness' legal woes. That inspired Post chair David Asper to pen a rebuttal defending Black in the op-ed section, basically making his own employee look bad. Maich eventually bailed for Maclean's.

Comments

[Antonia Z.]

So much for Black on Iraq:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041806R.shtml

Baghdad - Snipers held rooftop positions as masked Sunni Arab insurgents said they were gearing up for another open street battle with pro-government Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad's Adhamiya district on Tuesday.

The Arab Sunni stronghold is still feeling ripples from overnight clashes on Monday that appeared to be the closest yet to all-out sectarian fighting.

It's a reality that has Washington scrambling to avert civil war as Iraqi politicians struggle to form a government four months after parliamentary elections.

A US military spokesman said 50 insurgents attacked Iraqi forces in the middle of the night in a seven-hour battle that killed five rebels and wounded an Iraqi soldier.

Fighting was so fierce that US reinforcements were brought in to the northern district, home to some of Iraq's most hardcore Sunni guerrillas and the Abu Hanifa mosque, near where Saddam Hussein was last seen in public before going into hiding...

[Jay Currie]

The Sunnis are not happy about being reduced to minority status. The Shi'ite have thirty years of payback stored up...Of course there are going to be gun battles. So what?

Sooner rather than later politics will break out and when it does the militias and the thugs are going to be out of a job. As you are no doubt aware, the Sunnis are also in the process of chasing the last of the foreign jihadis out of the country. At least the ones theey don't outright kill. This is not a pleasant thing but a necessary one.

[Maz]

Conrad Black: "This President will not cut and run as America did in Beirut and Somalia." You have to smile (wanly) at all this talk of no cutting and running from posturing wannabes like "Lord" Black with his fetish for ermine robes and decorous uniforms. He's a pompous has-been, who's looking at doing serious time in a U.S. jail should he be found guilty on just a few of many counts he's charged with. Canada was not good enough for him, apparently. He cut his ties with Canada by surrendering his Canadian citizenship and then ran off to Britain to live the life of an Edwardian aristocrat. He decided -- wait for it -- to cut and run (you might say). Now I understand Black trying to retrieve his Canadian citizenship. His Lordship, you see, requires a pied-a-terre for himself while he sorts out his legal troubles. Pffft!...

[True North]

So what?!?!

So who gives a s**t if Iraqis live in hell for - what the next 5, 10, 20 years?

When exactly can we expect politics to break out - like in Palestine?

Necessary?!?! Like collateral damage?

Easy for you to say from here on the front lines of arrogance.

The problem is there are far too many people who don't mind demi-gods like Bush and Black who think nothing of condemning helpless human beings to their ill-conceived experiments in greed and immorality.

[arthurdecco]

"Of course there are going to be gun battles. So what?" posted by Jay Currie

"So what?"...

What a pathetic, twisted and mean vision you have of the world, Mr. Currie.

People are being killed indiscriminately in Iraq and elsewhere largely because of the West's continued inept interference in the affairs of others and all you can say is, "So what?"

You've already advocated for the use of "tactical" nuclear weapons in Iran on a previous thread. What's next for you? Suggesting that the Americans wipe out every Arab speaker in the Middle East to make it easier to implement their kleptocracy?

You and mr. Black deserve each other.

[Antonia Z.]

Sigh.

I had to cut a comment from a regular contributor here because, in an attempt to be witty, he crossed a legal line with respect to Conrad Black's possible motivation for defending Bush.

Don't make me do this guys!! I am not a censor.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Based on the recent headline in the Star, it seems there are some hides being nailed to the WH walls as well, including Scott McClellan's! LMAO!

'Bush's media point man quits'
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1145442487026&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News

My, my, new WHCoS, Rummy, Iraq, NOLA, Iran, Nukular Bombs, 9/11 Commission.

Why Bush is a regular plethora of stories for the MSM, eh?

Hmmm, then we read where Harper has challenged to opposition to bring down his government! Gee, is there a special going on sweeping neo-cons out the door?

It will be very interesting what the Great Electron coordinates with the Zeta rays!

[sooey]

oh good grief. i'm not a REAL american military affairs expert, but - OF COURSE THEY'LL CUT AND RUN!!!!!!

[Bill-Muskoka]

sooey,

Trust me. The WH is no expert on American military affairs either. LMAO!

except it'll be called "peace with honor". but really - other than "cut and run/peace with honor" how the hell else will the americans get out of the middle east.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Antonia,

Knowing you are predisposed with family matters I am posting this here as I believe it is the most appropriate topic for this.

Last night CTV did a segment on the record decrease in U.S. travllers to Canada. They blamed the high Looney (Hogwash), the tougher document requirements for Americans returning to their own country (LMAO!), and had all these opinions that totally avoided the single most important cause...'HIGH FUEL PRICES!'

My opion of CTV sank like one of our British subs, and shall not rise again.

The second, and far more important news was CBC's most excellent program 'Nuclear Jihad'. WOW, now that was investigative journalism at its finest. Unfortunately, the investigative part was done by a NY Times journalist.

They showed, and traced the work of A.Q. Kahn, Father of Pakistan's Islamic Atomic Bomb.

I strongly suggest all to view this is they are able. The U.S. CIA KNEW in 1975 what was going on and ordered the Dutch to NOT arrest Kahn then. They hid the truth from the POTUS, and now BUSH is fully aware that Iran has nuclear weapons capabilities because they have known all along.

They also know the technology was shared between China, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, etc.

So all the hoopladoo is a SHAM! The devil is literally in the details on this one.

'The first nuclear age was about great powers facing off against each other. It was terrifying, but at least everybody knew the rules.'

'In the second nuclear age, in the age of A.Q. Khan, there is no return address and so there is no deterrence. The bomb could come in a backpack, in a briefcase, in an oxcart. In the second nuclear age, we're seeing the privatization of the atomic bomb. The outsourcing of the bomb. It's a much more frightening world.'

The prior concept of governments controlling nuclear weapons is over. They, those observant little capitalists, have now turned the world nuke market into a privately run organization.

Nothing like free enterprise and out sourcing, eh?. The WH should be elated they have sold the idea so well.

http://www.cbc.ca/nuclearjihad/